I like to tell folks that I have a little black nun inside of me. She’s my muse, my spiritual guru, my inspiration. She’s a patron saint who leads me and guides me when I call on her to lend me a hand. She’s the late Sister Thea Bowman (1937-90). Now I never met Thea in the flesh,

Cardinal Says Boff’s Ideas Still Alive 15 Years After SilencingFifteen years after the Vatican silenced a Brazilian theologian for holding that the one true church can exist outside the Catholic Church, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said the idea continues to circulate. The cardinal, who is prefec

Chorus of WhinersFirst, it’s the American theologians who are whining over Ex Corde Ecclesiae. Now it’s the turn of the liturgical translators to whine over the intervention of the Congregation for Divine Worship. I’m tired of all this whining against the Vatican, which has become

During the last tense years of South Africa rsquo s apartheid regime the University of Notre Dame awarded a number of fellowships to members of the South African clergy to study at the university During their stay they boarded at Moreau Seminary and the halls rang with their laughter Their laug

The Reform of the Papacy is an important book one certain to be controversial within and without the Roman Catholic Church above all controversial within the episcopacy in the United States and abroad To recognize its importance and likely impact requires but a brief consideration of the topic an

The fanfare with which Amtrak announced its new train, called Acela (Speed and Excellence), was somewhat diminished by delays in the start of service. Designed to ply the routes along the Northeast corridor, the $2-billion, 150-m.p.h. train system was scheduled to start late last year. Now, maybe it

In what may signal a crack in the wall of support for the death penalty, a number of states have begun to question whether it can ever be fairly applied. Illinois provides the most dramatic example. Since 1977, 13 men have been released from its death row. One, Anthony Porter, came within two days o

I’ve seen two movies in recent days that I can’t shake. Both are late-1960’s films about a stranger in a hostile and unfamiliar place who, through an unlikely relationship, discovers unknown darkness and lightin himself and in others. My emotional response to each movie was contrad

During the last three days of January, after an 18-month exploration of the topic, The Kansas City Star published a series of articles on cases of AIDS among Catholic priests. Propelled by the assertion that "priests are dying of AIDS at a rate at least four times that of the general U.S. popul