Pakistan’s Christians Face Sectarian Violence
This spring I was in Pakistan doing research on religious rituals among the country’s Shia Muslim population. As a Christian with an interest in interfaith dialogue, I make it a habit when I travel in Muslim countries also to learn about local Christian communities.On a beautiful Sunday mornin
Hawks, Doves and Pope John Paul II
The just war tradition is fast becoming a contested field of ideas in Catholic circles. The growing division of the Catholic community on issues of war and peace was on clear display at the annual “Social Ministries” meeting in the nation’s capital (Feb. 24-27), sponsored by the U.
Visiting a Catholic Worker Farm
Houses of hospitality on the land”—this is how Dorothy Day described the Catholic Worker farms that began to spring up in the 1930’s. In May, I had occasion to visit one of them and experience a weekend’s hospitality at the Peter Maurin Farm in Marlboro, N.Y. The farm, named
An Astonishing Vision: Casting Our Nets on the Net
Conceived as an instrument of military tacticians, nurtured as a way to disseminate academic papers, imagined as a vast library, touted as a new economic frontier, the Internet has confounded all who sought to define its significance narrowly in purely practical terms. If we have learned anything, i
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
On Sundays I sometimes pass the Church of the Ascension on lower Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, and I generally pause to admire its Gothic Revival brownstone exterior fronted by a small courtyard with boxwood bushes. But it was not until late one Sunday afternoon in May that I went inside—drawn by
Letters
Letters
God in the Ripples and Waves
We want to compliment Valerie Schultz on her excellent reflection, God in the Tangled Sheets (7/1). We heartily endorse her point of view, except for two small quibbles. The first concerns the parents of those called to celibacy. One of our children is currently making final plans to join an…
Editorials
David S. Toolan, 1935-2002
At Home in the Cosmos, the title of the last book written by David S. Toolan, S.J., can also serve to describe his life. When our longtime associate editor and treasured friend died on July 16, he did not know that his book had recently won an award for theological writing from the Catholic Press…
Books
A Few Things Before You Go
How many times have we mumbled our way through the Nicene Creed giving not a second thought to our firm vocalized belief in the revolutionary proposition that there shall be a ldquo resurrection of the body rdquo after death and not simply some vague new life for our immortal soul How often p
Set Aside
It was one of those chilling moments I was seated across from my parish priest who had just gotten back from an extended ldquo time away rdquo mdash yet unexplained When I mentioned my interest in a more disciplined prayer life perhaps to buy a breviary mdash the standard daily book of prayers
Film
Annihilation: Road to Perdition
Road to Perdition begins and ends with a young boy looking out over Lake Michigan. His voice-over narration in the opening shot leads the way to the lengthy flashback that provides the story line of the film. The camera, however, stares out over the faceless waters with him, as though pondering his
The Word
A Shifting Rock
If there is one Scripture passage that seems to define Catholicism it is the Petrine promise of Mt 16 16-20 Matthew supplements Peter rsquo s confession that Jesus is the Christ Mk 8 29 by the more solemn affirmation ldquo You are the Christ the Son of the living God rdquo and adds extraor
Mother Courage
Though Matthew stresses that the primary mission of Jesus was to the ldquo house of Israel rdquo in today rsquo s Gospel a non-Jewish woman draws him to a more universalistic vision Narrated by both Mark 7 24-30 and Matthew this story of courageous faith and boundary-crossing challenges the c
Columns
Proud to Pledge
In the 1989 film National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Aunt Bethany (played by Mae Questal), the aunt of family patriarch Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase), travels to the Griswold family home in Chicago to celebrate Christmas. Clark asks Aunt Bethany, whose hearing is failing, to say grace before
News
Signs of the Times
In Toronto, Pope Urges Youth to Follow Christ, Transform WorldCapping a week of prayer and celebration by more than 500,000 Catholic youths, Pope John Paul II urged the church’s younger generations to follow Christ and transform a world torn by hatred and terrorism. He also asked them to keep
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts