Several years ago, while I sat at my desk one morning at Continuum, an AIDS agency in San Francisco where I served as executive director, the phone rang. The caller identified herself as a secretary to the First Lady and asked if I would come to the White House for a community leaders’ forum l

Pilgrimage of ReconciliationOn a pilgrimage highlighted by bold ecumenical and interreligious gestures, Pope John Paul II reached across centuries of division to Orthodox Christians in Greece and Muslims in Syria. In Greece on May 4-5, the pope issued a dramatic apology for past treatment of the Ort

Samuel Kofi Woods II is an attorney who has been actively involved in human rights activities in Liberia since the mid-1980’s. He is the recipient of several awards, including the Benemerenti medal awarded by Pope John Paul II in 1999 and a human rights award from Reebok in 1994. He is also on

Urgent calls are going out once again for massive food and other humanitarian aid to Sudan. Yet a group of Catholic missionaries working in the “liberated areas” of South Sudan refuse to accept famine, human suffering and dependence on international charity as the permanent lot of Sudane

Two of the most troubling aspects of American society today are the high rate of divorce and the fact that divorce in one generation increases the likelihood of divorce in the next. Current divorce statistics indicate that most divorces occur for couples married less than five years and that the pro

This is not the first book on the liturgy from Joseph Ratzinger a German Catholic theologian cardinal prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and former archbishop of Munich He has also written A New Song for the Lord as well as an important introduction to Klaus Gamber

Saint Benevolens parish just got the dreaded word. As of next June, St. Ben’s will cease to be a parish. To appreciate this situation, there are some things you should know. St. Ben’s parishionersit’s a real placehave had three pastors in the past four years. They have survived a s

Pope Clears Way for Beatification of 27 Ukrainian MartyrsJust seven weeks after the local study of 27 Ukrainian martyrs ended, Pope John Paul II cleared the way for their beatification during his trip to their homeland on June 23-27. The Vatican published the decrees recognizing the martyrdom of the

Like little green shoots, small church communities are emerging all over the Catholic parish landscape. They are one of the more promising pastoral initiatives at work in U.S. parishes today. In an individualistic and consumerist culture, whose spirit in some respects infects the very way we do pari