NEGOTIATING WITH IRAN The meeting of the U.S. ambassador to Iraq with the Iranian ambassador to Iraq in Baghdad on May 28, under the auspices of the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, was an encouraging step in the direction urged by the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group. The meetings agenda

As Hispanics in the United States increase in number, they will likely exert more influence on the nation as a whole, and especially on the U.S. Catholic Church. For while Hispanics make up 14.2 percent of the populace, they make up more than a third of its Catholics, a percentage expected to increa

ISLAMIC REFORM Skeptics often ask whether Muslims are capable of democratic self-government. Most often the implied supposition is that they could not possibly be. But two current political struggles suggest that Muslims, like any people, are capable of standing up for democracy. Pakistan has been r

Raids by federal agents on five Swift meatpacking plants last December around the country, as well as raids in New Bedford, Mass., in March, called public attention to the fear haunting the lives of undocumented immigrants. As the raids demonstrated, fear of family breakup runs high among the undocumented, with the specter of breadwinners deported and U.S. citizen children left behind in the United States.

Big Deal for Big PharmaBy a vote of 49 to 40, the Senate approved an amendment that effectively excludes U.S. citizens from importing prescription drugs from abroad. The amendment requires prior F.D.A. certification of imported medicines, certification the administration says the agency is not equip

Memorial Day dates to 1868 and General John Logan, commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, who called for a day to honor fallen Union and Confederate soldiers. As on that occasion, this Memorial Day we pause to give thanks, grieve and consider the sacrifices that American soldiers have made for this country.

After President George W. Bush vetoed a spending bill for the Iraq war that included a timetable for withdrawal, he and the Democratic leaders in Congress declared a desire to find common ground to support U.S. forces in Iraq. Such common ground will include recognition of serious mistakes in the postwar strategy.

Atheism and the TheologiansWhen Michael Buckley, S.J., presented a copy of his book At the Origins of Modern Atheism to the late Pope John Paul II, the pontiff asked, And who was at the origins of modern atheism? Without hesitation, Father Buckley volunteered, the theologians. His study is an award-

Adult Believers Over the years “not confusing the faithful” has become an all-purpose bromide for checking theological speculation and reducing the role of theology in the church to elementary catechesis. This policy frequently harmed the authority of the church among educated Catholics

The massacre at Virginia Tech drew shocked comment not only in the United States, but from the media in other countries as well. Canada’s Globe and Mail, for example, noted that even as deadly a massacre as the one at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., in 1999 failed to bring about a n