The Challenge of Being Right
I am not certain whether it’s my personality or a result of a traditional Catholic background, but I frequently find myself making resolutions. I respond to all the typical opportunities to start over—New Year’s Day, Advent, Lent—and also create some of my own. The Easter sea
Making the Ask
They’re coming. Just as surely as pumpkins and cornstalks are appearing on porches and doorsteps, you’ll soon see them popping up from behind pulpits. Microphone in one hand, scribbled notes discreetly clutched in the other, the men and women religious of the country are coming to your p
Hospitality to Strangers
Martha Stewart expressed disappointment upon learning that she would be serving her sentence at the federal women’s prison in Alderson, W.Va. Its remoteness, she said through a lawyer prior to her arrival, would make it difficult for friends, family members and attorneys to visit. But when the
Letters
Letters
Sensitive to Learning
In response to Adults Left Behind (10/11), in which William J. Byron, S.J., observed that society owes our illiterate adults something in compensation for failing them when they were children, a reader, Rudy Cypser, wrote (11/1) that this is another case of finding the root cause of symptoms and trying to do something…
Editorials
Thanksgiving and World Hunger
Thanksgiving will be for many in the United States an occasion to gather around tables groaning under the weight of food in celebration of this quintessentially American holiday. But as we give thanks, we also pray for those who are hungry. Not only does hunger remain a primary cause of mortality in
Faith in Focus
A Two-Sided Coin
This particular Sunday was not different from any other summer Sunday at Nuestra Señora del Rosario parish in Mexicalicapital of the state of Baja California in Mexico. It was scorching hot, with people milling about, finding shelter in a bit of shade in the patio fronting the church, and ladies se
Books
The Face of the Poor Is Ours
Jan 8 this year marked the 40th anniversary of President Lyndon B Johnson rsquo s declaration of unconditional war on poverty in America just weeks after taking office in the wake of John F Kennedy rsquo s assassination Johnson rsquo s successor Ronald Reagan asserted in 1988 however that P
More Two-Part Harmony
This volume of essays so exemplifies civil yet strenuous exchange on volatile topics in contemporary Catholicism that it exceeds a search for common Catholic ground and becomes instead that much-praised seldom-found reality a community of discourse And that takes into account the sharp point in P
Repairing the Prairie
Books about America rsquo s grasslands have traditionally been written somewhere else John Price a writer of nature and spiritual essays from Iowa who teaches in Nebraska shows one way to stay at home and find success as a responsible grasslands resident if not necessarily as a best-selling auth
The Word
We Are a Pilgrim People
When citizens of the United States hear the word pilgrim they immediately think of the Puritans who were among the earliest European settlers of this country This is particularly true around the time of Thanksgiving when the words pilgrim and Puritan are often used interchangeably However the
News
Signs of the Times
End of Catholic Vote’? Church Attendance May Predict Vote BetterThe Catholic vote sought with such determination in this year’s presidential race went to President George W. Bush in about the same proportion as the rest of the country’s votes. As they study results from this year&r
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