While serving as the deputy chaplain of the U.S. Marine Corps, with supervisory responsibility for some 250 chaplains from some 60 different faith groups, I was discouraged by the disproportionate number of Catholic chaplains who were committing offenses that resulted either in their imprisonment or

When I was an English teacher in public high schools in the decade from 1957 to 1967, one issue I took to heart was the question of my own role in affecting the values of my students. There was hardly a piece of American or English literature in the high school curriculum that didn’t lead to t

The first lecture I ever gave on the topic of the church’s magisterium was given in Latin to my students at the Gregorian University more than 40 years ago. Little did I think then that one day the Latin word magisterium would become so commonly used, at least by Catholics, that I could give a

Without dismissing the importance of other leaders in the history of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States, it is fair to say that Dorothy Day remains, at the dawn of the new millennium, the radical conscience of American Catholicism.

Bishops’ Statements on Stem Cell ResearchHere are excerpts from statements of various U.S. bishops in reaction to President Bush’s decision, announced on Aug. 9, to permit federal funding of embryonic stem cell research using existing stem cell lines.Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza of Galvesto

The story is told of the Irish woman, 40 years married and the mother of seven, who left church after hearing a sermon from a young priest on marriage and motherhood and remarked, "Sure and I wish I knew as little about it as he does." Having spent the last 17 years working on Bible transl

"Here Comes the..."As I read the article by Thomas Sweetser, S.J., (7/2) on behalf of his 50 fatigued pastors, I couldn’t help but feel sad that this group apparently can no longer differentiate between a job and a vocation. A job can be quantified by the hours, but a vocation—

Continuing Archival ControversyA group of Catholic and Jewish scholars established to study World War II archival material already published by the Vatican has suspended its work. In a letter dated July 20, the scholars said that in order to continue working together they would need "access in

Archbishop Weakland Says He’s Not Disobeying PopeArchbishop Rembert G. Weakland of Milwaukee declared, in a message read in all parishes on July 15, that he is not disobeying the pope by going ahead with the renovation of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist. The archbishop expanded on tha

In 1985 James Froemsdorf, a Missouri state trooper, a husband and the father of three young daughters, was shot three times and killed by a wanted felon who had been stopped for speeding. Although the criminal was handcuffed, he was able to free one of his hands, grab the officer’s gun and kil