Martin Marty the church historian and trusted commentator on American religious life has recently spearheaded a three-year multi-pronged national conversation about religion and public life Under the sponsorship of the Pew Charitable Trust Marty rsquo s symposia focus groups and probes of this

What really got under my skin about Beverly Donofrio rsquo s Looking for Mary came toward the end Returned from Medjugorje to Los Angeles she has stocked up on rosaries she brought to one of the alleged apparitions so she can hand them out as souvenirs and good luck charms The souvenir part I g

This volume presents the lectures of a seminar held at Fordham University rsquo s Graduate School of Education in 1999 a year that spawned several events celebrating the centennial of the Ratio Studiorum the program of the Society of Jesus for all its schools in 72 countries over the course of fou

There it was, Baltimore’s huge gulag of a jail and prison complex covering two and a half city blocks. I was looking at it from the northeast corner of St. Ignatius Church, where I was to give a talk on prison ministry that Monday evening; the sight served as a useful if painful inward prepara

It seems as if every complicated moral issue sooner or later becomes a legal issue, at least in the United States. Consider, for example, the recent tobacco litigation. The moral question is whether tobacco companies should profit by selling such a dangerous product. This moral question immediately

The world of Catholic-Jewish relations is far, far better today than it was when I was growing up in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, where Jews were the overwhelming majority. Sure, as a youngster I had some Italian, Polish, Puerto Rican and Russian friends, but I didn’t know they w

Is there anything more central to our existence than hope? And when it is denied, is there anything more disheartening? There is a poignant moment in Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man when the nameless black narrator realizes he is bereft of hope: I am invisible, understand, simply because p

While the number of refugees who are residing in a foreign country dropped worldwide in the 1990’s, during the same period civil wars, government repression and other forms of social violence led to a dramatic increase in the number of persons displaced within their own countries. In Sudan alo

Bishops Join Death Penalty Moratorium Appeal to ClintonThe president of the U.S. bishops’ conference and the chairman of its Domestic Policy Committee are among 40 prominent Americans who have asked President Clinton to declare a moratorium on federal executions. The first execution since 1963