Last night rsquo s spirited Vice-Presidential debate was billed in some quarters as a ldquo Catholic smackdown rdquo The debate moderator Martha Raddatz made specific note of that reality when she called the debate ldquo historic rdquo nbsp as it was the first time that both candidates fo

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council nbsp Here is Pope John XXIII s momentous Opening Speech nbsp Opening Address Today Venerable Brethren is a day of joy for Mother Church through God s most kindly providence the longed-for day has dawned for the sole

Here s a quiz nbsp Who said this nbsp Disturbing factors are frequently present in the form of the frightful disparities nbsp between excessively rich individuals and groups on the one hand and on the other hand nbsp the majority nbsp made up of the poor or indeed of nbsp the destitute who la

Today is the final day of the editorship of Drew Christiansen SJ And nbsp we would be very remiss if nbsp we did not offer a word--several words--of gratitude for Drew rsquo s generous leadership of our magazine in the last seven years Drew Christiansen took over as editor in chief nbsp after the

At nbsp an academic conference in Rome on Tuesday Karen L King a church historian at Harvard Divinity School presented a finding that according to some reports threatened to overturn what we know about Jesus as well as the tradition of priestly celibacy She identified a small fragment of fou

If you were in the Bronx last night that rumbling sound you heard was not an earthquake or even an especially loud subway car rolling past it was the sound of 3 000 Fordham students faculty Jesuits and guests cheering for Timothy Cardinal Dolan the archbishop of New York and Stephen Colbert

To mark this week s nbsp release of the nbsp paperback edition of Between Heaven and Mirth I was asked by nbsp HarperOneVideo nbsp to film nbsp Forty Days of Funny a series of 40 jokes over the space of 40 days to remind nbsp readers and viewers nbsp that laughter is a gift from God humor is

The Cristo Rey model of schools begun in the Pilsen area of Chicago by John Foley SJ is one of the great ideas of the Jesuits in this country in the last 25 years nbsp Essentially high-school students from poorer backgrounds work to help defray the cost of their tuition and at the same time g

I rsquo m nbsp happy that my friend Thomas J Fitzpatrick S J who told me this nbsp wonderful story a few years ago about the late Cardinal Carlo Martini S J has allowed me to share it with you nbsp It rsquo s edited only slightly from what he sent me today nbsp It s funny provocative and

Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini SJ A great Jesuit nbsp a renowned Biblical scholar a former archbishop of Milan a widely read spiritual master a popular retreat master and a one-time possible pope has died at age 85 nbsp nbsp Cardinal Martini had been battling Parkinson s disease for many yea