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December 22-29, 2014

Vol. 211 / No. 19

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Pre-K student Patrick Meade plays with a pinwheel April 9 as students of St. Thecla School in Chicago mark National Child Abuse Prevention Month.
Current Comment
The EditorsDecember 11, 2014

New law provides additional oversight and training for federal child care program.

Philosopher's Notebook
John J. Conley, S.J.December 11, 2014

The recent Synod on the Family had its surface controversies: the admission of the divorced and remarried to the sacraments and the pastoral care of homosexuals. It also had its background theoretical controversies. The Vatican’s Humanum conference in November probed one of them: the complemen

FALSE SECURITY. Ballistic missiles at a Russian parade.
Signs Of the Times
Kevin ClarkeDecember 11, 2014

The Catholic Church seemed to throw its support behind what is, in Europe at least, an accelerating movement toward the abolition of nuclear weapons during the first day, Dec. 8, of the Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons.In a message to the conference participants from P

Pope Francis joins other faith leaders at ceremony in observance of U.N. Day for the Abolition of Slavery.
Signs Of the Times

History was made in the Vatican on Dec. 2, when Pope Francis and other leaders of the world’s main religions—Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism—signed a joint declaration to work together to eradicate modern slavery in its various forms by the year 2020. Pope Franc

Protester faces line of police during Los Angeles demonstration following Missouri grand jury decision on shooting of black teen.
Signs Of the Times
Judith ValenteDecember 11, 2014

The shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., exposed long-ignored, long-simmering tensions in the United States. Ferguson amounts to a kind of national Rorschach test on race. Polls show blacks and whites hold decidedly different views about the unarmed teenager’s death.

Signs Of the Times

Catholic, Anglican, Sunni and Shiite leaders vowed to do all they can to combat “ugly and hideous” distortions of religion and to involve more women—often the first victims of violence—in official interreligious dialogues. Holding the third Christian-Muslim Summit in Rome on

Pope Francis, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople deliver blessing in Istanbul.
Signs Of the Times

In Istanbul on Nov. 30, Pope Francis stated unequivocally that “full communion” was his goal with the 300-million-member Orthodox churches. He added that the only condition for achieving that unity is “the shared profession of faith.” Significantly, seeking to overcome suspic