An Empire in the Name of Peace
With formal hostilities ended in Iraq, it is time to take up again the hard questions posed by the U.S. war on terror. The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, may not have “changed everything,” as the overheated rhetoric of the day had it, but the experi
Haitian Refugees, Sovereignty and Globalization
On Oct. 29, 2002, 200 Haitians jumped off their grounded boat near Miami and floundered ashore, seeking a level of economic security that has been historically available only to a tiny minority of the population in their home country. These refugees were soon deported from the United States, as have
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
One of my first activities on arriving at America House each morning involves a pair of scissors. An inveterate clipper, I keep an eye out for newspaper articles that deal with the kinds of social justice matters that are my focus for the magazine. The clippings are then filed according to issues li
Letters
Letters
Ambiguity
I found Robert A. Krieg’s highlighting of the ambiguity of The Vatican Concordat With Hitler’s Reich (9/1), a very interesting and important consideration. I find it all the more ambiguous because Pius XI was certainly not a pope whose principal aim was the preservation of ecclesiastical structures and religious activists to the neglect…
Editorials
Failures
The lights went out at 4:11 p.m. on Aug. 14, along with the telephones, computers, television sets, air conditioning and all the other essentials of modern life that we take for granted. They are just there, dependable, and yet in truth it is we who are dependent. At first we are simply surprised. T
Books
Whither 65 Million?
Cardinal Walter Kasper never tires of reminding his hearers that ldquo crisis rdquo entails both ldquo peril rdquo and ldquo possibility rdquo It may lead to shipwreck but also to new shores The outcome of a situation of crisis like that which faces the Catholic Church in the United States
The Greatest English Prose Ever Written
Adam Nicolson must have thought one good masterpiece of English deserved another He has matched the eloquent beauty of the King James Bible with prose that doesn 8217 t just sparkle but sings This story has been told before Benson Bobrick 8217 s Wide as the Waters and Alister McGrath 8217 s In
The Word
The Way of the Wise
There seems to be a contradiction in the messages found in today rsquo s readings James teaches that the way of righteousness leads to peace while the author of Wisdom describes a conspiracy plotted against a righteous one In the Gospel Jesus first informs his disciples that he will be the victi
Columns
The Bitter and the Sweet
With each passing year, I think more fondly of a not-so-distant time in my life: my last child was a toddler, and my three older children attended the elementary school where my husband taught sixth grade. We had just built a house in the mountains, and our nation of six was secure and thriving. I…
Catholic Book Club
Books line one whole wall of my office at America. Over 1,000 of them, on eight rows of gray metal shelves that stretch from one end of the room to the other. No, these are not my own books, which are few, but the collection of the Catholic Book Club, a longtime adjunct operation of…
News
Signs of the Times
Jerusalem’s Christian Churches Denounce Israeli-Built WallThe Israeli-built wall separating Israel and the Palestinian territories constitutes a grave obstacle to peace in the Middle East, said the heads of Christian churches in Jerusalem. For both nations, the wall will result in a feeling of
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts