Editors Note: East Jerusalem, often called by journalists Arab East Jerusalem, has been for centuries the heart of Palestinian life. After the 1948 Israeli War of Independence, it continued to serve as the center of Palestinian commercial, religious and cultural activity. Even with the unification o

The late John Paul II’s pilgrimage to the Holy Land for the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 came as the culmination of the pope’s two- and-a-half decades of religious peacemaking. The personal importance of the visit for John Paul himself was made clear when, following the closing banquet

Everyone seems interested these days in defining Catholic identity—movements and Movements, R.C.I.A. and Neocatechumenate, liturgists and “religious” educators, curial vigilantes and the rear-guard of “social actionists.” No one wonders how the Catholic laity define the

Not Countercultural Please excuse my sending this comment more than a month after your publication of William Boles informative article American and Catholic, (7/2) on David OBrien. Professor OBrien takes me as representative of Catholics who style themselves as countercultural. I have not used that

For those interested in one more take on the reinstatement of the Latin liturgy Commonweal has posted the first of four articles in their upcoming issue about the change The title says it all-- A Step Backward Author Rita Ferrone points out some striking problems such as the exclusion of women

For many Catholics, the word missionary brings to mind a centuries-old image of a priest planting a cross in a foreign land and teaching, baptizing and celebrating Mass for its people. Or it may conjure up the slightly more modern image of women religious running a school in Africa or Latin America.

Through the Fog My thanks and congratulations to Bishop Donald W. Trautman for his excellent article on the new Mass translations being moved forward by the Inter-national Commission on English in the Liturgy (5/21). I must admit that reading it saddened me, because it is yet another indication of t

China Reserves Right to Elect, Ordain Bishops A Catholic lay leader from Beijing said China will continue to self-elect and self-ordain bishops. We ordain bishops only for the sake of evangelization in the mainland. Nobody can stop us, said Anthony Liu Bainian, vice chairman of the Chinese Catholic

Jesus loves imperfect people. On that score, all of us qualify.

We still miss our mother, but with no regrets and an awareness of the flow of life.