Punishing the Immigrant
The U.S. bishops issued a statement at their November meeting in Washington, D.C., called Welcoming the Stranger Among Us. Although largely intended as guidelines for parishes with many new members who come from other countries and cultures, the document also makes brief but pointed reference to the
An Internet Strategy for Local Churches
Not since the invention of television has a new technology portended such changes in the way we live as has the Internet. Internet access continues to triple each year, and the content of the World Wide Web grows exponentially at regular intervals. People are using the Internet not only to receive n
The Power of Popular Religion
Nearly 20 years presiding over classrooms of college freshmen provided me ample opportunity to confirm or question the conclusions of developmental psychology. One popular parlor trick used to engage students in the learning experience was to ask them to recall, in as much detail as possible, their
Is a Living Wage a Just Wage?
A few months ago, the Rev. Peter J. Sammon reported in America (8/26) on the Living Wage movement, which has emerged in response to the increased numbers of working poor and the growing wage inequality in society. This circumstance is especially troubling at a time of such economic prosperity. Livin
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
Is there a vocation crisis? That depends on your perspective. If you think of clergy, the answer is yes. But if you widen the horizon, the picture changes. Think of the number of laymen volunteering to become deacons or the extraordinary number of women presently acquiring advanced degrees in system
Letters
Letters
Metaphor or Myth
One important conclusion in Creationism and the Catechism, by Joan Acker, H.M. (12/16)that God creates suffering and death (evil?)is empirical tunnel vision. We need to look outside the tunnel to see metaphysical reality.
Focusing our vision of sin on chronological events turns sin into a material action rather than the relationship that it is.…
Editorials
A New School Plan
George Bush and Bill Clinton both wanted to be an education president and both wanted to make U.S. public schools the best in the world. Neither succeeded, although in his various farewells Mr. Clinton talked as though he thought he had. Two immovable obstacles blocked their way.In the first place,
Books
Shabbat Shalom
Ari Goldman and I worked side by side some 20 years ago at The New York Times We admired each other I think for a perceived seriousness in the way we went about covering the religion beat It wasn rsquo t just a job it was a vocationto get the story right not just get…
War on Several Fronts
The distinction between fact and fiction is often a contested one Nor does it remain static especially for novelists like Graham Greene and Michael Ondaatje who have drawn their inspiration from the fractured politics of our just past century In The English Patient it was World War II and its ru
The Clash of Me and We
Near the end of this eye-opening book the renowned Peruvian economist and businessman Hernando de Soto trots out Bill Gates the world rsquo s richest man to bring home his argument about the world rsquo s poorest people Apart from his personal genius how much of his success is due to his cultur
The Word
Radical Eye Surgery
Whether dispensed by Ann Landers Miss Manners a legion of talk show hosts or reams of self-help books handy advice on a host of matters is as American as apple pie Whatever their lofty and diverse religious ideals people live out of a store of folk wisdom A stitch in time saves nine You do…
Lent Already
Ash Wednesday has become a virtual sacrament of Catholic identity as people throng churches to get ashes which paradoxically is just what the Gospel counsels againstexternal signs of devotion It also begins not simply the 40 days preceding Easter but the whole paschal cycle which continues past
Columns
Cherishing Life
The U.S. federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., is a harsh and punishing place, as correctional facilities are meant to be. Privileges for relatively normal communication that are allowed the general population do not apply to those on Death Row. A separate wing shelters the men condemned to dea
News
Signs of the Times
Funding for Faith-Based Initiatives Seen as First HurdleThe first real test of whether President Bush’s proposed faith-based initiatives will succeed in changing the way the nation’s social services are provided will come in his budget proposal, said an official with Catholic Charities U
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts