O Happy Day!
I sit with Shakespeare and he winces not….
Justice, Law and War
For centuries Christians have quarreled about the relationship between law and Gospel. Some, relying on various passages in the Pauline letters, say that the concepts of law and Gospel are mutually exclusive, that the idea of law and the idea of Gospel contradict each other. Others, including member
Catholics and Protestants in Brazil
The Vatican and the Latin American bishops have expressed great concern for but little sophisticated understanding of the success of Protestant denominations in Latin America. Who is being converted, and why, are questions that need to be answered by research, not by clerics who do not listen to the
Apocalypse When?
Our world is in turmoil. There is fighting in the Middle East, an outbreak of a strange new disease in East Asia, natural disasters and economic woes in the world’s richest country. Could the “end times” be near? If so, will you be among the “saved?” For some, these que
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
Raised an Episcopalian, I initially knew of the Virgin Mary as the mother of Jesus, but not as an object of devotion. Only on becoming Catholic as an adult did I turn to prayers like the Memorare, the rosary and the litanies that focus on the titles applied to Mary through the centuries and into…
Letters
Letters
Balanced Approach
The article by Drew Christiansen, S.J., (5/19) drew my immediate attention, because I had spent October 2001 to June 2002 in Jerusalem and on more than one occasion had met and listened to Patriarch Michel Sabbah speak or preach. I first met him in December 1987 in Rome, when he spent his days of…
Editorials
Public Schools and the Pledge of Allegiance
In June 2002 the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in California, rocked the nation with a broad ruling against the constitutionality of including “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. Last February, however, the same court rewrote and greatly narrowed its decision
Faith in Focus
He Who Has Eyes
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 20 percent of America’s two million prison inmates are mentally ill. Take a moment to reflect upon that fact. In the land of the free and the home of compassionate conservatism, there are 400,000 men and women who are so obviously and unavoidably de
Books
Freedom vs. Totalitarianism
Why is there so little organized liberal opposition to the war The writer George Packer asked this question in the New York Times Magazine eight months ago before the occupation of Iraq dissolved into sniper attacks on American troops and rallies led by disgruntled clerics before American tanks r
Together in Spirit
I came to this book with certain interior conflicts of my own I wound up loving the book and listening to my own heart better I agree with so many of Wendy Wright rsquo s insights her way of affirming the contemplative life in the midst of everything I appreciate her genuine authority and the
In Their Own Image
Margaret Atwood rsquo s last novel The Blind Assassin won the millennial Booker Prize for most writers a once-in-a-lifetime award Salman Rushdie notwithstanding Three years later she is back with a rather different kind of book more reminiscent of The Handmaid rsquo s Tale an earlier dystopia
Poetry
Divine Comedy
I am sure it rained there. But that is not what I remember.
The Word
To Whom Shall We Go?
We must believe that our religious tradition can carry us into new situations, and that its values can continue to be vital despite the challenges we find there.
The Power of Words
Children chant in sing-song the ditty ldquo Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me rdquo How erroneous this really is Broken bones mend but we do not always recover from cruel words Words can prevent us from becoming the best we might be and we often use them as…
Columns
No Questions, Please
In language that would seem better suited to a ballpark than the White House, President Bush’s administration officials are making it clear that they will tolerate no questions about the president’s use of faulty intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq. The president’s outgoin
Faith
To Whom Shall We Go?
We must believe that our religious tradition can carry us into new situations, and that its values can continue to be vital despite the challenges we find there.
News
Signs of the Times
Vatican Says Same-Sex Unions Are Harmful to Society’Amid increasing worldwide initiatives to grant legal recognition to same-sex unions, the Vatican called on lawmakers to offer clear and emphatic opposition to such measures, which it said were contrary to human nature and ultimately harmful t
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts