Ordination and Same Sex Attraction
Every bishop possesses the sacred duty of discerning the suitability of candidates for holy orders. St. Paul’s advice to Timothy is fitting for all bishops, especially today: “Do not lay hands too readily on anyone” (1 Tim. 5: 22). The church’s life and the way it manifests i
Working With Prisoners: An Interview With Simone Ponnet
Walking up Willis Avenue, one of the more desolate thoroughfares of the South Bronx, I was on my way to interview Simone Ponnet of the Little Sisters of the Gospel, who is the executive director of Abraham House. Abraham House (www.abrahamhouse.org) is a residential program for prisoners assigned th
Seminary Visitation
The Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People endorsed by the bishops at the meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Dallas on June 13-15 includes a pledge of “complete cooperation with the Apostolic Visitation of our diocesan/eparchial seminaries and relig
The Troubles’ at Holy Cross
It was all very different a year ago. Holy Cross Roman Catholic Girls primary school in north Belfast made headlines in all the newspapers and on television and radio stations throughout the world. Day after day, crying small childrensome as young as four years of ageaccompanied by their parents, ha
Yes, Gay Men Should Be Ordained
One major fallout of the current crisis of leadership in the Catholic Church is the scapegoating of homosexual priests and seminarians. One bishop was quoted as saying that his “unscientific conclusion is that most sexual abuse by priests is against adolescent boys and therefore is rooted in s
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
Henry James named one of his novels Washington Square, after a formerly fashionable area in Lower Manhattan known for its handsome row of mid-19th century houses on the square’s north side. Most of the houses are now owned by New York University, but one belongs to the Sisters of Charity. It i
Letters
Letters
Just War
I want to thank you for the very insightful article by John Langan, S.J., about whether or not we should invade Iraq (9/9). But I wish to offer some points for you to consider. First, the use of the term vigilante justice seems to be an oxymoron, based on the question raised about the…
Editorials
The First Teachers Rights
Debbie Lannaman and her 8-year-old daughter, Chelsea, live in Harlem, a legendary New York City neighborhood with 10 public elementary schools. To each of these schools Ms. Lannaman gives an F. The failures in these cases are not the fault of the teachers, who are front-line troops doing the best th
Faith in Focus
Clerical Culture Both Beauty and Beast
Mama Leone’s was a famous restaurant in midtown Manhattan a few decades ago. A combination of location—West 48th Street between Seventh Avenue and Eighth Avenue—food, atmosphere and entertainment attracted tourists into waiting lines that often stretched into the street. If the ma&
Books
Rooted in Place
Though often labeled a modern-day Thoreau Wendell Berry is perhaps more akin to a biblical prophet a lone voice crying not in the wilderness but from his own farm Like Isaiah and Amos Berry is able to discern the embedded patterns of corruption and injustice in a culture of haves and have-nots
Are Things Different Now?
When we were in the seminary our economics professor Ed Roche God be good to him told us one day that his classmates were getting old ldquo I say to them when you start complaining about the young guys it rsquo s proof you rsquo re getting old rdquo Ironically his classmates in those days
Squaring Practice With Belief?
By this point in his illustrious career Garry Wills the most celebrated Catholic intellectual in the United States must find it increasingly burdensome to be ldquo Garry Wills rdquo Not only the most celebrated but perhaps the most ubiquitous as well This spiritual autobiography which doub
The Word
Love’s Labor Lost
Tales of unrequited love have shaped the tragic imagination in dramas like Euripides rsquo s ldquo Medea rdquo or Shakespeare rsquo s ldquo Othello rdquo in which the spurned Roderigo hastens the downfall of ldquo one that loved not wisely but too well rdquo in epic poems with Dido on the
Columns
Betting on Dreams
My dad was a gambler. One of my earliest memories is seeing him checking the racing results in the newspaper and circling likely prospects for the next day’s betting. My father’s habit wouldn’t have been a problem had we been a rich family, but we weren’t. When he and my mom
News
Signs of the Times
U.S. Bishops Oppose Pre-Emptive, Unilateral Force Against Iraq
Any pre-emptive, unilateral use of military force to overthrow the government of Iraq cannot be justified at this time, the U.S. bishops told President Bush. The bishops urged Bush to step back from the brink of war and help lead the world to act together to fashion an…
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts