Bowling Alone, Praying Together
The jacket of Robert Putnam’s new book, Bowling Alone (2000) has an illustration on the front cover that depicts a solitary bowler. On the back flap is a photograph of the bowling team the author belonged to in about 1955. Putnam takes his title from the fact that although about 91 million Ame
The Shrinking Supply of Priests: The number of ordinations is not keeping up.
American bishops discussed research describing changing parish staffing patterns at their national convocation in Milwaukee on June 15-17. The three-hour deliberation considered data showing that the number of priests continues to decline, while parishes are hiring more and more lay ministers. Archb
News Analysis
The challenges and gifts of the homosexual priest
Facing the challenges and accepting the gifts offered by homosexual priests in the Catholic Church
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
On Friday evening, Sept. 29, poets, musicians, theologians and friends gathered in the James Chapel at Union Theological Seminary in New York City to celebrate the life and work of the Orthodox priest Alexander Men. Among other delights, we heard from Father Men’s son Mikhail, currently vice g
Letters
Letters
Offended by DrawingI sincerely hope that I am not the only one offended by the cartoon of the ugly prelate accompanying the commentary on the liturgical readings for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (The Word, 10/14). It is not worthy of the commentary, to which it gives a distasteful flavor, nor su
Editorials
Lessons From Charter Schools
Do Americans think their public schools are in what Gov. George W. Bush has been calling an education recession? It depends. Which Americans and which schools? Parents in Scarsdale, Grosse Pointe, New Trier Township and Beverly Hills do not seem to think their local public schools need radical overh
Features
Facing the Crisis in the Priesthood
A generation has elapsed since the close of the Second Vatican Council, and the church has underscored the council’s extraordinary ecclesial and historical significance by beatifying, this Sept. 3, Pope John XXIII. At the same time, however, the beatification of Pope Pius IX highlighted the ti
Faith in Focus
A Revolution in American Fathering
Although you would never know it from coverage of the Elián González custody battle, a quiet but thoroughly monumental revolution is taking place in the American family. The number of fathers solely responsible for the care of their children is growing at a rate almost twice that of single mothers
Finding God’s Grace in Kosovo
Kosovo is a land in need of a voice. And the only one I can hear, or even imagine, is Sylvia Poggioli of National Public Radio. As I ride along on the bus I hear her describing the shattered houses and ruined streets. I wait for her to tell me about the tragedies peppered all…
Books
The Savior in Word and Image
Last spring I ran a seminar on the contemporary Catholic imagination in America and at the end I asked my students to write about their own religious imaginations One found a surprise she discovered she had a religious imagination But she shouldn rsquo t have been surprised everyone has onea se
Holy Enchantment!
In 1976 Bruno Bettelheim caused a stir with The Uses of Enchantment arguing that Grimms rsquo fairy tales could be read as Freudian fables of adolescence identity and sexual maturation After some initial shock the consensus was that Bettelheim had a point Now another partisan intellectual the
An Affirming Theological Synthesis
Avery Dulles rsquo s first article for America appeared in the issue of May 5 1951 It was already five years since he had published his first book A Testimonial to Grace a narrative of his conversion to Catholicism while an undergraduate at Harvard For half a century Dulles has continued to tur
The Word
You’ll Never Walk Alone
As Mark’s Jesus walks toward Jerusalem and his death, he comes across an assorted group of little people who embody Gospel values.
Faith
You’ll Never Walk Alone
As Mark’s Jesus walks toward Jerusalem and his death, he comes across an assorted group of little people who embody Gospel values.
Facing the Crisis in the Priesthood
A generation has elapsed since the close of the Second Vatican Council, and the church has underscored the council’s extraordinary ecclesial and historical significance by beatifying, this Sept. 3, Pope John XXIII. At the same time, however, the beatification of Pope Pius IX highlighted the ti
The challenges and gifts of the homosexual priest
Facing the challenges and accepting the gifts offered by homosexual priests in the Catholic Church
News
Signs of the Times
Laity May Fill Communion Cups; Indult ProposedClearing up some of the confusion surrounding the revised General Instruction of the Roman Missal, the U.S. bishops have received a Vatican ruling permitting extraordinary eucharistic ministers to pour consecrated wine into chalices for Communion. The bi
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