Remembering Eudora Welty
Eudora Welty, who died on July 23 at the age of 92, will remain forever for me a Southern gentlewoman who honed her writing skills to do her life’s work: create lasting literature. She lived in Mississippi throughout the era of the civil rights movement, seemingly apart from the fray. But she
Extremists at Home
I knew the hate would be coming, but not with such ferocity, such immediacy and such prominence. Time magazine’s specially rushed issue portraying the World Trade Center atrocity ran one opinion piece, on its last written page. It was Lance Morrow’s Case for Rage and Retribution. But it
Killing Them Softly With Kindness
In early April, the upper house of the Dutch Parliament voted to legalize what has been a legally tolerated practice for the last two decades: euthanasia and physician assisted suicide (PAS). Over the last decades Holland has moved to a more open and accepted practice of euthanasia and PAS by develo
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
As this issue goes to press, we are a little over three weeks removed from the day terror struck. It has been a time of intense and widespread prayer on both small and grand scales. We hear people constantly talking about faith, about the comfort they find knowing that God hears. Such was a conversa
Letters
Letters
A Deeper LookIn my search for meaning and the words to express it, Cardinal Avery Dulles provides a profound perspective. His reflections on the Shoah (9/17) apply equally to the incineration and crushing of over 6,000 people on Sept. 11. Following Cardinal Dulles’s sage advice, I have asked m
Editorials
One Cheer for the Racism Conference
The bitter grievances that many in the poor nations have against the rich nations produced two explosions last month, one actual and one figurative. The terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 were as real as death. The quarrels that nearly blew up the United Nations Conference on Racism amounted to a symboli
Faith in Focus
Staying Catholic at Twenty-Something
Young adult Catholics are legion. Statistical surveys indicate as much. Yet when I step over the threshold of my parish church, I see very few of my peers.
Tis Grace Hath Brought Me Safe Thus Far
These recent weeks I have been musing dreamlike over my seven Jesuit decades. Time and again I was struck by a line from that ever so popular hymn Amazing Grace. Eight monosyllables: ’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far. Grace. Not some vague abstraction. Rather, God’s ceaseless pres
Books
Repubblica Bellissima
When I learned that the subject of Garry Wills rsquo s latest book was Renaissance Venice my initial reaction was a mixture of surprise disappointment and pleasure Surprise because it seemed to stray far beyond his usual field of interest and expertise however broad that may be Disappointment
The Poor’s Many Faces
At first reading I thought Ronald Hill rsquo s tack toward poverty somewhat puzzling coming from someone whose specialty is social science and public policy I had expected many more statistical tables and analytic categories Basically through a compilation of data from those he interviewed and
Get Thee Behind Me!
Slowly over the past 25 years in the United States the old belief in free will has been replaced by a pseudo-scientific belief in determinism Faulty genes bad brain chemistry neurotransmitters gone bonkersthese are some of our postmodern excuses In American Exorcism however Michael Cuneo does
Interfaith Encounter
One of the most striking attributes of Harvard Divinity School professor and theologian Harvey Cox has been timeliness His first book The Secular City published in 1965 proclaimed the collapse of traditional religion to be a main hallmark of our era It generated controversy sold nearly a millio
Sacramental Poetry
Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1772-1834 believed that one of the great miseries of his time was that it recognized no medium between Literal and Metaphorical it ignored the symbolic Too many of his age still followed the lead of 18th-century writers philosophers who distrusted mystery and poets who d
Restless in Appalachia
Perhaps I should have known from the title that Robert Morgan rsquo s new novel is about faith Before I could reflect on the title and try to puzzle out a reference point for it I was caught up in the story Morgan is like that You leaf through a page or two and suddenly…
Poetry
Catbird
Another thick book of testimonies—
The Word
The Widow’s Might
Afriend once told me a story of a conversation with a rabbi who said that the New Testament was not a holy book In sympathy with the rabbi my friend said that he could understand how the rabbi was offended by the more anti-Jewish sections of Matthew or by Paul rsquo s view that Christ…
Faith
Staying Catholic at Twenty-Something
Young adult Catholics are legion. Statistical surveys indicate as much. Yet when I step over the threshold of my parish church, I see very few of my peers.
News
Signs of the Times
Pope’s Visit Produces Ecumenical Firsts Two ecumenical firsts occurred when Pope John Paul II visited Armenia at the invitation of the Armenian Apostolic Church, an ancient and independent Oriental Orthodox church that in recent years has improved its relations with the Vatican. He stayed at t
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts