Bishops Join Death Penalty Moratorium Appeal to ClintonThe president of the U.S. bishops’ conference and the chairman of its Domestic Policy Committee are among 40 prominent Americans who have asked President Clinton to declare a moratorium on federal executions. The first execution since 1963

Ecumenism in spiritual book publishing is alive and well. We are increasingly presented with spiritual reading intended for all ChristiansCatholic, Protestant and Orthodox. If there is any truth to the axiom lex orandi, lex credendi (our way of believing mirrors our way of praying), one is tempted t

Road maps provide a wonderful metaphor for life. The thick double line of the Interstate marks the quickest, most direct route to our destination, but a nearly infinite number of blue and red side roads offer unimagined possibilities. By choosing the safe, direct route, we miss a great many of life&

Choices More WorthyI want to thank America for the attention you have brought to the pledge Renewing the Mind of the Media (11/11) and for John McCarthy’s excellent explication of the mind of the U.S. bishops in asking that this pledge be taken on Dec. 17 this year and on World Communications

The enormous sow was the picture of contentment, lying on her side under a gazebo-like structure that protected her from the intermittent tropical rain. What’s her name? Nine-year old Xavier Laguna, the unchallenged director of the tour, was too well brought up to say so, but his face indicate

Chalices and ChairsLet me see if I have this right: According to the lead item in Signs of the Times (11/4), someone in the Vatican, honoring the ancient tradition of not allowing the laity to get too persnickety, decided that extraordinary ministers, after 20 years of doing so, may no longer purify

In the first few decades of the 20th century a remarkable number of English writers chose to become Roman Catholics Joseph Pearce who has written biographies of G K Chesterton and J R R Tolkien traces this phenomenon in Literary Converts a book that is not so much a study of theology or li

As I write this column, my Jesuit community is preparing to celebrate a number of jubilees, or anniversaries, for three Jesuit priests. The evening’s celebration will consist of what some wags refer to as an L.S.D., that is, liturgy, social and dinner.Apparently, one must be advanced in years

Aug. 6 marked the 10th anniversary of United Nations sanctions against Iraq. Established by Security Council Resolution 661 immediately after the invasion of Kuwait and solidified in Resolution 687 as terms of the Gulf War cease-fire on April 3, 1991, these measures have comprised the tightest econo

When I discovered that Ladislas Orsy, S.J., had written such a lengthy response (10/21) to my article on the papacy for a global church (7/15), I wondered how I could reply with reasonable brevity. But when I read his piece, I came to realize that I had in effect answered him already, in the very ar