Leaving Hunger Behind
Collette Kayakez sells dried fish in her urban neighborhood in Lubumbashi, the second-largest city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Not long ago, her business was failing. It is hard to keep track of prices and sales if you do not know how to read and write. Ms. Kayakez, her husband, Ibert,
The Stem Cell Debate
Orrin Hatch, Utah’s Republican senior senator, is a firm opponent of abortion. He is also a firm supporter of research on embryonic stem cells, even though this involves destruction of the embryos. The senator’s reasons for this latter position are mainly two. He believes, as he has said
Their Great Sacrifices
Last spring, when I visited Major Tony De Stefano at Malone House, a guesthouse converted into an inpatient unit at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., Tony had been there for close to a year. He was undergoing treatment for a lung disease contracted in Afghanistan, probably from inhaling fine
Writing Warriors
Along with the roughly 2,800 American men and women who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, 26,000 have been injured, some of them permanently disabled. The news media tend to focus on those who have died, but what about the stories of soldiers who have been disabled? The scope of the question was br
A Hopeful People
In response to an invitation from Fundlatin, a Venezuelan ecumenical human rights organization, I joined a delegation of Catholic, evangelical and Protestant Christians in April 2006 to witness the dramatic changes taking place in several of Venezuela’s poorest barrios. We were an independent
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
'I puzzled, as I walked across the U.S. Capitol grounds, over the building in the distance. Was that where I was headed? It was certainly distinctive, with a large, story-high lip overhanging the east face. As I drew closer, I could see the south wall undulating in soothing waves. Then the wall
Letters
Letters
Great Teaching
My freshman theology course at Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart in 1956 was Mother Katherine Sullivan’s study of the Bible (Signs of the Times, 10/16). Thanks to her challenge, I read the entire Bible (slogging through even the doldrums of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, not to mention the disjointed though delightful Wisdom literature). But…
Editorials
Landmines: A New Threat
Antipersonnel landmines that tear bodies apart are a problem now resolved, right? Wrong. Although much progress has been made over the past decades in slowing their production and use, as well as in demining areas where they still represent a threat to farmers, children, refugees and civilians in ge
Faith in Focus
The Best and the Worst
In early January of 2003, I was at dinner with Martina, who is now my wife, when I noticed a lump on the right side of my collarbone. It felt tough and nodular, but there was no pain. Martina and I tried to have a normal dinner, but concern got the best of us, and…
Books
Resting Places
In 1969 the Apollo astronaut Edwin Aldrin described the ldquo magnificent desolation rdquo of the moon As the United States reflects on its lengthening wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this Veterans Day the issue of how most appropriately to honor soldiers who have died in battle is elevated profoun
A Rich Banquet’
Imagine a feasta symposium really in the ancient Greek sense of the wordin which the aim is not merely to enjoy good food and drink but also to share in thoughtful conversation The guest of honor a distinguished Christian thinker is the main course but other luminaries are present occasionall
Not Done Yet
If you wanted to explain to a visiting Martian what the old American WASP aristocracy was all about you could find worse examples than Roger Angell First there is the pedigree one ancestor Captain John Sheple was captured as a teenager by Abenaki Indians in a raid on Groton Mass in 1694 A
Film
Gods Lonely Men: The Departed
The Departed is a puzzling name for Martin Scorsese’s remake of the Hong Kong crime action movie “Infernal Affairs” (Lau and Mak, 2002). The term generally refers to dead people. As the film progresses through its two-and-a-half-hour tour of the mean streets of working-class Boston
Poetry
To-Do List for My 37th Wedding Anniversary
Make husband’s breakfast
The Word
Already and Not Yet
We are coming close to the end of one church year and the beginning of another Next Sunday is the feast of Christ the King and the following Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent On these Sundays the Scripture readings lead us to consider ldquo the last things rdquo or what is often called…
Columns
Wrongly Convicted
Scott Fappiano spent more than 20 years in prison in New York. He was convicted of a brutal crime in 1985the rape of a woman married to a police officer in Brooklyn. His trial was not exactly open and shut. Although the victim identified Fappiano as her attacker by looking at photographs, he was, in
Current Comment
Current Comment
Going Down to the SeaSaving deep-sea ecosystems from destructive bottom trawling is among the issues to be considered in November by the United Nations General Assembly. The marine biologist Sylvia Earle, executive director of Conservation International’s global marine division, has said that
News
Signs of the Times
Brazilian Cardinal to Head Clergy CongregationPope Benedict XVI has named Cardinal Claudio Hummes of S o Paulo Brazil a Franciscan to be the new prefect of the Congregation for Clergy The 72-year-old Brazilian-born son of German immigrants Cardinal Hummes will succeed Cardinal Dar o Castrill
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts