The Pope in Brazil
Much of the Catholic world turns its attention this month to the Brazilian town of Aparecida, where the fifth General Conference of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopates takes place from May 13 to 31. Pope Benedict XVI is making his first visit to the Americas as pope to open the conference,
Bentham’s Mummy and Stem Cells
The skeletal body of Jeremy Bentham sits on public display in a glass-fronted case at University College London. Bentham, the founder of utilitarianism, left careful instructions for the use of his remains on his death in 1832. His body was to be used for a public medical lecture, then dissected, t
Advice for College Grads — Part II
You Are a Child of God British A. Robinson is the director for public-private partnerships in the Office of U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator at the U.S. Department of State and the former director of social and international ministries for the Jesuit Conference in the United States. In his inaug
Prenatal Testing
Recently, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommended that all pregnant women receive prenatal testing for Down syndrome. When Down syndrome is identified during pregnancy, however, the pregnancy termination rate grows to an estimated 90 percent, which leaves those of us who
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
Among the books I would list as must-read but too-little-known is Ronald G. Musto’s The Catholic Peace Tradition (Orbis, 1986; Peace Books, 2002). A history of 2000 years of Catholic peacemaking, it is a vast survey from which I never cease to learn. The sheer accumulation of information gives
Letters
Letters
Unaccountable Journalism
Paul Rusesabagina, the man who inspired the film Hotel Rwanda, writes in his book An Ordinary Man, Words are the most powerful tools of all, and especially the words that we pass to those who come after us. In a speech at Wake Forest University on April 4, 2007, Mr. Rusesabagina reiterated this point.…
Editorials
The World Is Watching
The massacre at Virginia Tech drew shocked comment not only in the United States, but from the media in other countries as well. Canada’s Globe and Mail, for example, noted that even as deadly a massacre as the one at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., in 1999 failed to bring about a n
Books
The Tears in Things
Holocaust literature that grimmest of subgenres may be said to have begun with Primo Levi 8217 s devastating and indispensable though wretchedly translated Survival in Auschwitz 1947 But Levi was little read at first not until the trial of Adolf Eichmann unforgettably reported by Hannah Ar
A Lifestyle in Trouble?’
In this thought-provoking study Brother Patrick Hart former secretary to Thomas Merton has drawn from a notable list of collaborators a full spectrum of ideas on the future of monasticism In his Introduction Dom Bernardo Olivera O C S O warns that if monastic life is not continually updated
Onslaught of the Intolerant’
The first impulse of many particularly on the right will be to dismiss this book immediately upon reading its title Indeed by mentioning the political F- word and linking it with a war on America Hedges takes to a new level an already ongoing critique of the Christian right developed in a spate
Film
Wondrous Stillness: Into Great Silence
French theorists used to employ the term “pure cinema” to describe film as an entirely new art form of moving images. It struck directly at the senses and created its own experience, without reliance on older forms like literature, painting, music or photography. The theory provided the
Poetry
Conversation Postscript
after you had gone,
The Word
Unity and Witness
The Scripture readings during this Easter season have led us to reflect on ways in which the movement begun by the earthly Jesus has continued They have included personal and communal relationship with the risen Jesus efforts at fulfilling Jesus rsquo command to love God and one another and the h
Columns
Broken Promises
Jesús is a 22-year-old Colombian who was forced from his home by the decades-old civil war. He and others in his village were captured by the paramilitaries in 2005. They were massed into a forced death march. At gunpoint, they were made to dig graves for the dead. Jesús said, I never knew when I
Current Comment
Current Comment
Adult Believers Over the years “not confusing the faithful” has become an all-purpose bromide for checking theological speculation and reducing the role of theology in the church to elementary catechesis. This policy frequently harmed the authority of the church among educated Catholics
News
Signs of the Times
Papal Visit to Conference in Brazil Begins May 9Pope Benedict XVI is making his first trip to the Western Hemisphere in mid-May, traveling to Brazil to open a strategizing session with Latin American bishops. The May 9-13 visit begins with a string of pastoral events in São Paulo, where the pope wi
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