Who’s a Catholic to Vote For?
How about the following planks for a political party platform this November:1. Health care is a fundamental human right to which every American is entitled.2. The lack of safe affordable housing is a national crisis and such housing should be available to all on a non-discriminatory basis.3. The min
Centering Prayer: A Treasure for the Soul
Who could have predicted 25 years ago, when three Trappist monks from a monastery in Massachusetts introduced contemplative prayer to a group of non-contemplatives, that its popularity would grow so dramatically? Today, thousands of believers from a variety of Christian denominations in every state
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
Summer is a time of celebration and transition in most religious communities. It is no different for those who live and work at America House, situated midway between Radio City Music Hall and the West-Nile virus hot zone in Central Park. Though none of us has been stricken with any exotic tropical malady, we have…
Letters
Letters
Those Who Love Them
With gratitude, I applaud America for Of Many Things by Patricia A. Kossmann, the editorial on Elder Abuse, Elderhood for the World by Thomas E. Clarke, S.J., and On Dying Well, by Myles N. Sheehan, S.J., in the July 29 issue. I could write glowingly about each one, but…
Editorials
Water-Skiing at the North Pole?
Won’t it be fun when we can take gondola rides through downtown Miami and Los Angeles? And will not Eskimos smile when the Yukon River Valley grows cantaloupe for the European Union? And won’t we rejoice when, instead of taking the same old cruise to the palmy Caribbean, we can do someth
Books
What’s in a Word?
Reformation Counter-Reformation Tridentine Age Age of Confessionalization Some of the above All of the above John W O rsquo Malley S J professor of church history at Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge Mass argues that no one label is sufficient to embrace all the aspects of th
A Writer’s Writer Remembers
Seven years ago in ‘Acts A Writer: Reflections on the Church, Writing and His Own Life,’ novelist Larry Woiwode interleaved his idiosyncratic meditations on Luke’s narrative of the first Apostles with his own story of giving up an English professor’s job in upstate New York.
A Changing Family
I should have been required to read a book like this the summer before I began studying theology for ordination That was my thought as I read Arthur Jones rsquo s breezy but compelling new book on U S Catholicism It certainly constitutes required reading for anyone contemplating ministry in the N
The Word
The Cost of Discipleship
The readings touch on the most profound mysteries of Christianity: why do the innocent suffer, why must the followers of Jesus deny themselves and take up their crosses?
Columns
Conventional Gatherings: This years national party meetings displayed poll-itics as usual.
An unusual amount of hot air suffused the American atmosphere this past August. I’m not referring to the wildfires in the West, but to the Republican and Democratic national conventions. Though less noteworthy, the conventions garnered more media attention, because when all was said (and said
Faith
The Cost of Discipleship
The readings touch on the most profound mysteries of Christianity: why do the innocent suffer, why must the followers of Jesus deny themselves and take up their crosses?
News
Signs of the Times
Mother Church Not a Sister Church, Says RatzingerAddressing what it called common misuses of the phrase sister churches in ecumenical dialogue, the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation issued a document stressing the Catholic Church’s unique identity as mother of all local churches. The docu
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts