The Things They Brought
The things they brought with them to the convent did not belong to them. They came from other people’s lives:
To Inspire and Inform
Peter Henriot, S.J., and his colleagues at the Center of Concern in Washington, D.C., were the first to popularize Catholic social teaching as the church’s “best-kept secret.” Their perception, that even among Catholics the church’s social teaching was not well known, seems t
On Work and Markets
No matter how familiar readers may be with the tradition of Catholic social teaching, they will likely find the two chapters in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church on work and on economic life (Ch. 6 and 7) at once exhilarating and frustrating. They are exhilarating because these pag
The Measured Pace of Rapid Development
On Feb. 21 the Vatican issued the most authoritative papal statement on the church and communications in nearly 50 years. Addressed to those responsible for communications, Pope John Paul II’s apostolic letter Rapid Development (Il Rapido Sviluppo) stirred a ripple of interest at first, but wa
An 11th-Century Scandal
Mark Twain said that history does not repeat itself, but it rhymes. The sexual abuse scandal that continues to echo throughout the church in America, as evidenced by the recent controversy over the decision to allow Cardinal Bernard Law to preside at one of the memorial Masses for Pope John Paul II
Letters
Letters
Providing Maps
I enjoyed Jesuit History: A New Hot Topic, by John W. O’Malley, S.J., (5/9). Your readers may be interested to know that there is a particularly hot spot within this theme, and that is the story of Jesuits as mapmakers, particularly in the Americas. From the late 17th century until the suppression of the…
Editorials
Good and Bad Immigration Reform
Immigration reform can go either wayhelping immigrants and asylum seekers or placing further restrictions on their lives by ever more punitive laws. For several years, Congress has been focused on the latter type of legislation. The most current example is the Real ID Act of 2005. Its three parts co
Books
The Kingdom of the Mullahs
The first question that comes to my mind while reading de Bellaigue rsquo s blunt reportage from the Islamic Republic is What about Kahra Kazemi the photo-journalist who was brutally beaten and possibly raped by the Iranian secret police before dying of her injuries on July 10 2003 She held a
Guatemala Nunca Ms!
What paradise and what ashes are meant by the title Paradise in Ashes A Guatemalan Journey of Courage Terror and Hope The paradise refers to the small village of Santa Mar a Tzej In the late 1960 rsquo s it was virtually carved out of the rain forest in northern Guatemala by a group of…
Tested by Fire
J Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist whose brilliant blue eyes came to express such engulfing sadness, brought a new kind of fire into the world and was burned by it. Like Hesiod’s Prometheus, Oppenheimer fought on the side of humankind, giving us the tools and weapons to determine our own fate; and fate punished him for…
Poetry
The Oldest Lie
Slaving captains…sometimes tried to avoid arrest by a mass drowning of every slave in the cargo.
The Word
With Whom Do You Stand?
quot You rsquo re my best friend rdquo ldquo You rsquo re my favorite teacher rdquo ldquo I love you more than anyone else in the world rdquo Who does not appreciate hearing sentiments like these They tell us that we are special they indicate that our particular uniqueness is recognized a
Stand Firm!
The response of the world at the death and funeral of Pope John Paul II was a sight to behold Throngs of people of every religious affiliation gathered in Rome and in cities all over the world to show their respect Particularly obvious was the participation of young people Why was this man so lov
News
Signs of the Times
Two Reports Show Ecumenical ProgressDespite differences, there are many parallels in the way Catholics and Methodists foster and express communion with God and one another through their respective church structures, says a report released on May 13 by the U.S. Catholic-United Methodist dialogue. The
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