Our neighborhood on the west side of San Antonio was an impenetrable Tex-Mex barrioisolated by culture, religion, language and educationuntil Old Doc Stein came along. He was a feisty, stocky man with dark, compassionate eyes, thick lips, wiry white hair, and he spoke massacred Spanish. Ambling into

Beliefs and DialogueI read with interest and appreciation the article by Patrick J. Ryan, S.J., The Roots of Muslim Anger (11/26). As a Catholic Christian Arab with a fair knowledge of Islam, I appreciate the scholarship Father Ryan devoted to this article. While I believe all his points are valid,

A single tree grows on a wilderness hillside in Northern California. Its name is presidio manzanita. Its world population is one. When I stood before a photograph of this tree in an exhibit of endangered species recently, I felt its enormous fragility. Should it die without reproducing itself, presi

Since Sept. 11 not a day has passed without reminders of the tragedy being thrust before us. Grief, loss and mourning remain part of our national consciousness, like a dull ache that sometimes becomes acute. Advent, Christmas and the coming of a new year, the first without lost loved ones, will be a

Hope is stronger than violence, and I believe that the mystery of God is present in our efforts to work together for peace and economic development, said Francisco Pacho de Roux in October, on receiving an award from the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights in New York City. His words arose fro

Doctrinal Congregation Takes Over Priestly Pedophilia CasesUsing a new set of norms, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has taken juridical control over cases of sexual abuse of minors by priests, classifying it as one of several graver offenses against church law. The move represents a

It began innocently enough An anxious evangelical graduate student trying to reconcile Christian humility with intellectual pride through the study of C S Lewis A kindly professor devising an independent reading course which turned into a seminar then a large class finally a slender book Wesl

Whether one agrees with the specific conclusions of the author or not one has to admit that the book delivers on the promise of its subtitle In readable dispassionate language which is itself highly unusual for a book on this topic the author takes the reader through the major issues of the c

The world has changed forever. This now familiar mantra rang truest for me in the wake of the first allied retaliatory strike in Afghanistan. I knew it was coming; I just did not know what the it would be. Speaking before the press corps in the wounded Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfe