The Life of the Human Community
How are we to envision the mission of the church in the aftermath of the horrifying events of Sept. 11? Equally challenging, how can we conceive of the church’s ministry in the midst of the clergy sexual abuse scandal that is tearing the fabric of church life in the United States? Respo
Addressing Urban Sprawl
When leaders of the Archdiocese of Detroit began looking for solutions to the mounting poverty in the Detroit metropolitan area, they discovered that the traditional ministries of soup kitchens, clothing drives and holiday baskets were not changing the impoverished environment of the city. The city&
Sisters’ Imprisonment Emboldens Others
Rarely in our society do individuals choose to risk going to jail because they are protesting what they consider to be unjust practices and institutions. But if they do make such a decision and are imprisoned, how does this affect them, their supporters, others who learn of it and even their cause i
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
It was Good Friday 1998. I had concluded that a missionary’s life (even for a Jesuit novice) was miserably difficult. Homesick and exhausted from endless walking, sunburn, lack of food and complete powerlessness, I desperately sought a break from my work as a teacher in the ghettoes of Kingsto
Letters
Letters
A Dreadful Mistake
It seems, if I correctly understand the authors responding to Cardinal Avery Dulles, S.J., (10/21) that I may have made a dreadful mistake. Whatever was I thinking when I responded to Jesus’ gracious invitation and entered the church? Whatever was God thinking? Didn’t he know that I, as a Jew, didn’t need to…
Editorials
Dallas Revisited
While acknowledging “the efforts which the bishops of the United States have made through the norms and the guidelines contained in the bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People to protect minors and to avoid future recurrences of these abuses,” the Vatican h
Faith in Focus
Meeting Jane Marie
I drove to a retreat house in Wilmington, Del., wondering how I had come to this point in my life. Up until two months earlier, I felt only animosity for the Catholic religion and disdain for its teachings. But now I had driven an hour away from my home, to be with people I didn’t…
Books
Fingers in the Pie
Shakespeare rsquo s Brutus says There is a tide in the affairs of men Which taken at the flood leads on to fortune It is more than 30 years since Kevin Phillips published The Emerging Republican Majority accurately forecasting a deep-seated shift of American sentiment toward the conservative
Creating a Personal Retreat
The day after I finished reading Margaret Silf rsquo s Wayfaring I had an encounter with a young woman who helped me experience the value of this magnificent book about journeying I was riding my bicycle along the Boston side of the Charles River when I saw a woman whose eyes were filled with tear
People, Look East
It is not often that one finds a book on Asian Catholics written by an American and published in the United States that is not only informative and thought-provoking but also presents a deep insight into the developments in the Asian Catholic Church that have thus far garnered very little attention
Poetry
Sudden Widow
After he was gone,
The Word
Get Me to the Church on Time!
The coming weeks present a troika of parables that conclude the public teaching of Jesus in Matthew These constitute his final testament to the disciples a manual of discipleship for life ldquo between the times rdquo of Jesus rsquo earthly presence and his triumphant return They have a menaci
Columns
Clergy on Politics
Does ordination mean a Catholic priest gives up his right to speak out on political issues? Does a minister, rabbi or imam have to remain silent when asked which candidate he or she favors? And does the Internal Revenue Service’s ban on political activity by churches rule them out as sites for
News
Signs of the Times
Vatican Names Commission to Revise Sexual Abuse NormsThe Vatican announced the names of the members of a new joint commission set up to study and revise some elements of the U.S. bishops’ sexual abuse norms. The U.S. commission members include Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago and three ot
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts