Fog Over Iraq
As May 2005 approached, the country noted a painful anniversary. In the spring of 1975 Saigon fell to the Viet Cong. The images still horrify. The memory remains too sad. Any healing thoughts are of the Vietnamese peoplethe millions killed and maimed but grieved, those who were on our side and were
No to Abortion:Posture, Not Policy
It is clear that the Catholic Church has a moral position on abortion. It is not clear that it has a political policy on the issue. Moral positions do not automatically create public policies. I may be morally opposed to the use of addictive drugs, but I may also think that the U.S. public policy…
What the Pope Needs to Know
The sympathetic response of Americans to the death of Pope John Paul II might suggest that the sexual abuse crisis in the United States has not harmed the reputation of the church, and that trust in its leadership remains strong. The public’s high regard for Pope John Paul II and the love of C
Sing a New Song: Part 2, The St. Louis Jesuits: Earthen Vessels
It is hard today to appreciate the significance of the St. Louis Jesuits. Forty years after the Second Vatican Council, the idea of a vernacular liturgy that takes Scripture seriously and attempts to engage the congregation’s participation at every step has become relatively commonplace. But i
Little Gray Cells
From 2005, a popular article about faith and the intellect by the late James J. DiGiacomo, S.J.
The Shield of Achilles
For me, growing up in the years after World War II, Memorial Day meant a civic service of remembrance at a neighborhood monument with a heart-stopping rifle salute to the dead; followed by a parade down Staten Island’s Victory Boulevard, where columns of veterans, active military units and martial bands passed in review; and finally…
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
Even longtime readers of America may be unaware of the origins of this periodical. It was born in April 1909, during the worst days of the anti-Modernist crusade in the Catholic Church. Hysterical paranoia ran rampant, and Catholic intellectuals and writers were one after another accused of heresy b
Letters
Letters
Real Heroes
The Without Guile cartoon by Harley Schwadron, How come there aren’t any peace heroes? (4/25) ought to be made available on T-shirts and sweatshirts. I’d buy one.
Phyllis Karr
Editorials
Drawing Lines
In its decision in the case of Zorach v. Clauson in 1952, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a New York City program that provided released time for the religious instruction of public school pupils during school hours but apart from public school buildings. The opinion for the 6-to-3 majority was writte
Books
Communio
Cardinal Walter Kasper prefect of the Vatican rsquo s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity was well established as a theologian long before being made a bishop For many years he was on the faculty of the University of T bingen where his colleagues included Hans K ng His present bo
To the Bitter End
The newest book from Stephen Koch the celebrated author of Double Lives Spies and Writers in the Secret Soviet War Against the West and The Modern Library Writer rsquo s Workshop is a riveting mix of biography and history As biographer Koch writes of Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos their
Music’s New World Order
This capacious impressive often enjoyable book takes as its point of departure the late 19th-century orchestral cultures of New York and Boston assembling a story for which the author rsquo s Understanding Toscanini and Wagner Nights well prepared him This focus is understandable since Joseph H
Film
Once More, Without Feeling: Melinda and Melinda
It’s hard. Reviews of Woody Allen’s new films generally break into two categories: The master hasn’t lost his touch, or the master is in decline. Those of us who have followed Allen’s career closely over the last 30 years and consider him the greatest American filmmaker of th
The Word
Love Makes the World Go Round
We are bombarded with talk of love Advertisements capitalize on it with inspiring scenes and gestures music extols its virtues and greeting cards convey tender sentiments And yet there seems to be so little genuine love in the world Perhaps this is because we do not think that some people have
News
Signs of the Times
Justice for ImmigrantsCiting reasons as broad as Catholic teaching about the right to migrate to improve one’s life and as narrow as the need of one emigrant from Guyana to support his family, more than a dozen church organizations and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on May 10 launched
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts