For four years now many Catholics have been waiting for a new social encyclical When would the pope treat globalization Do a thorough treatment of environmental ethics Comment on the global economic crisis Come to the defense of labor Speculation peaked two years on the 40th anniversary of Pop

Pope Benedict XVI rsquo s new encyclical quot Caritas in Veritate quot is likely to be this Pontiff rsquo s most significant contribution to the Church rsquo s social doctrine It is telling that he chose to organize his thoughts around the anniversary of Paul VI rsquo s quot Populorum Progressio

On Friday night my wife and I went to see the new and enthusiastically reviewed quot Hair quot on Broadway Though I was born in 1969 and had regular exposure to quot Jesus Christ Superstar quot and quot Godspell quot in the 1970s I had never heard nor seen all of quot Hair quot My wif

ldquo Tell me what you eat rdquo the French gastronomist Anthelme Brillat-Savarin famously quipped ldquo and I will tell you what you are rdquo By that standard Americans might be said to be as corny as Kansas Corn represents the central staple of American agribusiness American cattle fatt

I hate to say quot I told you so quot but I did And the truth be told in this instance I do not hate telling you that I was prescient when I predicted the upcoming visit of President Obama to Pope Benedict would occasion gnashing of teeth within the conservative blogosphere What has been esp

Time magazine rsquo s Richard Wolffe author of the new biography of Barack Obama Renegade in an interview last week with Charlie Rose described the president as a self-made man With respect to his religion in particular Wolffe noted Mr Obma is the son and step-son of a Muslim and a hippie