The Bush Doctrine: A Catholic Critique
The United States today is indisputably the most powerful nation in the world militarily, economically and culturally. Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that fact has been elevated to the level of a doctrine: the United States must exercise its “preponderance,” its superior
The Real Agenda
St. John Chrysostom once warned: Whoever is not angry when there is cause for anger sins. The 25 Catholics who gathered in the basement of St. John the Evangelist Church in Wellesley, Mass., on a Monday night in January 2002 were angry indeedangry and embarrassed because of the sexual abuse of so ma
Palestinian Braveheart
When Mel Gibson’s film “The Passion of the Christ” is released on Ash Wednesday, it will bring the 106-year tradition of the Jesus-film full circle. The very first films about Jesus, silent films lasting only a few minutes, were Passion plays. Since then, the genre has ranged widel
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
Every organization has people who work behind the scenes out of the limelight, to make sure that everything gets done that needs to be done. They do not get the headlines, but no organization can survive without them. America had such a person for 40 years as our business manager and controller. Jam
Letters
Letters
Long Trail
Your editorial in the Jan. 19 issue, like your other editorials, is biased and not balanced. The Kyoto Protocols did not require multinational controls on pollution. Only the United States was required to submit to tighter environmental guidelines. China, one of the worst environmental offenders, was let off the hook.
The Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty was…
Editorials
Numbers Count
In the contest for the dullest book published by the federal government, the annual budget would appear in almost everyone’s top 10 list. Most Americans are numerically challenged, except when it comes to sports statistics. If presidential candidates devoted an evening to debating the federal
Faith in Focus
A Gate Opened, and It Was Golden
Several years ago my husband, Jim, and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary in San Francisco. It was a vacation to remember, but not because of the sights. I went home with much more than I came with. It began one morning after leaving a bookstore in Union Square. We saw a bearded old man…
Books
Ten Times Over
If war is hell a literary corollary might be that every society touched by warfare needs its own version of Virgil or Dante to journey to that hell and return to tell the tale In her collection of short stories Anthonia Kalu plays such a role with respect to the Nigeria-Biafra War of 1967-70 Thi
Dysfunktionelles Deutschland
George Santayana should have warned us those who can remember the past but do so obsessively are just as condemned to repeat it as those who forget The 1999 Nobel laureate G nter Grass has been prophetically attacking and mourning the horrors of 20th-century German history since the publication
God’s Kingdom Is A-Changing
Randy Newman has a tune called God rsquo s Song That rsquo s Why I Love Mankind that can send a shiver down the spine of all believers even those who believe we would be better off without belief In it a malicious God sits in his heaven world-weary and sarcastic Man means less to…
Poetry
What I Pray For
Sacks of rocks
The Word
Salvation Is a Gift
Strange as it may seem it is very difficult for many of us to accept gifts When we do receive them we feel compelled to reciprocate in kind We often believe that we must earn what we get Perhaps we do not want to be beholden to others or we are convinced that we do…
Columns
Thanking God for Ordinary Time
"How’s it going?" I ask the college student passing my desk at the library. "Same old, same old," she sighs, then pauses. "But that can be a good thing." What a joy to see such wisdom in a young person, I think to myself. It took me so long to realize the blessing
Faith
United in Happiness
It always disappoints me a bit when the celebrant at Mass chooses Eucharistic Prayer 1 (the Roman Canon) and skips the invocation of the saints, that resonant list of early martyrs recited before and after the institution narrative. The omission is all the more disappointing since one of those lists
News
Signs of the Times
Boston’s Archbishop Troubled by Ruling on Gay Marriage Archbishop Sean P. O’Malley of Boston said the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s expanded ruling on gay marriage is more troubling than its initial decision. The court’s decision on Nov. 18 struck down the state&rsqu
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts