Closer to Communion: What the patriarchates mean for today’s church
The fact that before the year A.D. 325, synods were held everywhere in the church demonstrates that the bishops realized, as the author Msgr. Michael Magee put it, that “no bishop was entitled to exercise his office in isolation from the common good of all the Churches, or from his brothers in
Endangered Indonesia: Can this unique Islamic culture survive an era of absolutism?
My host paused with his hand on the lid as we stood before the long wooden box. “Are you ready,” he asked, “to see the ‘shawl’ of Mbah Jarik?” What awaited me in that container was a glimpse of Indonesia’s ancient Muslim traditions—traditions that are
Revisionist Islam: The origins of a modern nightmare in Iraq and Syria
‘Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice,” Karl Marx notes in The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon (1852). “He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.” Entirely too many protagonist
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
The legacy of George W. Hunt, S.J., continues to grow with America’s new literary prize.
Letters
Reply All
Market Measures“Market Assumptions” (11/3), by Bishop Robert W. McElroy, is a thoughtful, well-reasoned and inspired explanation of Pope Francis’ statements on income inequality and how some cultural assumptions in the United States make a full appreciation of his critique and chal
Editorials
Learning the News: Media literacy for the modern age
How can we teach the news reading skills that are essential to responsible citizenship?
Faith in Focus
Finding Forgiveness: One man’s jouney from death row to a new life
One man’s jouney from death row to a new life
Books
Behind the Debates
‘What They Wished For,’ by Lawrence J. McAndrews
No Place Like Rome
‘On the Left Bank of the Tiber,’ by Gerald O’Collins, S.J.
Theater
Staying Afloat: Two new productions navigate chaotic times
Two new productions navigate chaotic times
Poetry
Settlers’ Gravestones, Millersburg, Ohio
There is no poem like a gravestone,that tersely worded, lapidary tercet,the name, the numbers, and the R.I.P.that are the skeleton key to all biography.Some lie embedded, trapdoors in the grass,while others rear their monumentalcornices and angels, like cathedralswhere worms receive the body’s
The Word
Daily Distractions
Pope Francis said on World Environment Day June 5 2013 ldquo We are losing the attitude of wonder contemplation listening to creation nbsp The implications of living in a horizontal manner is that we have moved away from God we no longer read His signs rdquo He was referring to the phys
Current Comment
Current Comment
American voters say the next Congress’s top priority should be to fix itself.
Of Other Things
Avoiding Absolutism
Among the subjects of debate and ostensible controversy that arose during the 2014 Synod on the Family and continue in its wake, one in particular captured my attention: whether doctrine can change or develop. The answer is: it certainly does develop. It always has.One of the synod participants, Car
Signs Of the Times
National Turmoil as Citizens, Church Demand Action on Missing Students
Ecumenical Day of Solidarity feeds ‘hope against apathy, fear, death and impunity.’
Parishioners Face Plan With Tears, Anger; 31 Churches to Close
First there was dead silence and then there were tears.That is how the Rev. Robert J. Verrigni described the reaction of parishioners at St. Ursula in Mount Vernon, N.Y., to the announcement on Nov. 2 that their parish would merge with another and cease to celebrate weekly Masses after Aug. 1, 2015.
Refugee Census in Erbil
According to data collected in October by the Chaldean Diocese of Erbil, there are more than 10,000 Christian families who have found refuge in the suburbs of Erbil and other parts of Iraqi Kurdistan after fleeing Mosul and the cities of the Nineveh Plain before the advance of Islamic State militant
Of Droughts and Dreams
If you have been paying any attention to California news lately, you’ve heard about the state’s devastating three-year drought: counties worth of farms decimated, whole towns without water and government officials proposing emergency legislation. This year has been thus far the driest ye
Protest After Christian Couple Murdered
Catholic leaders in Pakistan protested the beating and burning on Nov. 4 of a young Christian couple accused of desecrating the Quran. “The government has absolutely failed to protect its citizens’ right to life,” said the National Commission for Justice and Peace of the Catholic B
Chicago Abuse Documents Released
The Archdiocese of Chicago on Nov. 6 released approximately 15,000 pages of documents related to 36 archdiocesan priests who have substantiated allegations against them of sexual misconduct with minors. The documents are posted on the archdiocesan website, www.archchicago.org. All the records pertai
News Briefs
A parish twinning-style relationship between St. Lawrence Parish in Tampa, Fla., and a small Catholic community in Cuba’s Pinar del Rio province has resulted in official permission for the construction of the first new Catholic church to be erected in Cuba in nearly six decades. • In a le
Vatican Dispatch
Good Stewards
‘You know that I am preparing an encyclical on ecology; be assured that your concerns will be present in it,” Pope Francis told 150 representatives of grassroots movements from 80 countries when he met with them in the Vatican on Oct. 28.As pastor in Buenos Aires, he knew the potential o
Washington Front
Midterm Malaise
On the day after the midterm elections, pundits who misjudged the Republican wave confidently explained what it meant, Democrats played blame games and Republicans debated whether cooperation or confrontation is the best way forward. The sweeping Republican victory was shaped by history, geography a
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