Eamon Duffy president of Magdalene College Cambridge and Reader in Church History at the university is widely known for his award-winning book The Stripping of the Altars 1992 in which he portrayed the pre-Reformation Catholic piety of the English laity and their resistance to the deliberate

Israeli Cabinet Votes to Halt Construction of Nazareth MosqueThe Israeli Security Cabinet voted 4 to 1 in favor of halting construction on a mosque adjacent to the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth [see Am., 2/12/01]. Meeting on Jan. 9, the cabinet instructed one of its members, Natan Sharans

Now that your Christmas gifts are stored away (or returned), the Christmas tree ornaments are tucked away (or broken), and the Christmas tree needles are successfully vacuumed from your carpet (or not—in my family we’re still discovering in our shag, recreation-room carpet the needles fr

The first lines of the famous poem by John Donne seemed to haunt me as I read the final testaments—one of them even recorded on voice mail—of men about to die at the World Trade Center or in the skies above New York and Pennsylvania.The professions of love for spouse and family felt not

I boarded an airplane for the first time in my life in 1965. I left Dublin, where I had studied for three years, and flew to Chicago. From there I went by train to Iowa, where I was to do graduate studies. Like many Irish people, I was treading a well-worn path. Not far away, in Illinois, there live

She stuck her head into the van as soon as the door opened. She had dimples and a gap-toothed grin announcing 7-year-old status, recognizable in any culture. She engaged him in conversation and he laughed heartily. What did she say?, some of us asked. She said, Give me some money. You have the face

Goals and outcomes are two favorite words of managers and planners, right up there with projections, delivery dates and customer satisfaction. Planners try to envision the transformation of a market, a policy, a school, that may flow from their ideas and activity. Similarly, but perhaps more certain

Spend one afternoon at Gusco camp, and I promise you it will be impossible ever again to take for granted the joys of your childhood. Gusco (Gulu United to Save the Children Organization) is a nongovernmental organization whose camp in northern Uganda is home today for about 50 formerly abducted chi

LifebloodThanks to Ronald Landfair for a thoughtful article about observing Martin Luther King Jr. Day by visiting a blood bank and contributing that most valuable of commodities: one’s lifeblood (12/24/01). His thoughts may well contribute to like action.Anna M. SeidlerSan Francisco, Calif.It