A Church at the Margins
I stepped out of my small room at the Maryknoll Center House in Tokyo and turned to walk down the hall. In the dim light I could make out three figures kneeling on the floor just before the entrance to the stairwell, eyes closed:two Filipino women and one Filipino man, deep in prayer. The next…
Limbo, Infants and the Afterlife
Forty-some years ago, at the baptism of our fourth infant son, I murmured a half-serious doubt to a fellow graduate student, Should the church really be baptizing babies without their awareness? One month later this question came back with a vengeance, when on my 28th birthday I discovered our baby
The Sure Way to Peace and Justice
When Pope Benedict XVI was elected, and celebrated his inaugural Mass last year, I was in India. Later I visited Thailand and Laos. In all three countries the events in Rome were well covered in the local mediaperhaps less thoroughly in Laosthough only about 1 percent of the populations of these cou
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
Political liberals seem to have learned one lesson from the 2004 elections: Values, especially religious values, matter to the American people. There is a rush on to deny the religious right the moral high ground. Last year God’s Politics (HarperCollins), by Jim Wallis, the founder of Sojourne
Letters
Letters
Up So High
To say I have been profoundly moved by Nourishing Head and Heart, by Walter J. Burghardt, S.J., (3/20) is an understatement. Not since John Powell’s ministry lit a spiritual fire in me in the 1970’s has a Jesuit knocked me so flat and raised me up so high! If Walter Burghardt’s most exciting…
Editorials
Hope for Haiti
With the February election of René Préval as its new president, Haiti, poorest of countries in the Western Hemisphere, may now have some chance to move into the future with greater hope for peace and economic advancement. Although the election itself was marred by irregularities, Mr. Préval was c
Faith in Focus
Thirst
Sitio. I thirst (John 19:28). This is the shortest of Jesus’ sayings from the cross, but it says everything. Dehydration from sweating, bleeding, shock, asphyxia and acidosis produced a thirst beyond all telling. To contemplate that thirst is to go to the heart of the paschal mystery, the culm
Books
Pioneers for the Poor
While reading Maureen Fitzgerald rsquo s doctoral dissertation a few years ago I was introduced to Sister Mary Irene Fitzgibbon an Irish-born Sister of Charity whose work on behalf of poor working women in New York City had become legendary She established the Foundling Asylum in 1869 and supervi
And Then There Was One
One might not expect a book about Carthusians ldquo the Western world rsquo s most austere monastic order rdquo to be a page turner but this sensitively written volume is just that The author reconstructs the pre-1965 Carthusian way of life so vividly that the reader nearly shivers with the mo
In Their Own Words
For most people spring means warm weather the return of birds and the flowering of nature For serious baseball fans it means spring training the anticipation of a new season and time to read a book about the game A good choice would be former baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent rsquo s opening v
No Return
The award-winning poetry of Louise Gl ck former poet laureate of the United States is like the fiction of Henry James the more you reread it the more it entrances yet the more elusive it proves There are 17 poems in this slim volume a handful of them are multipart Thematically and in many ot
Friends for Life
Interview with James Martin S J on WHYY Radio about his book Readers of spiritual autobiographies possess some inner verifier that helps them sniff out the phoniesthose who pose posture and pontificateand to affirm those who risk exposing their fumbling and bumbling their reticence and resist
Poetry
The Crucifixion
The culprit’s all but impossible to find
The Word
The Dangerous Memory of Jesus
The narrative of Jesus rsquo suffering and death is an important part of our collective memory as Christians For almost 2 000 years Christians have gathered at this time of year to retell the story of Jesus rsquo passion It is not the story of a mythical or fictional character Rather it is the
Columns
On St. Patrick’s Day, defending the new immigrants
Like the Irish before them, today’s immigrants are willing to work hard for a better life.
Current Comment
Current Comment
Human Rights CouncilThe Human Rights Council of the United Nations has finally become a reality. After months of negotiations, the U.N. General Assembly voted on March 15 to accept a resolution creating a new body to replace the Human Rights Commission, discredited because it granted membership to s
News
Signs of the Times
Chicago Reports Criticize Handling of AbuseThe Archdiocese of Chicago released on March 20 two reports highly critical of its handling of sexual abuse by clerics. One report focuses on the handling of the cases of priests who were monitored but not immediately removed from ministry after abuse alleg
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts