Guilty NationRe “Prison Possibilities,” by Valerie Schultz (9/29): Ours is a crazy society. We believe that sending someone to prison for life will somehow restore justice in the world for a loved one whose life was cut short. At a rate of 716 people per 100,000, the United States incarc

Marriage JusticeRe “Remarriage, Mercy and Law,” by The Editors (9/22): As a Catholic happily living in a sacramental marriage, I deeply value the indissoluble nature of that union. But my limited experience of people who have divorced is that almost always the divorce was inevitable, or

False Mercy“The Message of Mercy” (9/15) brought out the nature of mercy very beautifully, but Cardinal Walter Kasper lost me at the conclusion. The church already tolerates “brother and sister” arrangements for the sake of re-admittance to the sacraments and allows the conti

Place of GraceRe “Grace on the Greyhound,” by James Martin, S.J. (9/1): I find it commendable that Father Martin decided to spend a few hours in solidarity with the poor by traveling by bus from Massachusetts to New York. I was a little disappointed, however, at where he decided to place

Racism in AmericaI am an African-American woman and life-long member of the Catholic Christian faith. Thank you so much for the dedicated issue, “Black and Catholic” (7/7).“Civil Rights Aftermath” (Vantage Point, 1964) ends with the statement “Let us get on” with

Not ExemptTaking the advice of Matt Malone, S.J., I read “side-by-side” the two essays on Israel/Palestine, “For Israel,” by John Conley, S.J., and “Gaza Again,” by Margot Patterson (8/4). Father Conley disappointed.My disappointment, bordering on intellectual sho

Rus’ and RussiaIn “The West Knows Best?” (5/19), Margot Patterson writes that in the 13th century “Russia’s western neighbors took advantage of her weakness to seize portions of Russia and the western half of Ukraine and to annex these to Western Christendom.” Thi

The Role of ConscienceEditor’s note: Lisa Fullam, an associate professor of moral theology at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, Calif., a graduate school of Santa Clara University, responds to “The Ethics of Exit,” by Daniel J. Daly (6/9). Her letter expresses concerns rai

Love and TruthThere is much to commend in “Simply Loving,” by James Martin, S.J. (5/26). There is no doubt that “loving the sinner, while hating the sin” is easier for God than for man. We imperfect and fallen humans tend to either love both or hate both. It is hard to get it