Over a year in planning our centennial issue is now finished and in the mail Kudos to production editor Stephanie Radcliffe for doing much of the heaving lifting If you re a subscriber and eager to see the final product you can download all 92 pages by simply clicking on the cover image on

Yes this may be an off-week for the print edition of America magazine but that hardly means we ve taken a week off We are busily preparing our 92 page centennial issue featuring articles by Timothy Radcliffe Helen Prejean and Elizabeth Johnson among others Look for it online next Friday

Father Jim Martin has kindly shared his homily for this Sunday with the readers of The Good Word Enjoy Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies it remains just a grain of wheat but if it dies it produces much fruit nbsp John 12 20-33 Now what does that mean exactly nbsp W

The British online journal Thinking Faith has published a provocative article by the Jesuit Michael Czerny defending the pope s criticism of condom use in the fight against AIDS Here are the key paragraphs On the second issue of a strategy for whole populations there is widespread belief that c

Father Jim s latest collaboration with Loyola Productions is now up on Youtube Check it out below

For those who missed it last week we published three online articles looking at Catholic political activity under a new president In A Change in Tone Thomas A Shannon looks back at the fairly harsh and strident rhetoric employed by some U S bishops prior to the November election and calls

In honor of tomorrow s feast celebrating Our Lady of Lourdes Loyola Productions has kindly sent along this clip from their new video Who Cares About the Saints featuring our own Father Jim Martin talking about Saint Bernadette Subirous

The New York church lost another distinguished priest this weekend Just over a month after the death of Avery Cardinal Dulles and two weeks after the passing Richard John Neuhaus Msgr William B Smith died after a short hospitalization Msgr Smith was a longtime professor of moral theology at S

Both Archbishop Jean Jadot and Cardinal Pio Laghi died this month Jadot served as an apostolic delegate to the United States under Paul VI and Laghi was nuncio under John Paul II In 1990 Father Tom Reese offered this helpful comparison of the two men and the legacy of the bishops that were appoi

In the last installment of our Advent and Christmas video series Fr Jim Martin reflects on the Feast of the Three Kings Tim Reidy