Magazine

Authors love to write their memoirs of the 1950 rsquo s when they came of age and were apt to have a copy of The Catcher in the Rye in their jacket pocket I started out in this way myself as an English major at Columbia College The atmosphere in the English department in Hamilton Hall reflected t

Who has not heard or even sung the ditty ldquo This little light of mine I rsquo m gonna let it shine rdquo Children learn it and sing it with delight As simple as the words may be and as airy the melody the message is profound In fact it can be fully understood only by adults for it is a

Ash Wednesday launches us into the season of Lent The themes of the day are quite sobering The ashes placed on our foreheads are meant to call to mind the inevitability of death as one of the accompanying prayers reminds us ldquo You are dust and to dust you shall return rdquo Ash Wednesday

The scandal of torture and abuse symbolized by Abu Ghraib took a turn for the better at the end of last year with news of a Justice Department draft memorandum reaffirming the responsibilities of the United States under the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture. After a succession of

Vatican May Reopen Old Abuse ComplaintsA previously dormant case against Marcial Maciel Degollado, L.C., founder of the Legionaries of Christ, could be reopened at the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a Vatican lawyer said in a letter to three former members of the Legionaries who

A great weight was settling on me during Christmas week. There were deaths among friends, Jesuit brothers and family, but the most haunting face of death came with an ocean of destruction called the tsunami. In a matter of hours, it killed over 150,000 people, most of them children. At noon on Jan.

Now that the turbulence surrounding the 2004 presidential election has abated, it is critical to revisit a question that deeply divided both the Catholic bishops and the Catholic laity during the heated months of summer: Should Catholic public officials who endorse the continued legalization of abor