‘Home Alone in the Priesthood’
While serving as the deputy chaplain of the U.S. Marine Corps, with supervisory responsibility for some 250 chaplains from some 60 different faith groups, I was discouraged by the disproportionate number of Catholic chaplains who were committing offenses that resulted either in their imprisonment or
Limitations and Compromises: Religion and the Public Schools
When I was an English teacher in public high schools in the decade from 1957 to 1967, one issue I took to heart was the question of my own role in affecting the values of my students. There was hardly a piece of American or English literature in the high school curriculum that didn’t lead…
The Magisterium in the New Millennium
The first lecture I ever gave on the topic of the church’s magisterium was given in Latin to my students at the Gregorian University more than 40 years ago. Little did I think then that one day the Latin word magisterium would become so commonly used, at least by Catholics, that I could give a
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
Architects can poison your faith. I found that out between 1960 and 1962, when I lived in a huge seminary the Jesuits had recently built about an hour’s drive north of New York City. The seminary was what Le Corbusier once called a “machine for living”; it had all the charm of Sovi
Letters
Letters
CorrectionThank you for highlighting Catholic Relief Services in your editorial “Americans Abroad” (7/30), as an agency that successfully addresses the Holy Father’s concerns about global solidarity, and which partners with the U.S. government to encourage its efforts at reducing g
Editorials
The President on Stem Cell Research
In a speech to the nation televised from his Texas ranch on Aug. 9, President Bush discussed a moral question that for the past several months has preoccupied both him and many of his fellow citizens: should federal taxpayer dollars be used for research on stem cells that have been derived from livi
Faith in Focus
Perennially Hopeful
I sat out back with the newspaper early one summer morning, reading about current events. Most stories dealt with death and destruction. Headlined were such vices as avarice, adultery, casual dishonor—all sins not acknowledged as such, but openly condoned. (Ironically a full-page ad urged pare
Books
Bleak Houses
Frank McCourt rsquo s impoverished youth in Limerick recalled so vividly and brutally in Angela rsquo s Ashes actually could have been much worse according to the acclaimed author rsquo s cousin ldquo When we were in Killarney industrial school rdquo Pat Sheehan tells the writer and documen
Letting History Speak
Early Christian history takes on a decidedly postmodern turn in this new-in-paperback work by the Cambridge classicist Keith Hopkins In style reminiscent in parts of Gerd Theissen rsquo s Shadow of the Galilean Christology in the form of a novel and Dutch Edmund Morris rsquo s biography of Ronal
Revolutionary Patriot, Father
An ideal of Ignatius Loyola one that Jesuit schools still cultivate in their students is the ldquo contemplative in action rdquo someone who combines deep reflection with effective deeds John Adams second president of the United States did not admire Ignatius However David McCullough rsquo
The Word
Check the Guest List
Eating with Jesus should be a time of healing, which can shock even customary religious sensitivities.
I Never Promised a Rose Garden
Over the past weeks the readings have alternated between presentations of Jesus as a model of compassion and mercy and as a leader who makes harsh demands of his followers e g entering the narrow gate casting fire on the earth bringing division among families In today rsquo s Gospel the deman
Columns
Faith in a Rose
When I walk into the side garden and spot my three rose bushes, their branches tangling merrily in the wind, I’m reminded of how precious everyday faith is. Especially faith in our own capabilities. Faith in renewal. And faith in doubtful outcomes. When my husband and I first moved into our ho
Faith
An Introduction to Dorothy Day
Without dismissing the importance of other leaders in the history of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States, it is fair to say that Dorothy Day remains, at the dawn of the new millennium, the radical conscience of American Catholicism.
Check the Guest List
Eating with Jesus should be a time of healing, which can shock even customary religious sensitivities.
News
Signs of the Times
Bishops’ Statements on Stem Cell ResearchHere are excerpts from statements of various U.S. bishops in reaction to President Bush’s decision, announced on Aug. 9, to permit federal funding of embryonic stem cell research using existing stem cell lines.Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza of Galvesto
Politics
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Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts