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Editorials
A Federal Execution
The execution of Timothy J. McVeigh, scheduled for the morning of May 16, will be the first federal execution in almost four decades. This fact alone should occasion some soul searching, because it underscores the fact that our government firmly maintains its commitment to capital punishment. We the
Identity Crisis
WARNING: In this essay I use the terms conservative and liberal that no one likes. I don’t like those labels! everyone says, implying (whether intentionally or not) that their own position is too complex and nuanced to be captured by something so simplistic as a one-word label. I use those lab
The WordFourth Sunday of Easter (C), May 6, 2001
Choose Life

“His kindness endures forever, and his faithfulness, to all generations (Ps. 100:5)

The Word Third Sunday of Easter (C), April 29, 2001
A Different Conclave

Simon, son of John, do you love me? (Jn. 21:17)

News
Responses to Coming Out'
Gerald Coleman is a nuanced thinker, a faithful churchman and a sensitive pastoral guide. His writing on sexuality is widely respected and justifiably influential in Catholic circles, especially among people involved in the church’s ministry with and for lesbian and gay persons and their famil
News
Signs of the Times
Catholic Health System, Union Set Expedited Election RulesCatholic Healthcare West and the Service Employees International Union have signed a landmark agreement on procedures and conduct for expedited union representation elections. The 15-page accord between the nation’s largest health care
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
Sometimes it seems that it takes a layperson to understand religious life. Recently I had the chance to read a superb new book entitled For the Love of God: The Faith and Future of the American Nun, written by, of all people, a senior writer at GQ magazine, who was raised with no religious training
Television
The Coolest Show on TV
Currently, the best show on television may not be The West Wing, E.R., Sex in the City or even The Sopranos, a series that The New York Times, in an uncharacteristic burst of critical hyperbole, called the most significant work of popular culture in the last 25 years. No, the most satisfying show on
When Poets Write Prose
It should come as no secret that most readers of America don’t read the poems that appear in its pages. In fact, according to the uplifting annual or semi-annual surveys America’s editor in chief sends me, even the ads get more attention than the poems I send him. But then people read Am
Letters
Letters

Reasonable Expectations

While I found Bernard M. Daly’s article The Coming Synod of Bishops (4/2) interesting and challenging, it occurred to me that the synod of bishops he describes is not that set forth in Canons 342-48 of the Code of Canon Law. It is important, I think, that the synod of bishops, a sort of new institute since the Second Vatican Council, be clearly described so that its true functions can be understood and reasonable expectations be entertained for its work.

It seems to me that Bernard Daly might perhaps miss the mark when he appears to describe the synod of bishops as a mini-council. That it clearly is not. And it should be noted that it is a synod only by analogy with the synod as that institute has existed in church law.

The synod of bishops is to promote the close relationship between the Roman Pontiff and the bishops. These bishops, by their counsel, assist the Roman Pontiff in the defense and development of faith and morals and of the preservation and strengthening of ecclesiastical discipline. They also consider questions concerning the mission of the church in the world (No. 342). The function of the synod of bishops is to discuss the matters proposed to it and set forth recommendations. (No. 343).

(Most Rev.) Thomas G. Doran