Good Sports: Getting closer to God through athletics
If a millennium from now someone were to examine the artifacts of our civilization, he or she would discover that in many places sports facilities were the largest and most prominent buildings. This discovery might lead to the conclusion that sports were one of the most powerful influences in our cu
Wage Watch: Tracking an important social experiment in Seattle
The vote to raise the minimum wage and minimum compensation (wages, plus tips and employer’s contribution to health insurance) by Seattle’s city council is the most aggressive in a series of efforts to increase pay for traditionally low-wage workers. Congress shows no interest in changin
Prison Addiction: Why mass incarceration policies must change
When I first returned to Baltimore in 2005, after working for nearly 10 years in the Holy Land, I spent some time just driving around the city to get reacquainted with it. I was immediately struck by the number of men, mostly young African-Americans, congregating on street corners or porch stoops in
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
Institute for the United States Senate will provide much-needed lesson in civic education.
Letters
Reply All
A Catholic PragmatistRe Of Many Things, by Matt Malone, S.J. (2/2): Given Father Malone’s political training before joining the Society of Jesus, I’m surprised by his traditional Catholic interpretation of Mr. Cuomo’s two famous speeches. Mr. Cuomo was the ultimate pragma
Editorials
Bodies in Christ
Ever-thinner women and toned men are held up in the media to devastating effect.
Faith in Focus
Raising Peter: What my son taught me about my faith
When my oldest son Peter was almost 4 years old, we arrived at Sunday Mass, hurriedly walking in a few minutes late, when he noticed the prayer candles in the back corner of the church. He was mesmerized. He asked, “Mommy, what are those?” As the mother of a child who had been labeled as
Ideas
A Saint in the City: St. Francis of Assisi visits New York
St. Francis of Assisi visits New York
Books
Rise And Fall in the East
‘The Visitor,’ by Liam Matthew Brockey
Boss Tweed’s Lost World
‘Machine Made,’ by Terry Golway
Collateral Damage
‘The Real Cost of Fracking,’ by Michelle Bamberger and Robert Oswald
Poetry
[Rooster, rooster]
Rooster, rooster,golden coxcombwait not for the sun to rise.Crow for Peterthrough the darkness,pity him who thrice denied. Rooster, rooster,Peter’s broken.Darkness shrouds all earthly scapes.Time to crow, foreven Petermay just yet be saved by shame.
The Word
Hearing God Speak
The first thing Abraham had to do was listen to God but Abraham also had to be willing to hear God no matter the word spoken And the word Abraham first heard from God the command to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac remains even now at some level inconceivable and incomprehensible Why would God
Columns
Saintly Sinners, Sinful Saints
Canonization does not mean the church is declaring that a person was perfect.
Current Comment
Current Comment
Catholic Church may benefit from breakthrough in U.S.-Cuba relations.
Faith
Examining our social sins
A Lenten reflection on the collective sins of racism, violence and environmental destruction.
Of Other Things
Examining our social sins
A Lenten reflection on the collective sins of racism, violence and environmental destruction.
Signs Of the Times
Amazing Grace in Action
Ever since the days of pioneer homesteaders, the Sisters of Loretto have lived amid the rolling hills of central Kentucky. They taught in rural schools, still operate a corn and soybean farm and offer retreats on their 780 acres of prime agricultural land.The sisters would have liked to continue qui
News Briefs
More than two dozen undocumented students at Catholic colleges sent a letter on Feb. 5 to 79 members of Congress who graduated from Catholic schools, urging them not to cut off funding for the president’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. • Church leaders criticized the arre
Accountability of Bishops Will Be Major Focus of Vatican Commission
‘The accountability of bishops is a source of great concern” to the 17 members of the Commission for the Protection of Minors, said Cardinal Seán O’Malley, O.F.M.Cap., leader of the Archdiocese of Boston and the president of the body, at a Vatican press briefing on Feb. 7.Marie Co
Women Should Be ‘Full Participants’
The challenge to find new ways for women to be “full participants in the various areas of social and ecclesial life…can no longer be postponed,” said Pope Francis, speaking on Feb. 7 with members of the Pontifical Council for Culture. The pope said a “more widespread and inc
Assisted Suicide Gains
Assisted suicide is legal in only four states currently, but several other jurisdictions are considering legislation on the practice. A California bill resembles the Oregon law approved by voters there in 1994, but it has some significant differences. The California proposal does not include a consc
Ebola-Afflicted States Receive Debt Break
A recent International Monetary Fund initiative should ease the economic emergency in West African states most affected by the Ebola epidemic, but it will also serve as a template for responding to similar crises in the future, said Eric LeCompte, executive director of the Washington-based Jubilee U
Romero Beatification
Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador will be beatified in San Salvador “certainly within the year and not later, but possibly within a few months,” said Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the postulator, or chief promoter of the archbishop’s sainthood cause. Speaking to reporters on Feb
Vatican Dispatch
Reaching the Peripheries
Francis gives priority to situations of conflict, poverty or natural disaster
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