House of God
Driving on the A1 expressway to Charles de Gaulle Airport, one sees, gradually emerging, the town of St. Denis with its rows of low-income housing. Until recently St. Denis stood out for its urban sprawl, massive soccer stadium and royal burial plot. Then, in early August, hundreds of immigrants sto
Is ‘Church of the Poor’ Just Rhetoric?
With Cardinal Jaime Sin sick and plans in the works to divide the present archdiocese into six smaller dioceses, church affairs in Manila, Philippines, are at a standstill. This provides an opportunity to reflect on what the church should be about once the changes are made.Will the proposed changes
Five Moral Crises
Just as a daily examination of conscience reviews the past 24 hours and, at the same time, illuminates the next, so also a moral review of the past year reveals the challenges of the next. Perhaps this is more evident this year than ever, because the dominant ethical issues of 2002 are certain to re
With Her People
Life in the barrio changed me as a Jesuit. Part of my heart remains snagged on the razor wire surrounding Central Juvenile Hall; a portion of my soul is entwined with people whose language I speak so poorly. What began as a sabbatical from Loyola Marymount University quickly became a crash course in
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
Good news from Africa may seem a rarity, but some did come our way when two visitors from Tanzania visited New York in September. One was the vice chancellor of St. Augustine University near Mwanza, on the shores of Lake Victoria—the Rev. Deogratias Rweyongeza, who handles the day-to-day runni
Letters
Letters
Reliable Course
One could not but be touched by the sincerity of Kevin O’Brien, S.J. and Peter Clark, S.J. in their article Drug Companies and AIDS in Africa (11/25). Unfortunately, they touch on only one aspect of the AIDS plague in that continent. Simply put, the greatest contributor to the spread of the disease is promiscuity…
Editorials
The Old Year and the New
Even in a nation that is for the moment the richest and most powerful on earth there are many who must be glad to see the year 2002 go. Only an inattentive chronicler could fail to record that this was not a good year for the U.S. Catholic bishops, the managers of the Democratic Party,…
Faith in Focus
The Delight of Sunday
“Stop! Don’t Shop on Sunday.” That was the advice of a large poster hanging on a wall of our Catholic Labor Alliance office in Chicago during the 1950’s. We drummed home the same message in our monthly publication, called Work, and in a pamphlet I wrote for Ave Maria Press. I
Books
Know the Problem, Need the Cure
The 20th century gave birth to an age of human rights In recent decades the world has witnessed a revolution of moral concern personified by an international community sworn to global standards of justice and decency As the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and such documents as the Genocide
The Divine Shines Through
The title is brave God and the Imagination The book is even braver for in 22 essays the prizewinning biographer and poet Paul Mariani probes himself modern American poetry and the poetic imagination His goal is to link together the making of a poem the worldview of a poet and the shining of Go
Poetry
What, then?
“Do unto others as you’d be done unto.”
The Word
Through the Waters to New Life
The Christmas season closes with the feast of the Baptism of the Lord This is not the end of things but rather the beginning The readings remind us that the one born of our flesh is the servant of God mdash the very Son of God mdash who brings a promise of justice and hope…
Did You Call?
Nowadays we seem to be dissatisfied if we are considered ordinary We seek to be the first or the best or at least to belong to the group that is first or best Yet most of us are really quite ordinary people living ordinary lives Despite this there need be nothing ordinary about being ordinary…
Faith
A New Apostolic Era in Vietnam
After nine years in Communist prisons and labor camps in Vietnam, Joseph Nguyen Doan emerged with his faith not only intact but deepened, and with a determination to continue serving his people in his native land. A Jesuit, he is now the episcopal vicar for religious in the archdiocese of Ho Chi Min
News
Signs of the Times
Cardinal Law Resigns After Year of Growing ScandalCardinal Bernard F. Law’s resignation as archbishop of Boston on Dec. 13 came at the end of a year in which the burgeoning clergy sexual abuse scandal practically paralyzed his archdiocese and exploded into a national crisis that consumed the e
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts