Washed Away
There is a bathtub in somebody’s yard in the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans. It is upside down, and a barge tossed by Hurricane Katrina through the Industrial Canal floodwall rests lightly, even gently, upon it. Whose bathtub it is, whether they bathed children in it or the family dog, and wh
The Muslim Mystery
Fifteen years ago, one might easily have thought we were entering a new era of peace in the world. The Communist evil empire dissolved so quickly, without nukes or invasions, it seemed that swords might indeed be turned into plowshares. An apparently endless cold war ended. Peace dividends danced in
Will the Seminaries Measure Up?
The much-touted apostolic visitation of U.S. seminaries and houses of formation is now well underway. Last September, when someone leaked to the press the document designed to guide the visitation (called an instrumentum laboris, hereafter IL), several articles appeared about it. The media initially
Nourishing Head and Heart
On February 10, 1931, my father escorted his 16-year-old son from our home in Manhattan to the Jesuit novitiate outside Poughkeepsie, N.Y. At the door of St. Andrew-on-Hudson we were met by a novice appointed by the master of novices to be my personal “angel,” a sort of big brother. His
Love and Ruins in New Orleans: An Interview With James Carter
Almost seven months after Hurricane Katrina, what is the situation in New Orleans?
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
Nancy Sherman is university distinguished professor of philosophy at Georgetown University. The author of Stoic Warriors (Oxford, 2005), she is currently working with patients at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington. A few nights ago she spoke at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International
Letters
Letters
Truth of the Law
In the article A New Impediment (2/27), Msgr. Thomas D. Candreva writes concerning The Instruction on the Criteria of Vocational Discernment Regarding Persons With Homosexual Tendencies: This document, if I am not mistaken, establishes a new impediment to ordination…. Further: The document does not use the word impediment,’ but it seems to…
Editorials
Reckless Improvisation
The announcement on March 3 that President George W. Bush had concluded a nuclear-supply agreement with the government of India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was alarming news. What remains of the nuclear nonproliferation regime was already under severe stress from North Korea and Iran. The
Faith in Focus
Ashes
Winters in Rome can be grim. It is often rainy and gray. The outside is cold and damp; the rain falls at angles that defy the use of umbrellas. In buildings filled with rooms that have very high ceilings and marble floors, buildings from get a single poof of heat at 7 a.m. and the…
Flesh
The world, the flesh and the devil were the original “axis of evil.” Of the three, “the flesh” often gets the hardest rap. “Sins of the flesh” entail sins of our senses. “Extracting the last ounce of flesh” refers to dominating power. The “flesh
Books
(Re)Making History
In his 90th year, the indefatigable historian John Hope Franklin has written his life story. More than any other scholar, Franklin has made African-American history an essential part of American history.
A Modern Bestiary
Jorge Luis Borges the Argentinian writer of short elegant metaphysical fictional pieces wrote in 1957 A Manual of Fantastic Zoology In 1967 an expanded version was published under the title The Book of Imaginary Beings Two years later a further expanded edition appeared an edition that Andrew
Poetry
Sister Prudentia’s Pilgrimage
In her prime, as Sister Administrator
The Word
God Who Is Rich in Mercy
In the Bible the two great attributes of God are justice and mercy While on the surface they may seem to be opposites they exist in a creative tension in which God rsquo s mercy generally wins out The Scripture readings for the Fourth Sunday of Lent remind us that God is indeed rich in…
Current Comment
Current Comment
Silver Medal Losers?How to explain the disappointing performance of the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in the television ratings, the lowest since 1968? Perhaps this year’s Olympic hopefuls were simply too hyped. When everyone is touted as a future gold medalist, anything less is seen as a loss. Or
News
Signs of the Times
Pope Pius XI and Benedict XVI at Vatican RadioThe idea of capturing and carrying someone’s voice across oceans and continents was a radical idea at the turn of the 20th century, and one pope saw the groundbreaking possibilities in such a project. Pope Pius XI was fascinated by this awesome inv
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