Two days after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, I made my way to one of the emergency trauma centers in Manhattan. It had been hastily set up in a cavernous sports facility called Chelsea Piers, on the Hudson River. I had been there earlier, on the evening of Sept. 11, still stunned f

Look to TeensAs I read “‘Home Alone’ in the Priesthood,” by Monsignor Eugene Gomulka (8/27), I was struck by a rather distressing thought: “They complain endlessly about the lack of new blood in the priesthood and its effects, but they never seem to propose anything to

David Lodge holds a special place among British novelists In certain ways he is heir to Evelyn Waugh as a Catholic writer with a mordant wit and concern for religion He is also an accomplished academic with half a dozen works of criticism to his credit No surprise then that the academy is a fr

Once upon a time.... With these words, the power of story comes alive for children whose imaginations are the doorway to identity and meaning in life. Whether read aloud or viewed on the wide screen of Disney’s media kingdom, the myths of childhood can be a healthy aspect of development. On th

Feeling wooed? You should be, at least according to pundits and Washington insiders. It seems that 2001 has been the year for courting the Catholic vote. The term burst on the scene shortly after the inauguration and has consistently shown up in news stories ever since, particularly with respect to

Catholics Pray, Agencies Assist in Wake of Terrorist AttacksCatholic bishops and priests led prayers and church-run hospitals and agencies mobilized to assist the victims in the wake of the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history. Virtually every Catholic church in the United States scheduled a speci

She was walking down the hospital corridor in stocking feet, a tall, striking woman with long hair and the head-covering of an observant Jew. We must have said a quick hello. It was a mutual recognition of an experience shared but not articulated: so you too are here because your kid has a brain tum

French Bishop Convicted of Silence in Child Abuse CaseBishop Pierre Pican of the Diocese of Bayeux-Lisieux in Normandy, was convicted of keeping quiet about a priest who sexually abused children. He received a three-month suspended sentence. The priest, René Bissey, was sentenced to 18 years in pri

This book is a not a history of Catholicism in Ulster as a religion but rather considers the Catholics of Ulster as a political and cultural identity Anyone who has spent any time in Northern Ireland knows that the confessional designation of Catholic and Protestant is shorthand for a specific and

A study by Creighton University’s Center for Marriage and Family in 1999 indicates that today roughly 40 percent of all Catholics marry non-Catholics.