Health care is emerging as a major campaign issue, and rightly so, because we are in trouble. The U.S. Census Bureau has found that over 44 million people lack health insurance. It is estimated that by the year 2008, the number of uninsured will have risen to 55 millionalmost a quarter of all non-el

Poor George W. Bush. It was bad enough when, during the primary season, a Boston reporter surprised him with a snap quiz about foreign leaders, including some from nations that Rand McNally himself might have had trouble spelling. Bush’s tentative answers inspired snickers in some quarters, al

The debate over whether the United States should give permanent normal trade relations to China pits human rights concerns against economic ones. While others focus on labor, environmental or military issues, the U.S. bishops oppose special trade privileges for China because of China’s human r

New York Says Goodbye To Cardinal O’ConnorThousands filled St. Patrick’s Cathedral for one service after another as New Yorkers said their final goodbyes to Cardinal John J. O’Connor. The 80-year-old cardinal, who died on May 3 after an eight-month battle with cancer, was archbisho

Learning and FormationI write in regard to Richard R. Gaillardetz’s article, The New E-Magisterium (5/6). The plethora of sites posing as theological resources on the World Wide Web is indeed a challenge. The technology committee of the parish to which I am assigned sees two ways that the new

As I sat down to enjoy a breakfast cup of coffee recently on an out-of-town trip, I was caught off guard by a question that would challenge any early riser: How does it feel to preside over the demise of Jesuit higher education? Like it or not, I must admit that my questioner is not alone. There are

Making cookies, spending long nights in the local hospital emergency room and giving relationship advicewhen I joined the Jesuits five years ago, I would have never guessed that these tasks would one day comprise my job description. As I conclude an academic year living as a residence hall chaplain

At a Jesuit university halfway around the world, a visiting Latin American theologian told the assembled Jesuits, "Students? Oh, students are the necessary sin of a university!" The comment was made tongue-in-cheek to stir the audience up. But his line of thought was deadly serious. Studen

If American voters do not feel threatened by the presence or imminence of a war or a depression, they can turn their attention to higher things when pollsters phone. In mid-March, a bipartisan poll asked its respondents to name the most important issues with which the next president must deal. &quot