Over the past few weeks I ve heard three stories about the recent papal visit that I ve found especially moving First The visit of Pope Benedict XVI with Cardinal Avery Dulles S J who has been ailing in a private meeting in Cardinal Egan s suite in St Joseph s Seminary Dunwoodi

There are some odd rules in the land of publishing For example if you blurb a book that is write a few sentences of praise for the back cover or for advertisements you can t review it Strange I know Or if you have some sort of professional connection to the author when you re r

The politics of abortion took an especially nasty and bizarre turn this past week when conservative Catholic writer and law professor Doug Kmiec revealed that he had recently been denied communion because of his public endorsement of Barack Obama s candidacy Thus as in 2004 some conservative

Cambridge MA One of the things that most attracts people to yoga I think is that it is wholesome challenging and able to bring a deep sense of well-being to body mind and spirit -- all without seeming to impose an alien worship on the practitioner Even in the ancient Indian traditions an

Back when it looked like Obama had the nomination in hand in February I nominated Sen Jim Webb as the best Veep choice After hearing from readers I also wrote about some other options including Virginia Governor Tim Kaine and General Anthony Zinni Since February Hillary Clinton s resilience

In the latest issue of The New Republic an article by Steven Pinker the Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard attacks the concept of human dignity one of the central ideas of Catholic social teaching indeed of contemporary Catholic moral theology His point seems to be that dignity