Alien or Allied Muslims?
In the latest of my weekly telephone conversations with a colleague who lives in France, the first question she asked was, What do you think of the pope and Islam? Rarely inclined to talk politics, she was testing me out. And my response was testing her as well. Well, I think he could have said…
When the Church Calls
Much of the work to be done in the wake of the U.S. Catholic bishops’ new document on lay ecclesiastical ministry is on the practical and pastoral level. The National Association of Lay Ministry raised some tough questions about Co-Workers in the Vineyard of the Lord (November 2005) when they
Sites of Conscience
The Gulag Museum in Russia, the Slave House (Maison des Esclaves) in Senegal, the Terezín Memorial in the Czech Republic: what could these places have in common? They all are what have come to be known as sites of conscience. And each represents issues involving human rights; hence the use of the w
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
The popular refrain "Everything old is new" again seems to characterize increasing segments of book publishing since the turn of the millennium. Thanks to Loyola Classics, for example, a character named Mr. Blue, a contemporary Francis-esque gallant monk without an Order has emerged from a
Letters
Letters
Love of Learning
How happy I was to see your reference to Alma Miller, R.S.C.J., in the editorial, The People’s Schools (9/18). It was a privilege to be both her student and a dear friend, with whom I corresponded weekly throughout her life. Mother Miller demanded and expected the best from us. In addition to receiving…
Editorials
Clash or Conversation?
Those who take an apocalyptic view of the campaign against international terrorism like to cite the historian Samuel Huntington’s prediction of a "clash of civilizations." Commentators sympathetic to this view applauded Pope Benedict XVI’s address at the University of Regensbur
Books
Liberated by the Word
The North Atlantic captivity of the church is drawing to an end The center of Christian gravity is undeniably shifting southward This development is not a blip on the religious radar screen but a profound permutation Globally a major gravitational adjustment is occurring in the population density
God’s Beautiful Lessons
The gifts the poet discovers as she endures this dark night of the soul are many, and chief among these is her faith.
Facing a Fragmented Church
In the highly charged and fertile theological world out of which Vatican II was born there was widespread agreement that the Catholic Church needed to rethink itself Stale Thomistic recitations seemed out of step with emerging ways of looking at Christ the world the liturgy the role of both ord
People, Get (More) Serious
Alan Wolfe director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College has written a sharp indictment of the Bush administration and the conservatives who support it Wolfe rsquo s overall interpretive point in Does American Democracy Still Work is that conservatives wh
Caught at the Crossroads
Alice McDermott rsquo s new novel After This vividly often heart-rendingly portrays roughly 25 years up through 1977 in the lives of the Keane family John and Mary and their four children Jacob Michael Annie and Clare The novel rsquo s Irish-Catholic Long Island milieu will be familiar to
The Devil, You Say?
If asked ldquo Who is Satan rdquo most of us might give an answer something like this Satan or the Devil is the fallen angel who persuaded Adam and Eve to commit the ldquo original sin rdquo Also known as the Antichrist and Lucifer he now presides over hell and entices people on earth to…
The Word
Surprising Teachings About Money
In early 21st-century America money and material possessions are often taken as signs not only of intelligence and goodness but also of divine favor They are regarded as the key to happiness Despite all kinds of evidence to the contrary most of us still assume that money can and does buy happines
Current Comment
Current Comment
As Others See UsInequities in the U.S. criminal justice system were among the subjects of concern that drew criticism from the United Nations Human Rights Committee last July in Geneva. Maximum security prisons came under fire for virtually 24-hour confinement of prisoners to their cells. Also of co
News
Signs of the Times
At U.N. Holy See Cites Ideologies of ForceAddressing the 61st United Nations General Assembly in New York on Sept. 27, Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, the Vatican’s special envoy, contended that a lack of political consensus and an ideology of force undermine the cause of peace. It is not so much
The False Promise of Window Legislation
In the Sept. 25 issue of America, Professor Marci A. Hamilton joined with Voice of the Faithful in renewing their call for “window” legislation. Window legislation retroactively suspends the statute of limitation for childhood sexual abuse damage claims so that lawsuits filed during a sp
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Podcasts