Newly discovered correspondence suggests that World War II-era Pope Pius XII had detailed information from a trusted German Jesuit that up to 6,000 Jews and Poles were being gassed each day in German-occupied Poland.
History
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
The devastation and dishonesty of the ‘wonder drug,’ thalidomide
It was touted as a sedative with no hangover. It was hailed as non-addictive. It was rumored to present no side effects. It was trumpeted in medical journal ads as “astonishingly safe” and “completely non-poisonous.”
Posted inFaith, News
The Vatican beatifies a Polish family of 9 killed by the Nazis for sheltering Jews
The Ulma beatification poses several new theological concepts about the Catholic Church’s ideas of saints and martyrs that have implications for the anti-abortion movement because of the baby in the mother’s womb.
Posted inArts & Culture, Short Take
A Jesuit football rivalry renewed: Boston College and Holy Cross meet for first time in 5 years
Boston College and Holy Cross have battled it out on the gridiron 83 times. Tomorrow’s matchup should add another chapter to this storied (and only recently renewed) rivalry.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Catholic orders in Rome sheltered more than 3,000 Jews during Holocaust, rediscovered document shows
A key document listing the names of 3,600 people who were allegedly sheltered by Catholic religious orders in Rome during the Nazis’ occupation of the city has been rediscovered, after having been considered lost.
Posted inArts & Culture, Short Take
Notre Dame football plays in Ireland: A chance for unity for a divided campus (and country)
When Notre Dame meets Navy in a football game in Dublin tomorrow, it will give us all a chance to remember that old Irish adage: “There is no strength without unity.”
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Biography opens new windows into the life of MLK
Jonathan Eig’s new biography, ‘King: A Life,’ is the first major biography of Martin Luther King Jr. in decades and will take its place among the foremost of the many treatments of King.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
The wit and wisdom of John Tracy Ellis
Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan reviews Msgr. Thomas Shelley’s ‘John Tracy Ellis: An American Catholic Reformer,’ calling it “a well-documented yet very readable biography of the ‘dean’ of American Catholic history.”
Posted inFaith, Faith and Reason
Teilhard de Chardin, racism and eugenics: An exchange
Was Teilhard de Chardin a promoter of eugenics? Two scholars debate the question.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
The America editor who ruined nuclear fallout shelters forever
Why don’t we have fallout shelters anymore? It’s a long story, but an editor at America had something to do with it.