I once had a spiritual director who told me that A Lent missed is a year lost from the spiritual life. Every year at this time, those words come winging back. And often my best Lenten devotion flows from reading. Here are a few reflective titles that seem worth mention for these 40 days.Philip Yance

Hunger and homelessnessmore and more Americans are feeling the cruel effects of both these painful phenomena. Such is the overall conclusion of the U.S. mayors’ annual Status Report on Hunger and Homelessness, issued each December as a survey of over two dozen cities. The current report docume

Following another rsquo s spiritual journey can be a voyeuristic undertaking Like sampling diverse liturgies one can as an aloof observer watch others worship making insightful observations about their correctness or oddity But like engaging liturgy one can also accompany the other to find w

More than one perplexed priest has asked me: "What should I do when people come to confession and say they have nothing to confess?" It used to be that when people had not been to confession in years, they would offer a lengthy list of sins. Or longtime sinners would say, "You name it

Chinese Documents Detail Crackdown on ReligionSeven top-secret Chinese documents detailing government plans to crack down on religion were smuggled out of China and published on Feb. 11. The government documents, issued between April 1999 and October 2001, detail the goals and actions of China&rsquo

Young Adult Catholics Know Little About ReligiousYoung adult Catholics generally have a positive opinion of men and women religious, but many do not know a great deal about them, according to a new national study. Only one-third of those surveyed, for example, said they knew the difference between d

Lack of affordable housing has affected all low-income people, but its effects have been especially harsh for the elderly and vulnerable. New York City provides a case in point. Many of the single-room occupancy hotels that dotted the Manhattan landscape through the 1960’s have disappeared, co

About eight years ago, when my five children were between the ages of 9 and 18, I had my first opportunity to go with my husband to the Dominican Republic on a medical mission. It was a little scary to leave the children, because we would be incommunicado for a while. We also knew there was some per

I’m writing this column smack in the middle of Catholic Schools Week, a bittersweet occasion this year. In parishes like my own, Catholic Schools Week is a cause for celebration and even a little self-congratulation. In other places, however, the week must seem terribly sad indeed. Another rou

The four-decades-old controversy over Pius XII and the Holocaust has always been more political than historical, but never more so than now. The International Catholic-Jewish Historical Commission appointed to review the Vatican-published documents on the wartime pontiff has foundered on politics. B