Global Trade and the Common Good
In his encyclical on the Eucharist, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, published in 2003, Pope John Paul II repeated St. Paul’s admonition to the early church: “[I]t is ‘unworthy’ of a Christian community to partake of the Lord’s Supper amid division and indifference towards the
Best Practices in Church Management
Efforts to improve church management are often sidetracked by three mindsets. First, we can misunderstand the truth that the church is timeless. Of course, Jesus Christ is timeless, some teachings are timeless and much of our worship is timelessbut many other behaviors of the church are time-bound.
Under the Apricot Trees
My mother, father, little sister and I were living with my widowed grandmother, Frieda Hambleton, in her house in a poor neighborhood of Wichita Falls, Tex. We were crowded, but it was what I had always known, and I was happy. Then she built a house on Grant Street, in the developing part of the…
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
The Catholic Worker is just around the corner from my rectory, and ever since I moved to that neighborhood on the Lower East Side, I have felt blessed by the proximity. I should really say Catholic Workers, with an s, because there are actually two Worker communities a stone’s throw from each
Letters
Letters
Lack of Progress
Reading the obituary of the esteemed, recently deceased John F. Long, S.J., (Signs of the Times, 10/10) and the tribute to him in a recent address by Brian E. Daley, S.J., reported in America (Signs of the Times, 11/7), I began to wonder what the results might be of the decades of Catholic-Orthodox…
Editorials
Exit or Not?
Representative John Murtha, Democrat of Pennsylvania, is a decorated veteran, a member of the House Armed Services Committee and a longtime hawk on defense matters. So Washington had a rude awakening when he declared on Nov. 17 that the time had come for the United States to withdraw its troops from
Faith in Focus
The Source of Our Hope
We are pilgrim people, marching through time but anchored in eternity. We are waiting for a new life to unfold as we celebrate a life that we already own. This is our Christian existence. The gift of hope keeps our eyes on the future; that same hope secures our existence here and now. Hope has…
Dan Lord, Hollywood Priest
This year is the 50th anniversary of the death of Daniel A. Lord, S.J. (1888-1955), one of the best-known American Jesuits of the last century. Though now forgotten by many, Lord was a larger-than-life figure in the seemingly confident, cohesive preconciliar church in America. Catholics, especially
Books
A Grim World
If Thomas O rsquo Malley rsquo s first book In the Province of Saints is anything to judge by he has a real future ahead of him as a novelist The story takes place in Ireland more specifically in the southern part between 1976 and 1981 But geography alas does not spare his characters from…
His Universe
Thomas King a professor of theology at Georgetown University has written a fine book deeply rooted in his lifelong meditation on Pierre Teilhard de Chardin his fellow Jesuit whom he approaches above all as a priest and as a scientist with a priestly calling The introduction clearly explains Ki
Memory, With Humor
When a poet writes ldquo I rdquo what does he mean An Irish poet-friend tells me his ldquo I rdquo is always a fiction based on himself but never his real self Literary critics reading an ldquo I rdquo poem discuss the ldquo speaker rdquo or the ldquo voice rdquo but not the ldquo w
Television
iTV
I spent a night with friends a few weeks ago. It was an education not only in child care (never lift over your head a child who has just eaten), but also in the state of television today. In the movies these days everyone has a 32-inch flat screen television hanging in the living room,…
Poetry
Bad Theology: A Quiz
And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them,
The Word
People of the Promise
quot But you promised rdquo Most parents have heard this lament from their children more than once A promise is a declaration that something will or will not happen A promise indicates what may be expected A promise demands and elicits trust The Scripture texts for the Fourth Sunday of Adven
News
Signs of the Times
Vatican Document on Homosexuals A long-awaited Vatican document drew a sharp line against priestly ordination of homosexuals, but in the process raised a series of delicate questions for church leaders and seminary officials. The six- page instruction, prepared by the Congregation for Catholic Educa
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts