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Books
May 17, 2004 issue
Sightings, Signs and Wonders
Robert McClory
It is difficult to imagine two books about the same subject more dissimilar than these Randall Sullivan rsquo s The Miracle Detective is a drawn-out tour de force rivaling The Da Vinci Code in length digressions and clues that ultimately don rsquo t go anywhere Lisa Schwebel rsquo s Apparitions
News
Signs of the Times
Canon Law on Sanctions Leaves Much to Interpret People on one side ask why bishops don’t stop certain Catholic politicians from receiving Communion or even excommunicate them.Aren’t they openly defying church teaching on the most important subjectthe right to life? If such politicians do
Voting Conscience
Over the past few weeks I have had friends plead with me, Please don’t vote for Nader again. You will be giving the vote to Bush. You will be giving the vote to Kerry. There’s my problem: I don’t want to give my vote to either of them. Such words could infuriate readers as well as
Magazine
Catholics and Candidates
Senator John F. Kennedy walked into the grand ballroom of Houston’s Rice Hotel with one goal: to put to rest the notion that a Roman Catholic should not be elected president of the United States. It was September 1960, and many Americans were wary of electing a Catholic. Most non-Catholics vie
Can the Church Learn From Wal-Mart?
With over one million employees, the Catholic Church in the United States is comparable in size to Wal-Mart, but it still follows a feudal model of governance and management. This may be adequate to protect religious orthodoxy, but it is not equal to the task of managing a worldwide enterprise that
Against Tobacco, For Life
In August 2003, thousands of tobacco-control and health advocates converged upon Helsinki, Finland, for the 11th World Conference on Tobacco or Health. I was the only “official” Roman Catholic attending. Three months later, in mid-December 2003, I attended the National Conference on Toba
Letters
Letters

Means to Solidarity

How is it possible that so few Americans are aware of the horror in northern Uganda: since 1988, nearly 20,000 children abducted, more than one million civilians living away from their homes in squalid camps? Thank you for trying to inform them (Child Soldiers and the Lord’s Resistance Army, 3/29).

Thanks too for Rwanda Ten Years Later (4/19) and your editorial urging the need for the American public to be better informed about African politics. The U.S. bishops argued for such self-education and involvement in public policy in their November 2001 A Call to Solidarity with Africa. Unfortunately, very few American Catholics, even professionals in ministry, seem to have heard of this. A student in our Jesuit school in Bukavu, Congo, recently asked me, Why do your people know so little about us, when we know so much about America?

To counterbalance the usual bad news, your authors also highlight the hopeful antidotesso many beautiful, faith-filled people here who struggle daily to combat the heavy forces against them (including, too often, some from the civilized world). I long for the day when Africa begins to get the good attention that so many Americans gave to Latin America in the 1980’s. Africa also has heroic witnesses to the faith, even martyrs worthy of canonization. At a recent Mass in Rwanda, I heard the large, mostly young adult congregation singing, You are at the center of our lives; you are alive. Immediately after the genocide in 1994, the Africa bishops proclaimed, The Risen Christ Is Our Hope.

The U.S. bishops remind us of the power of prayer but go on to advocate more diocesan/parish twinning (including Catholic schools and retreat houses). For those to whom it applies, they call for more corporate responsibility and responsible investment. Could my company/investment somehow be making things even worse for those who are already poor? What about my country?

Finally, I have come to learn that there is no better means to solidarity than personal contact, trying to get to know some Africans in the United States or, even better, somewhere here.

Tony Wach, S.J.

Of Many Things
Of Many Things
I was startled. One of my Jesuit confreres had just introduced me to a fellow graduate student, not by name but as “our superior.” We were classmates; we lived in a small community, but somehow I had turned from Drew into “Father Superior.” I was no longer an individual. I wa
Editorials
Malaria
There is another killer disease besides AIDS, but it receives far less attention in the wealthy nations of the Northmalaria. Malaria has been almost completely eliminated in the United States and other developed countries. It is often included among the so-called neglected diseases, neglected in the
News
Signs of the Times
Gregory: Denying Communion Over Abortion Is Last Resort"Denying Communion to a politician like Senator John F. Kerry, who supports legalized abortion, must be the last resort in a process to persuade the politician to uphold moral truths when voting," said the president of the U.S. Confere