Faraway Children Bringing Christ Closer
I could barely wait to tear into the fat envelope. As I pulled out the letter, my eyes spotted the photos of two grinning girls with dark eyes. Come and see our children! I called out to my husband. To be precise, they are not really ours. They are two little girls in Ethiopia whom…
Holy See Backs Nuclear Disarmament
In 1970, almost 200 countries signed a document urging nonproliferation of nuclear weapons. It was designed to help nations develop peaceful nuclear energy programs, if they would foreswear nuclear weapons. The five countries possessing such weapons—the United States, Britain, Russia, China an
A Shared Belief
The Islamic Society of North America, the Managing the Atom Project of the Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Churches’ Center for Theology and Public Policy convened a group of 24 religious leaders and scholars, with equal representation
Hope and Healing
"After viewing a city full of funerals, we return to our homes only to find them empty of our loved ones.” That’s what Petrarch wrote about the Black Death (bubonic plague), which in 1348 devastated Western Europe, killing an estimated two-thirds or more of the population. Europe re
United Nations Reform and Human Rights
The world is busy debating the reform of the United Nations. In mid-September a rendezvous with history is anticipated in New York City: a summit of heads of states and governments to decide up-to-date structures for the governance of the planet. In 1945, in the aftermath of a bloody and destructive
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
Mary Budd Rowe was a model scientist, ever inquisitive, asking questions no one had asked before. She was a psychologist who specialized in science education. When I first met her in the late 1970’s, she had done pioneering work on “wait time,” the time teachers allow students to p
Letters
Letters
Potential Abuse
Your bias is showing again in your editorial The Patriot Act and Civil Liberties (8/1). The various points you raise allow for easy correcting responses. I’ll use one as an example, namely, the potential abuse you apparently see of the right/prohibition against unreasonable search. The act requires that a search warrant be obtained from…
Editorials
Meeting the Millennium Development Goals
When world leaders gathered at the United Nations five years ago to promulgate their Millennium Declaration, they pledged their nations to a global partnership aimed at cutting extreme poverty in half by 2015. Two years later they met again in Monterrey, Mexico, to develop a framework for undertakin
Books
Can We Justify God’s Ways?
In the aftermath of the great tsunami of late December 2004 there emerged a lively public philosophical and theological debate in the popular media Where was God in this terrible event Why did God allow it to happen What did the victims do to deserve this Did they do anything wrong at all How
Politics Over Policy
With the publication of One Nation Uninsured the Florida State University sociologist Jill Quadagno joins an array of scholars who have sought to account for the failure of national health care in the United States and to explain why we get so little health for our health care expenditure Classic
Deconstructing Reality
Thomas Carlyle might not have called the study of economic matters dismal if instead of debating the gloomy Thomas Malthus on population growth he had come across the economist Steven Levitt and his often humorous takes on whether drug-dealing really pays or the effect that the name a parent selec
Television
Fear and Trembling in Oceania
A commercial plane traveling from Sydney to Los Angeles has communication problems six hours into the flight. The pilots detour toward Fiji. A thousand miles off their original course, things go bad. Turbulence tears off the tail section, then the nose. The middle section crash lands on the beach of
Poetry
Beatification
When I say poor, I mean we drank powdered milk,and our meat slid from the can in jellied squares.I mean our TV always showed black, white, or greyeven though the screen promised technicolor.Inside me, color flourished, each ray a wild band,a length of the spectrum. Bent and separated,different shade
The Word
Is Our Generous God Fair?
We have learned that God is all-knowing, all-loving, all-just, all-everything-that-is-good, etc. Therefore, we are afraid to suggest that God might not be fair. We are afraid that this might be a kind of blasphemy. But then, how is this parable to be understood?
Faith
Is Our Generous God Fair?
We have learned that God is all-knowing, all-loving, all-just, all-everything-that-is-good, etc. Therefore, we are afraid to suggest that God might not be fair. We are afraid that this might be a kind of blasphemy. But then, how is this parable to be understood?
News
Signs of the Times
Charities Gear Up for Hurricane RecoveryCatholic Charities was just one of several national organizations gearing up to provide assistance to victims of Hurricane Katrina, which slammed into the Gulf Coast east of New Orleans on Aug. 29 and left dozens dead in its wake. Insurance firms were expectin
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts