Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options

Most recent
Most relevant
Clear filter
Refracting the Light
They are married, single, divorced and of every nationality and ethnic group. Their ranks include professionals, laborers, students, military and immigrants. Some are straight, some gay, some are parents and some have disabilities. The common ground is that they are Catholic young adults, defined by
Books
Sep 22, 2003 issue
At the Heart of It
William Reiser
Luke Timothy Johnson professor of New Testament in the Candler School of Theology at Emory University has contributed the volumes on James and 1 and 2 Timothy in the Anchor Bible Commentaries and on Luke and Acts in the Sacra Pagina series He has also published The Real Jesus 1996 Religious Ex
Women's Spirituality In the Workplace
On a cold Monday evening just before last Christmas, 22 Chicago women gathered to discuss how they live out their spirituality in the workplace. The group, responding to an invitation from the Archdiocesan Women’s Commission, included white-collar and blue-collar workers of various ages and et
Food for Young Appetites
On the surface, the scene is not unusuala group of young men and women laughing and talking in an informal setting while munching snacks and sipping beer. Dig a little deeper, however, and you will find that a unique objective unites these individuals. A burning hunger, not for physical nourishment
Letters
Letters

Old and New

The Vatican Concordat With Hitler’s Reich (9/1), by Robert A. Krieg, confirms what had to be the case in history. It has always seemed intuitive to me that the Catholic Church must have made a pact with the devil in order to survive Hitler’s grasp.

It was the conclusion of the article that surprised me.

Mr. Krieg’s conclusion asserted that Vatican II redirected a church that was concerned only with the preservation of its political structure without regard to preservation of human dignity and life. The hundreds of victims of sexual abuse might disagree.

In light of the recent revelations regarding the sexual abuse scandals and the tenacious denials by church officials for the first year or two of discovery, how can anyone say the church has changed from 1933? The poster child for the church, Cardinal Bernard F. Law, went to Rome and was not summarily dismissed by the pope in a public statement. How long did it take Cardinal Law to resign? If this wasn’t old church politics, what is?

Most bishops and higher officials knew of such indiscretions for decades, but they chose to look the other way. At the very least it was, Don’t ask, don’t tell. They chose to conceal the perpetrators within the church political structure. This was placing the interest of the institution ahead of the victims of abuse.

The new rules and regulations are in place to make sure perpetrators of sexual abuse do not go undetected and unpunished. Those who look the other way, the rule-makers i.e., bishops and cardinalscontinue to remain outside of the new rules.

Mark D’Agostino

News
Signs of the Times
Jerusalem’s Christian Churches Denounce Israeli-Built WallThe Israeli-built wall separating Israel and the Palestinian territories constitutes a grave obstacle to peace in the Middle East, said the heads of Christian churches in Jerusalem. For both nations, the wall will result in a feeling of
Columns
The Bitter and the Sweet
With each passing year, I think more fondly of a not-so-distant time in my life: my last child was a toddler, and my three older children attended the elementary school where my husband taught sixth grade. We had just built a house in the mountains, and our nation of six was secure and thriving. I w
An Empire in the Name of Peace
With formal hostilities ended in Iraq, it is time to take up again the hard questions posed by the U.S. war on terror. The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, may not have “changed everything,” as the overheated rhetoric of the day had it, but the experi
Haitian Refugees, Sovereignty and Globalization
On Oct. 29, 2002, 200 Haitians jumped off their grounded boat near Miami and floundered ashore, seeking a level of economic security that has been historically available only to a tiny minority of the population in their home country. These refugees were soon deported from the United States, as have
Columns
Catholic Book Club
Books line one whole wall of my office at America. Over 1,000 of them, on eight rows of gray metal shelves that stretch from one end of the room to the other. No, these are not my own books, which are few, but the collection of the Catholic Book Club, a longtime adjunct operation of the magazine. Th