Starting the First San Miguel Middle School
“Recovering the founder’s charism”—this is how Lawrence Goyette, F.S.C., described the impulse that led to the opening of the first-ever San Miguel School—a middle school that began almost a decade ago in Providence, R.I. During a visit in June, Bro. Lawrence explained
Understanding Sex Before Sin
Who can tell me what I can do with my own body? The church? “Society”? The Bible? Playboy? A catechist? “Sex and the City”? With the high school students I teach, only one answer works: the objective facts and honest reasoning. Only the objective facts decide which of those c
Beginning in Awe
To explain how my experience as a parent has been a spiritual path, I have to begin seven years before my first child was born. At age 22, I was feeling more lost in my life than I’ve ever been before or since. My life was devoid of meaning and more than grim. In my…
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
Before my sister’s son, Charles, was born four years ago, I found it difficult to understand why people found their children’s comments so amusing. Certainly I had friends and relatives with young and often precocious children, but when they repeated their supposedly hilarious comments t
Letters
Letters
Life Experience
For some time now, I have intended to write you to commend you on your excellent writing and articles on the sexual abuse issues in the Catholic Church. The report in Signs of the Times (7/29) about the remarks of Bishop Fabian W. Bruskewitz prompts me to write.
Current understanding among human development professionals includes…
Editorials
The Innocence Protection Act
Even death penalty proponents do not want to see innocent people executed. In recent times, though, a number of prisoners have come within minutes of a walk to the death chamber before being exonerated of a capital crime. In Illinois alone, 13 men on death row were freed within the past two decades.
Faith in Focus
Let the Children Come to Me: When the Short of Stature Reach for God
It was a quiet Saturday morning. I cuddled on the couch with one of our daughters as we looked at the small book of children’s Bible stories her teacher had given her. We examined the stories of Moses and Noah and Jonah. Each page held a brief text accompanied by a powerful illustration. Soon enough…
Books
Ambitious Prophet?
On Nov 7 1630 Orazio Morandi abbot of the Roman monastery of Santa Prassede and former general of the Benedictine order of Vallombrosa was found dead in his cell in the Eternal City rsquo s Tor di Nona prison Although the doctor on duty and a friar confessor insisted that he died a natural dea
Unearthing a Fascinating History
The Dead Sea scrolls have fascinated the general public for over 50 years Indeed 10 years ago they were front-page news with wild claims about their contents and charges about coverups and conspiracies What has happened since and what can we expect in the future These two fine books can help t
Poetry
The Word
The Good Son
Recall times when your initial no was transformed into a new way of following Christ.
Columns
Daughter of Doubt
It had to happen. Just as the shoemaker’s children go barefoot and the carpenter’s children live under a leaky roof, I knew this day would come. I am a church worker whose daughter has stopped going to church. My daughters have grown up with the church as their second home, because it wa
Faith
The Good Son
Recall times when your initial no was transformed into a new way of following Christ.
Rahner, Balthasar and High School Theology
Karl Rahner, S.J., (1904-84) and Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-88), are in my estimation the two most influential Catholic theologians of the 20th century. Rahner, a German Jesuit priest profoundly influenced by the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola, spent his life primarily as a teacher and
News
Signs of the Times
Pope Urges World to Address Underlying Causes’ of TerrorismAt a special general audience marking the anniversary of the terrorist attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, Pope John Paul II said it was necessary and urgent to address the global injustices that created the conditions for
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts