The Ongoing Call: Celebrating the Year of Consecrated Life
People are surprised when I tell them that for seven years of my priesthood, I lived with 80 women. I had the great privilege of being a chaplain at the Motherhouse of the Sisters of Mercy. Each day, I would celebrate the morning Mass. It was humbling and inspiring to look out into the pews…
A Prophetic Vision: ‘Dogmatic Constitution on the Church’ 50 years later
The Vatican II document ‘Lumen Gentium’ turns 50 today, and is just as prophetic as ever.
Don’t Feed the Bear: Crafting an effective response to a newly assertive Russia
Over the course of this year, Russia’s international behavior reached new heights of aggressiveness, and talk of the return of the Cold War is on the lips of knowledgeable analysts. Perhaps the most egregious act was Russia’s response to the loss of MH17, the Malaysia Airlines jet that w
Behind the Headlines: Ebola and the magnifying power of poverty
A disease outbreak is a story we can really get into. The invisible micro-organism lodges itself inside a human host and travels undetected among the teeming masses—until it decides to reveal itself and bring humanity to its knees. The narrative is powerful. Other people, who should be sources
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
In today’s media environment the mission of Catholics is profoundly countercultural.
Letters
Reply All
Our NeighborsRe “Listening to Ebola” (Editorial, 10/27): If people want to know what America is all about, here it is. Sadly, greed still triumphs in health care. And too often fighting abortion overshadows caring for the millions of children who die every year for lack of basic necessit
Vantage Point
Pope Paul VI: 1963-1978
Following the beatification of Pope Paul VI, we reprint this editorial on his life and legacy that originally appeared in America on Aug. 19, 1978.Each pope in the history of the church has brought to the special challenges of his era his own special gifts of intellect and spirit. The hist
Books
Inside Sacred Texts
‘Spirituality Seeking Theology,’ by Roger Haight, and ‘His Hiding Place is Darkness,’ by Francis Clooney, S.J.
Great Scott
‘F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Fiction,’ by John T. Irwin
Democracy in Danger
‘Six Amendments,’ by John Paul Stevens
Art
Matisse in Ecstasy: The artist’s lively, hope-filled cut-outs
The artist’s lively, hope-filled cut-outs
Poetry
Mantis
A large cream colored mantiscaptured me todayby a wisp of my hairnear the nape of my neck. I flitted it like a leafthat fell from the aspen treebeneath which I read,not knowing the mystery that found me. Unfazedby my flitting, it regroupedto catch me againby the bridge of my glasses.
The Word
Follow the Shepherd
The correlation of the roles of king and shepherd precedes even the Old Testament Akkadian Babylonian and Sumerian texts including the Code of Hammurabi all invoke the king as shepherd Clearly this association emerges from the pastoral context of the time when sheep- and goat-herding were cent
Columns
Co-opting Catholics
Do Catholics recognize the moral imperative to build the economy cooperatively?
Current Comment
Current Comment
Seven years later, justice for 14 Iraqis killed by American private security contractors.
Generation Faith
God’s Architecture: Seeing his work in all things
Antoni Gaudí designed a church, La Sagrada Familia, that only the Creator of the world could inspire.
Philosopher's Notebook
Requiem for Jackson
This Thanksgiving I will thank God for the love and encouragement of my uncle.
Signs Of the Times
News Briefs
The Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference called on the Confederation of African Football to postpone the Africa Cup of Nations 2015 soccer tournament, scheduled for Jan. 17 to Feb. 8, because of the Ebola threat. • New light is shining on the Sistine Chapel after a state of the art LED ligh
Abandoned On the Mediterranean?
Catholic bishops and aid agencies criticized a move by European nations to scale down the rescue of migrants and refugees in the Mediterranean Sea, where hundreds drown each month attempting to reach Europe.“What we’re seeing is almost a nightmare vision. Any policy which causes people t
From Protest to Movement?
Church involvement could undermine aims of Hong Kong’s Occupy Central.
Iran-Catholic Dialogue Dividends
Seven months after a delegation of U.S. bishops quietly met with Iranian religious leaders, their efforts appear to be on track. At a program on Oct. 29 on the dialogue and the relevance of moral questions about nuclear weapons, Bishop Richard E. Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, who met with Iranian ayato
Maronite Bishop Urges ‘Profound Defiance’
Maronite Bishop Gregory J. Mansour of Brooklyn, N.Y., spoke in Nashville, Tenn., to Belmont University students on Oct. 22 about the need for all Christians to respond to persecution with “profound defiance,” which is markedly different from vengeful retaliation or submissive inaction. &
Poverty Among Synod’s Concerns
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila said the Synod of Bishops on the Family was more than a series of discussions on divorce and same-sex unions and that the impact of poverty on families, especially in Asia, was a major concern of participants. “Poverty is really affecting the Filipino fami
C.R.S. Undertakes ‘Safe and Dignified’ Burials for Ebola Victims
Burials that are dignified and safe are urgently needed for Ebola victims in West Africa, where corpses are frequently left unattended for days and then thrown into graves without ceremony, a U.S. church aid official said.“So many people are dying that there has not been the capacity to respon
The Church Visible
Retiring With Dignity
For decades, religious orders built schools and hospitals, not retirement programs.
Vatican Dispatch
Who’s Afraid of the Synod?
‘When the church…expresses herself in communion, she cannot err.’
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