I Need Your Help: An imagined bishop asks for advice.
Thank you for coming. My name is Bishop Pascal. I am the diocesan bishop of Heartlands, and I need your help. Let me first tell you my situation and some of the options that are being proposed to me for dealing with it. Then Ill welcome your suggestions or proposals. Our diocese has 83 parishes…
God and Politics: A look at the 2007 presidential debates
Adlai E. Stevenson would not have fared well in the 2007 presidential primary debates, though he was perhaps the greatest American orator of the 20th century. “Religious experience is highly intimate,” the two-time presidential candidate once said, “and, for me, ready words are not
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
The plight of Iraqi Christians
Editorials
Myanmars Anguish
The struggle of the people of Myanmar for justice in the face of an iron-fisted military junta (which changed the country’s name from Burma to Myanmar in 1989) that tolerates no dissent continues unabated. At the center of the struggle is the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi,
Faith in Focus
Matthews Story: The fourth in a series for Advent and Christmas
In Matthews story of the birth of Jesus, we learn that we can now put away fear and replace it with joy, because the promised one of God has come to live among us. Like any good writer, Matthew does not merely assert this major theme of his; he shows us what it means in…
The Genealogy of Jesus: Shadows and lights in his past
On the list of Christ's ancestors, Bathsheba, Ruth & Rahab stand out.
Books
Christmas Reading Picks: Gift ideas from America’s editors
Gift ideas from America Media.
What a Difference a Generation Makes
There has been a great deal of anecdotal speculation about religious proclivities and spiritual seeking among so-called Generation X the children of the baby boomers Robert Wuthnow a professor of sociology and director of the Center for the Study of American Religion at Princeton University take
Madam, Im Adam and So On
Of all the dizzying questions devised 8220 How did language begin 8221 has to rank near the top Humans plainly learn to speak by imitation but back in the beginning who was there to imitate We can 8217 t talk without a vocabulary and syntax 8212 but where did they come from All the earli
A Radical Act
Forgiveness & the Nickel Mines school shooting: 'Amish Grace,' reviewed
The Word
Emmanuel
The Hebrew name Emmanuel which means God is with us combines the Hebrew expression for with us and one of the words for God El It refers to the presence of God among usthe great Advent hope Psalm 24 todays responsorial psalm was part of a liturgy carried out at the Jerusalem temple the mou
A Motley Crew
The adjective motley means variegated in color By extension it can refer to any grouping of diverse and often incongruent elements The expression motley crew describes a loosely organized group of very different persons joined together sometimes unconsciously to achieve a goal The Scripture rea
Catholic Book Club
December Selection
In keeping with our longstanding custom every December we recommend an illustrated gift book or a special-edition work to our club members This month it is Art of the Cr egrave che Nativities From Around the World by James L Govan For more details on this book see my piece called Deck the Shel
December Selection
In keeping with our longstanding custom every December we recommend an illustrated gift book or a special-edition work to our club members This month it is Art of the Cr egrave che Nativities From Around the World by James L Govan For more details on this book see my piece called Deck the Shel
Columns
Remembering a Darker Christmas Story: ‘In the groanings of the night, our challenge is to follow the light.’
Did you know that when I hug you, Mama, its not just me whos hugging you? God is hugging you too. In a sentence, our four-year-old theologian summed up the mystery of the Incarnation. The context for her declaration was not a Hallmark moment, nor were the circumstances like those of the birth of Chr
Current Comment
Current Comment
Summit in Annapolis, McCain's immigration wisdom, Housing crisis in New Orleans
News
Signs of the Times
Pope’s New Encyclical, ‘Spe Salvi,’ Addresses Modern Crisis of Hope In an encyclical on Christian hope, Pope Benedict XVI said that without faith in God, humanity lies at the mercy of ideologies that can lead to “the greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice.”
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts