Pope John Paul II has surprised everyone by announcing an extraordinary consistory for May 21-24. This will be the sixth extraordinary consistory since John Paul resurrected this governmental structure in 1979. In an extraordinary consistory, the pope invites all of the cardinals (even those over 80

This has been a hard winter for New York City’s homeless population. In addition to low temperatures, a blizzard over New Year’s weekend was followed by three lesser but nonetheless harsh snow storms. As a commuter, I see homeless men and women early every morning, sometimes huddled asle

God would have saved the city of Sodom, we are told in Gen. 18:22-33, if Abraham had only been able to find 10 just people. With all the bad news pouring out of Israel these daysdaily Palestinian and Jewish body counts, rising hysteria on both sides and a hardening of attitudesone finds oneself desp

In mid-November, I took the bus down to Washington to sit in on the fall meeting of the U.S. bishops - partly because they were to vote on their pastoral statement regarding the need to re-vamp our draconian criminal justice system, an issue I follow for America. The meeting spanned four days, and o

Is there a vocation crisis? That depends on your perspective. If you think of clergy, the answer is yes. But if you widen the horizon, the picture changes. Think of the number of laymen volunteering to become deacons or the extraordinary number of women presently acquiring advanced degrees in system

It doesn’t take much to get me on the Staten Island ferrythat wondrous half-hour trip across the New York harbor to an island that is one of the city’s five boroughs. Usually, the occasion is a friend’s visit to New York City. Few are those who, looking back from the ferry midway,