Memoirists rule the literary roosts these days but sometimes with a bad conscience Shouldn rsquo t they be writing poetry or at least novels if they are serious writers Isn rsquo t this retailing of their personal lives a knock-off item or maybe even a cheat a pretense of authenticity undercut

The first time I realized that I was old, at least in the eyes of others, was when a young woman stood up in a crowded bus to give me her seat. Resisting that sobering message, I continued to think of the old as they, not we. The definitive change came only a few years ago at Bethany, when I was wel

Kent State is my American Jerusalem. Ever since I stopped at the campus on a whim while driving across Ohio in 1993, I have made yearly pilgrimages to this sacred-secular ground of antiwar activity, where four students died and nine were injured. But I’m no nostalgic baby boomer, no former rad

The timing could not have been more appropriate: On the first day of the annual conference in Washington, D.C., of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the Department of Housing and Urban Development released its report to Congress on worst-case housing needs. The title itself goes to the hear

Justice and Human RightsI would like to add to the fine editorial, Solidarity in Globalization (6/3). Representing the Sisters of St. Joseph at the United Nations, I have come to realize that, in addition to all that was so eloquently expressed in your editorial regarding how Americans need to respo

The contemporary world situation demands a successor of Peter who, with divine assistance, can teach and direct the entire people of God.

The nation had little choicepun intendedwhen it came to the abortion controversy. I say this after 40 years as a reporter who entered the business with pride and left it feeling ashamed. I underwent this transformation largely because of the way so many of my colleagues handled the wording and shadi

The U.S. Supreme Court Justices left their fellow citizens plenty to think about when they adjourned last month amid a crescendo of significant decisions. In three of those cases, the court decided some sharply focused constitutional issues without coming anywhere near to wrapping up the profound mo

Church as MysteryThe Rev. Hermann Pottmeyer, in his article Primacy in Communion (6/3), offers an interesting but strange argument about the Petrine office. First, his contention that the (Roman) Curia insists that the present scope of Roman jurisdiction is divinely willed simply is not true. In the

Catholic Official Hails A.M.A. Vote as Protecting Conscience RightsThe American Medical Association’s rejection of a resolution aimed at forcing Catholic hospitals to provide sterilizations and contraception was a vote in support of freedom of conscience, said the Rev. Michael D. Place, presid