Our New Look
Welcome to the new and improved Web site for America magazine! Have a look around and tell us what you think. You can email us at webeditor@americamagazine.org or post a comment below. In addition to a sharp new look, America’s site is now home to America Connects, featuring all new web-only
A Note to Subscribers
Since we launched our new Web site on Thursday night, some subscribers have been unable to log-in. We apologize for this inconvenience. We are working hard to locate the problem. To report a problem, contact webeditor@americamagazine.org.
Monk and Poet: An interview with Foley award winner John Slater
Foley award winner John Slater on bonsai trees, Thomas Merton and life at the Abbey of the Genesee.
Our Catholic Hemisphere
With a new president in Mexico and a more immigration-friendly majority in place in both houses of the U.S. Congress, our nation is positioned to take a fresh approach to relations with Mexico in particular and Latin America in general. Catholics on both sides of the border are particularly well sit
Remembrance and Hope
A shoeless boy wearily weaves his way down the street, alone, in a limp pair of soiled shorts and a torn T-shirt. Heaps of trash pile up on vacant corners and in the grassy medians of the citys streets. Dogs of many breeds, some of them obviously sick with disease, listlessly amble around the neighb
Salvation Among the Poor: An Interview With Martin Maier
Why do you return to your former parish in El Salvador every year or two?
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
You may not have noticed, but the listing of associate editors on the masthead of this journal is determined by seniority. When I returned from the Philippines in the Spring of 1972 to join the staff, my name was added at the end of a list of seven other Jesuits who had preceded me. Immediately…
Letters
Letters
No One Now Believes
Why We Must Withdraw From Iraq, by Msgr. Robert W. McElroy, (4/30) is an excellent argument against war in general; but before we carry out his suggested prudently crafted American military withdrawal from Iraq, we should make sure that Iran, Syria, Osama bin Laden, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah and so on read…
Editorials
Out of the Shadows?
Raids by federal agents on five Swift meatpacking plants last December around the country, as well as raids in New Bedford, Mass., in March, called public attention to the fear haunting the lives of undocumented immigrants. As the raids demonstrated, fear of family breakup runs high among the undocumented, with the specter of breadwinners deported…
Books
He Who Is
Now two years into his papacy Pope Benedict XVI has published a work that is fast becoming a bestseller everywhere ldquo This book rdquo he stipulates ldquo is in no way an exercise rdquo of his official magisterium but ldquo solely rdquo a testimony to his ldquo personal search for the f
Scientific Racism
ldquo A bright mulatto is stripped to a nude condition and a careful examination is made of all parts of the body by the Dr and she is pronounced by him to be sound The money is then paid and she is transferred to her new owner rdquo With this mid-19th-century description of the…
Poetry
Letter to a Thousand Poets
I have just finished reading about 1,000 poems submitted for America’s annual Foley poetry contest. Garrison Keillor, of “Prairie Home Companion,” says he read 2,000 poems on the topic of spring to pick 15 for his radio show on April Fool’s weekend. Wearying as that is, we both seem to have enjoyed and been touched…
Lost and Found
That afternoon, a retarded boy wandered into the cloister.
The Word
Forgiven Sinners
One of the great themes in Luke rsquo s Gospel is forgiveness of sins As we return this Sunday to the Lectionary readings for Ordinary Time today rsquo s texts place before us three forgiven sinners David Paul and a ldquo sinful woman rdquo These three figures remind us of the horror of sin
Sacrament of Ongoing Christian Life
During the Easter season a major concern in the Sunday Scripture readings was how the movement begun by the earthly Jesus might continue after his death resurrection and ascension These readings showed that we can have a personal relationship with the glorious risen Christ From that relationship
Columns
A Different Sort of History
Nearly 30 years have passed since I very innocently asked one of my parish priests, the Rev. Maurice Burke, why Northern Ireland was a killing zone. I was a young reporter at the time, assigned to write a story about this foreign place that, frankly, meant very little to me. I knew one of my…
Current Comment
Current Comment
ISLAMIC REFORM Skeptics often ask whether Muslims are capable of democratic self-government. Most often the implied supposition is that they could not possibly be. But two current political struggles suggest that Muslims, like any people, are capable of standing up for democracy. Pakistan has been r
News
Signs of the Times
Pope Expresses Hope for East Timor
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts