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The Nuclear Impasse With Iran
For most of the past several months, the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program has largely been a theatrical collision of highly antagonistic political attitudes with political leaders in both the United States and Iran using the issue to address their domestic constituencies. It now appears, ho
The Honor of It All
It was just 40 years ago this spring that the documents of the Second Vatican Council first appeared in English translation. The 791-page, 95-cent paperback was chiefly the joint interfaith production of America Press and the Y.M.C.A.’s Association Press. The general editor was Walter M. Abbot
Faith in Focus
Mysterious Tools
One night a few months ago, my 8-year-old son was very sick in bed. He lay there moaning and crying because of terrible pain in his ears. While my wife was on the phone attempting to get hold of a doctor, I did what I could to comfort him. We tried the usual things, but nothing worked. The choices s
Letters
Letters

Something Different

As a lover of France and French, I have long been fascinated by Joan of Arc, although I find her truly problematic (Believe Me If You Like, by James Martin, S.J., 5/22). Why would God call her to lead an army and fight to put a weak king on the throne of France? But aside from that, I delighted in the fact that she followed by doing what she believed she was called to do, no matter what anyone said. The proceedings of her trial show her to be a spirited and witty young woman, a match for the ecclesiastical court in spite of her lack of theology or education. When asked, shouldn’t she be doing weaving and cooking and all the other things women do, she answered that there were plenty of other women doing those things. Surely one could be spared to do something different. She was well aware that her refusal to wear women’s clothing irked the bishop too, never mind that he himself wore silks and laces and gowns as women did. And I do not think that she was not sexually assaulted by the soldiers because she was plain. Since when have soldiers been that discriminating? I believe it was because she projected an utter trust in God and conviction of her calling, a quality that set her apart. Ultimately, it has always seemed to me that she was condemned because she was a woman who managed to get out from under male control both in the church and in society.

Lucy Fuchs

Arts & Culture
Books
Jul 03, 2006 issue
Philip Roth’s Complaint
Peter Heinegg
Roth’s language is mostly matter-of-fact, but often enough he launches into eloquent spasms of what the Germans call erlebte Rede (lived discourse), where writer and character breathe as one.
Arts & Culture
Books
Jun 19, 2006 issue
And Proud of It
David Pinault
The authors of this book set out to correct what they describe as a widespread American perception that in effect Islam treats women at best as second-class citizens To counter this notion they cite the testimony of women in the United States who are eager to assert their identity as Muslims Th
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
Backpacks did not figure in my life as a child. At school in Maryland, most students either carried their books in simple satchels of various sizes and shapes made of imitation leather or, in high school, symmetrically arranged on three-ring binders balanced against the hip. Even when theology studi
Current Comment
Current Comment
A German Pope at AuschwitzAt the close of Pope Benedict XVI’s prayers at the concentration camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau, in Poland, storm clouds overhead gave way to sunshine and, improbably, a rainbow appeared.Unlike his predecessor, Benedict is not much of a world traveller. He has taken only
Editorials
Toward More Intelligent Intelligence
The need to expand and better integrate the resources of the U.S. intelligence community was one of the central recommendations of the admirably bipartisan 9/11 commission. With the close of the cold war, Congress had reduced the resources available to the Central Intelligence Agency, as the traditi
News
Signs of the Times
U.S. Bishops to Vote on New Translation of MassThe U.S. bishops will be asked to approve a new translation of the Order of Mass when they meet in Los Angeles on June 15-17. If the new translation is adopted as proposed and subsequently approved by the Vatican, Catholics will have to learn a number o