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Faith in Focus
Fasting? But That's So Mortifying!
While I was baking Christmas cookies in mid-December (oh, good, here’s another broken one!), my thoughts suddenly turned to Lent. Clearly I was en route to surpassing the average 1.4 pounds we Americans gain during the Christmas holiday season. So in a perverse sort of way, while munching my w
Kyrie and Kumbaya
As a liberal Catholic, I admire the progressive doctrine of Reform Judaism. Last summer, Reform Jews gave me something else to applaud. They have been open-minded enough to restore what they call the affective side of their religion: traditions like Hebrew chant. They now acknowledge that those gest
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
Call them keepsakes or mementos, most of us hold on to various objects as reminders of people we have cared about over the years—often friends who have died. I prefer “memento” because of its clearer relationship to the word “memory.” Coming across them from time to tim
Columns
Plain Talk
In his State of the Union address, President Bush launched another salvo in the war against terrorism, not to mention his war against clarity. He declared Iran, Iraq and North Korea to be an “axis of evil,” which all civilized nations must recognize and resolutely eradicate. Ever since 9
Social Policy After Sept. 11
I suspect that many Americans are, like me, torn between two conflicting desires. On the one hand, we yearn for nothing more than the opportunity to revert to our comfortable pre-Sept. 11 ways, even if some aspects of our culture and routines now seem a bit frivolous. On the other hand, we feel the
Letters
Letters

Moral Compass

Thanks for your editorial Enron and Morality (2/11). Teaching corporate finance, investment analysis and portfolio construction and management established that the model of wealth maximization is worthwhile and shares the attributes of all economic models. It is a great engine for discovery, and it is flawed because it abstracts from people in a humanistic sense. Students were often reminded of that absence as emphasis was placed on their integrity, grounded in rigorous honesty, not necessarily as codified by due diligence or full disclosure.

As trustees of a religious-sponsored retirement plan, we were mindful of two things: 1) our independence of the sponsoring corporation and 2) the need to be sensitive to the work of the employees whose money was in the plan. It would have been both facile and deleterious to separate investment policies and decisions from the hard-earned money of the janitorial staff, nurses, administrators and others. It was their dough over which we had a fiduciary responsibility. Although it was not explicitly stated, as I look back on it now, we saw 1) our fiduciary responsibility as grounded not just in civil law but primarily in the law of Christ and 2) that work is noble because of the nobility of the workerthat is, their work and their retirement plan were the continuation of God’s creation. Such was the moral compass.

Charles A. D’Ambrosio

Editorials
Afghanistan Part II
The Bush administration has waged an effective war in Afghanistan, and, for the most part, has waged it in a just manner. After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, we wrote that the terrorists should be brought to justice because of their crimes and because of the danger they pose to life in this country
The Catholic Church and Zambia's Elections
The people of Zambia voted on Dec. 27, 2001, in the election of a new president, members of Parliament and local councilors. Though the president gained only 29 percent of the vote and none of the 10 major parties gained a majority, the stage is set for a new direction in Zambian politics. Questions
Film
Coping: In the Bedroom
For the last several months images of heroism have filled the media. The immediate heroes, the firefighters, police and rescue workers, have gradually been supplanted by brave survivors, mourning the dead and living for the future. Their stories have helped us through the horror, especially in this
Parole Revisited
A sea change has overtaken parole in the course of the last three decades. Partly in response to ever-harsher public attitudes toward offenders, in state after state parole boards have either been eliminated or their powers with respect to prisoner-release decisions have been greatly reduced.Previou