Lesson From Evangelicals: An Interview With Manuel Flores
You have come to Pasadena, Calif., the cradle of Pentecostalism, to study at the school of theology most associated with that movement, Fuller Theological Seminary. Why? In the Philippines, I studied theology between 1984 and 1988, and afterward taught in a seminary. By 1991, the year of the Se
Countless Small Victories
At a time of great turmoil within the U.S. Catholic Church, a determined group of people has carved out an enviable record of achievement in some of the most challenged regions of the world. Maryknoll Lay Missioners – 131 people in 17 countriesis the church’s largest and fastest-growing lay mi
Catholic Consciences
I have never before encountered, either in correspondence, after Sunday liturgies or just in casual conversations, such intense concern and confusion over faith and politics as I do nowadays. The issue is abortion. Unlike most of the moral imperatives that Jesus articulates in the Gospel, unlike the
Does Father Have an Accent?
I read “Father Has An Accent,” by the Rev. Willard F. Jabusch (2/16), with some measure of astonishment, followed by a genuine feeling of humility. I am not, strictly speaking, an “imported priest,” but I do consider myself a “foreign missionary.” I did my first f
Of Other Things
The weather was awful, and the forecast was grim: heavy snow, possibly as much as a foot, on one of the coldest and darkest nights of the winter. But inside St. Ephrem’s, a large church in Brooklyn, it was springtime. Something was beginning. Candles were lit, hymns were sung, and 65 men from
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
When I was a boy, my favorite day of the year was a toss-up between Christmas and the first day of school. In high school and college, it was definitely the last day of school. While toiling in the business world, it was the first day of vacation. Since becoming a Jesuit, I have a…
Letters
Letters
Affirmation
The parish of St. Mary Church and Catholic Campus Ministry in Oxford, Ohio, includes Miami University. The city is small and the school large, so not surprisingly the majority of the catechumens and candidates in our adult initiation program are college students. Each week our R.C.I.A. session includes a “faith sharing” presentation, and while…
Editorials
Never Again
For years the hypothetical case of the “ticking time-bomb” has served as a test for moralists probing the limits of absolute prohibitions: Are authorities permitted, by way of exception, to torture a captive who probably has information about a hidden time-bomb that could kill large numb
Faith in Focus
Living With My Sisters
I decided while Iwas living with nuns that I wanted to be a priest. I live with two of them, Pat and Ellenrita, and a fellow my own age, Mark, who’s also serving a Dominican Volunteer year in the Bronx. The nuns are pretty easy to live with, once you learn to clean up the…
Books
For Those in Need
First of all the answers to two questions burning at the back of many of our minds concerning the highly charged issue of faith-based initiatives Yes absolutely faith-based organizations do a better job rendering social services than public or government-funded agencies and no absolutely they
In Our Own Image
Reading American Jesus I longed to teach again a course I regularly used to offer on American culture and religion This would definitely be a required text It is a spritely sometimes ironic truly illuminating overview of Jesus as a national icon within and outside the organized churches Steph
Poetry
Blue Hydrangeas
In five weeks, three husbands shot their wives
The Word
Let Us Pray
I have a distinct memory of my mother teaching me how to pray the rosary I knew the prayers I just did not know which ones were said on which beads I also have memories of my father sitting on our bed with my sister and me at each of his knees saying our night…
Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
At first glance this well known saying from the first chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes sounds very pessimistic Some might say that the rest of the book gets even worse However such an evaluation is a misreading of a very sobering yet genuine perspective on life pursuits but not on life itsel
News
Signs of the Times
Ratzinger Advises U.S. Bishops on Principles for Denying Communion and VotingIn a recent memorandum, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger laid out the principles under which bishops or other ministers may deny Communion to Catholic politicians who consistently promote legal abortion. At the same time, he said
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