Troubled StarsRe “Mother and Sister Earth” (Editorial, 7/6): A Sufi teaching instructs: “To pluck a flower is to trouble a star.” Pope Francis’ encyclical, “Laudato Si’,” presents a very comprehensive view of the human impact on earth’s community

Wage TradeoffIn “L.A. Wage Wars” (Current Comment, 6/22), the editors write, “The argument for exempting union workers, however, is a bit more cynical.” The pressures being faced by Homeboy Industries are not isolated. The Congressional Budget Office report issued when Presid

Nothing NewI found “The Gospel According to the ‘Nones,’” by Elizabeth Drescher (6/8), rather disappointing. The author drew broad generalizations about the alleged “Good Samaritan” spirituality of nones as opposed to the more restrictive “Golden Rule”

Deepening DialogueI welcome the suggestion in “Coping With Polarity” (Editorial, 5/25) that “after naming the wounds, we can begin to heal by toning down fiery words and divisive stances, by admitting differences with our friends and colleagues without alienating them or blaming th

S.J.’s and Ph.D.’sRe “Company Men,” by William J. Byron, S.J. (5/11): The fact is, the best way for a Catholic to be guaranteed a tenure-track university position is to become a member of a religious order and to get a Ph.D. Jesuit schools are drooling all over themselves to

An Archbishop RespondsI write to express my strong disagreement with the article “Confirmation Bias,” by Michael A. Marchal (4/27). I believe that the best time for confirmation in our time and in our country is in the high school years. I understand that some want the traditional sequen

Religious Freedom FactsRe “Bridging Our Divisions” (Editorial, 4/27): It is indeed unfortunate, but not unpredictable, that “religious liberty has become a partisan issue.” The legal adage quoted by Justice Ginsburg in her dissent to the Hobby Lobby case, “Your right to

F.D.R.’s LegacyIn “The Taxman Cometh” (4/13), Joseph Dunn writes that President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “massive experiment with redistribution failed to work as planned.” On the contrary, F.D.R.’s experiment exceeded expectations. Beginning in 1933, nearly

Editor’s Note: In “Why Go to Mass?” (4/13), Mary Ann Walsh, R.S.M., wrote, “To evoke lively conversations, ask why so many Catholics no longer go to Mass.” We did that, and because of the volume of responses, this week’s Reply All is dedicated to that topic.Listen

A Royal PriesthoodThe editors suggest all good things in “A Space for Women” (3/30), and I especially concur with Gudrun Sailer that the solution is not merely replicating secular structures. The problem of women’s roles in the church is a problem of an inadequate theology of