When God and Caesar claim controlling jurisdiction over public policy in America, public servants who are Catholic can get caught between a religious rock and a public policy hard place. I know. I’ve been there. In 1965 Lyndon Johnson became the first president to support birth control as a pu
At a recent international congress in Rome on “Life-Sustaining Treatments and the Vegetative State,” Pope John Paul II ignited a controversy that is still smoking. He stated that artificial nutrition and hydration “should be considered, in principle, ordinary and proportionate, and
In his post-synodal apostolic exhortation Pastores Gregis (“On the Bishop, Servant of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the Hope of the World,” Oct. 16, 2003), Pope John Paul II underlines the scriptural boldness demanded of the bishop as shepherd (No. 66c). In this context, he describes th
Cancer cut short the life of my friend Regina. Barely into her 50’s, she had been working on behalf of immigrants in New York City. A lump on her breast turned out to be a malignant tumor. She told me about it on a Sunday autumn afternoon as we sat on a bench in New York’s Bryant Park. T
Something Sacred
I want to thank Drew Christiansen, S.J., for his recent Memorial Day reflection (5/24) and to tell him how much his words and thoughts resonated with my eighth-grade students at The American School in London. Though few of our students here at the A.S.L. are
The early Christians lived in a police state and were judged subversive if they refused to worship the Roman emperor. Yet even during periods of persecution, these Christians insisted they were law-abiding citizens. The anonymous author of a short second-century essay known as the Letter to Diognetu
The church must protect the community from harm, but it must also protect the human rights of each individual who may face an accusation.