Getting Catholic Schools Off the Dole
For 20 years, West Philadelphia’s St. Francis de Sales School was on the diocesan dole. Like many inner-city schools, it could not support itself with tuition and parish funds. Its principal, Sister Constance Marie Touey, I.H.M., feared a decade ago that St. Francis de Sales would suffer the f
Zambia and the Millennium Development Goals: An Interview with Peter Henriot
How is Zambia doing in relation to the millennium development goals established by the United Nations?Zambia has registered some improvement in the last few years. For example, it is likely that universal primary education will be available by the target date of 2015, and that it will include at lea
Where Are the Catholic Environmentalists?
The sister was wrong, I thought. Elizabeth Johnson, C.S.J., a theologian and professor at Fordham University in New York, was talking to Catholic school teachers about ways to integrate environmental concerns into classroom lessons. Personally, I considered environmental concern a white privilege. I
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
"My name is Michael Juarez, and I am a junior at St. Raymond’s School for Boys,” said the slender young African American. He was standing on the stage of the vast ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in mid-Manhattan. “I want to take this occasion,” he went on, “t
Letters
Letters
Elucidation
Professor Lawrence S. Cunningham’s vignette on St. John of the Cross presented a streetwise poet-mystic-reformer (1/30). John’s friendship with St. Teresa of vila and her influence on him were also nicely presented. But St. John’s connections to the Society of Jesus and its influence on him were conspicuously absent.
Before entering religion, John of the Cross…
Editorials
A More Excellent Way
As a cardinal, Joseph Ratzinger made clear his desire for the church to find a way to convey to the world the joy at the heart of the Gospel. Now as Pope Benedict XVI, he has, with his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est (God Is Love), taken a decisive step in that direction. What is…
Faith in Focus
Safe-Keeping
I open the gray metal box. Where others keep grandma’s opal from Australia or silver certificates, I keep one hand-written letter. In my father’s unique penmanship, the long “y” of sorry reaches down and captures a memory: My dear daughter, …what happened long ago…. It i
Books
The Political Is Personal
Always try to do too much must be taken as one of Salman Rushdie’s mantras and he certainly lives up to it here This sprawling story flashes back and forth from pre-World War II Strasbourg to present-day Los Angeles touchesat least fleetinglyon every major world crisis from the Holocaust to
In Widow’s Weeds
Joan Didion has been writing books for more than 40 years. Her newest and most unforgettable book is “The Year of Magical Thinking.”
The Dream of Religious Creativity
Graham Greene has had a difficult time winning the title of ldquo Catholic Novelist rdquo mdash one that he never wanted anyway At the beginning of his career he was dismissed as a man who wrote about bad Catholics mdash the whiskey priest The Power and the Glory Sarah The End of the Affair
Television
American Dreams
When I was a boy, I wanted to be the president of the United States. A lot of us did. Though we were growing up in the 1970’s, we knew little or nothing of Nixon or Watergate, wiretaps or carpet-bombing. Our images were of George Washington crossing the Delaware, Abraham Lincoln freeing the sl
The Word
Breaking Down Barriers
In almost all of Jesus rsquo healing miracles the person in need of healing displays an attitude of faith in him and his power In Mark rsquo s account of the healing of the paralyzed man however it is the man rsquo s friends who display faith by the extraordinary way they bring their friend…
News
Signs of the Times
Ugandan Archbishop Makes Plea to U.N.Archbishop John Baptist Odama of Gulu, Uganda, presented a statement to the United Nations Security Council on Jan. 24 asking that the United Nations take action to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in northern Uganda. Specifically he asked that the United Nation
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts