

Where’s the Debate?: What good is a conscience, if it is not informed?
As Jim Lehrer, after 90 minutes of deadly evenhandedness, brought the first presidential debate to a conclusion, I couldn’t escape the fancy that this political campaign was a new television show called, Who Wants to Be a Presidential Survivor? I’m not even sure my idea is original, so f
Refugees in East Africa: An Interview With John Guiney
What type of work have you been doing with refugees in Tanzania?Our presence in the camps as a team of Jesuit Refugee Service is first of all a service of presenceto be present to our sisters and brothers who are suffering in exile. It must be remembered that the majority of the refugees in all…
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
Maine’s secretary of state sponsors a Web page offering lively information about this largest of the six New England states. Maine has an area of 33,215 square miles that include 17 million acres of forest and 31,000 acres of blueberries. It has a human population of 1.2 million and a moose po
Letters
Letters
Rethink AgainI was deeply saddened and disappointed to see the editorial The Elections and Abortion (9/16), in which you practically anoint and endorse Al Gore, even though he is blatantly anti-life. By that I mean that he is passionately pro-abortion.I was very sorry to see you use the expression p
Editorials
O Jerusalem!
We all saw the newspaper photos, and some of us caught it live on television: a father desperately calling out The child! The child! and the terrified 12-year-old Muhammed al-Durrah dying on the spot. That is not the only thing that has died in Gaza and Nablus and Jerusalem. It is hard to believe th
Features
How can the church improve the R.C.I.A. process?
From 2000: “Since R.C.I.A.’s reinstitution, the Catholic Church in the United States each year has drawn more new members than any other religious group in the nation.”
Faith in Focus
Cat Fights
The girl who plows into my 13-year-old daughter as we stroll through the park at the annual Mountain Festival is solid. She is pierced with studs in odd places. Her tank top just covers her adolescent breasts. The force of her forward-pumping legs nearly knocks my daughter off her feet, and she stag
Books
The Native American Catholic
In the late 19th century and well into the 20th the Oblates and later Jesuit and other missionaries used an illustrated scroll to catechize the Indians they encountered This scroll depicted two roads one good and the other evil The good road was the path of Catholicism that led the saved to th
Undervalued
The authors of America rsquo s Forgotten Majority Why the White Working Class Still Matters have set out to attack the conventional wisdom regarding the swing voter responsible for the election outcomes of the 1990 rsquo s Each recent election has produced a flurry of reports attributing the resul
Rootin’ Tootin’ Highfalutin’ Lies
Since the last of William F Cody rsquo s Wild West Shows was put on in 1916 scarcely anyone alive today can still remember them But for over 30 years those extravagant spectacles copyrighted in 1883 which featured live animals real Indians including for a time Sitting Bull and thunderous
Poetry
Plane Crash
A blizzard, late winter, pulled
The Word
Seeing the Light
The Gospel concludes the journey of Jesus to Jerusalem that was inaugurated by the healing of a blind man 8 22-26 which symbolizes the journey of discipleship for followers of Jesus It also provides a contrast to the failure of the disciples throughout the journey and presents a mini-drama of th
What, Me a Saint?
As the days shorten and the beautiful autumn colors begin to fade the church reminds us of both the splendor and frailty of Christian life Goodness and love of God and neighbor in the lives of countless and nameless holy ones have illumined our way but they have departed as we commemorate the fea
Faith
What, Me a Saint?
As the days shorten and the beautiful autumn colors begin to fade the church reminds us of both the splendor and frailty of Christian life Goodness and love of God and neighbor in the lives of countless and nameless holy ones have illumined our way but they have departed as we commemorate the fea
How can the church improve the R.C.I.A. process?
From 2000: “Since R.C.I.A.’s reinstitution, the Catholic Church in the United States each year has drawn more new members than any other religious group in the nation.”
The Papacy for an Ecumenical Age: A Response to Avery Dulles
The achievements of the pontificate of John Paul II were possible precisely because he inherited a living church, not one frozen in time.
In All Things
The Papacy for an Ecumenical Age: A Response to Avery Dulles
The achievements of the pontificate of John Paul II were possible precisely because he inherited a living church, not one frozen in time.
News
Signs of the Times
Charities Denied Injunction in Contraceptives CaseA Sacramento Superior Court judge has denied a motion by Catholic Charities of Sacramento for a preliminary injunction to block a state law that includes most religious institutions in a requirement that employers pay for contraceptives in prescripti






