Suffer the Children
There is growing public pressure to charge, try, convict and sentence juvenile offenders in adult criminal courts. This is a misguided and simplistic approach to a complex problem. Proven constructive alternatives exist that can be implemented if the public and its leaders are committed to real refo
Women Set Free
Leaving prison and re-entering the community pose difficulties for both men and women. Women, however, tend to face even more daunting barriers than their male counterparts in making the difficult transition back to freedom. The barriers, moreover, have been raised several notches over the past few
More Priestly Fraternity
It is odd to observe twenty-somethings trying to act like fifty-somethings. Yet such behavior is found among a small percentage of seminarians today, who gather to drink good scotch, smoke cigars and discuss liturgy (or, more often, liturgical abuses). Cassocks and French cuffs are preferred. A casu
Responding to the Terrorist Attacks
Many in the religious community, including the Catholic community, have called attention to two dimensions of the background for the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11: the economic and the political. Their voices need to be listened to carefully if we are to avoid misguided responses to those tragic eve
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
It’s almost a matter of pride among today’s journalists to show contempt for theology. When The Times’s Thomas Friedman wants to ridicule some proposal as ideological, captious or absurd, he refers to it as driven by “theology.” In contrast, cultural critics like Louis
Letters
Letters
Passionate LanguageThank you for the Oct. 1 issue. I was particularly touched by the essays by Patricia Kossmann and James Martin, S.J., and I thought your editorial was persuasive. Under a variety of Catholic insights on prayer, the Eucharist and goodness itself, America provides some significant
Editorials
Reauthorizing Welfare Reform
The welfare reform law of 1996 comes up for reauthorization by Congress a year from now. When enacted, it represented an end to the three-decades-old entitlement to public assistance for poor Americans, who have subsequently been pushed toward work in the expectation that they would become self-suff
Faith in Focus
A Theology of Grandparenting
We’ve had two new grandchildren born in the space of a month. Round, rosy bundles of health, they are welcome additions to our growing family. We are blessed and humbled by the gift of their little lives. Initially, the grandma gig was a frightening possibility, not unlike parenting the first
Books
Crime and Punishment
The trial of Slobodan Milosevic dramatizes the new worldwide demand for accountability for public officials who violate internationally recognized human rights That demand is behind the international court and may soon be ratified by enough votes to make it operational worldwide These momentous ev
Our Longing for God
Dorothee Soelle is well known for her seminal book on suffering Entitled simply Suffering it provoked much-needed discussion on the relation of theology to suffering In the winter years of a long career as a theologian as an activist in peace and ecological movements as an opponent of every for
Let’s Look at the Record’
Empire Statesman begins appropriately enough by evoking the 1928 September night when a flaming cross greeted Alfred E Smith then governor of New York as his presidential campaign train entered Oklahoma When Smith is remembered today if at all it is for the virulent nativist outburst encount
The Word
Beacons of Hope
This year a special poignancy attends our annual celebration of the communion of the saints as we recall the saints triumphant and mourn loved ones who have died Wave after wave of images of death destruction and seemingly unending rituals of funerals and memorial services wash over our conscious
Trial by Prayer
Today rsquo s Gospel concludes a diptych on prayer begun last Sunday in the familiar Lukan pattern that juxtaposes a story in which a woman is a central character with another that has a male protagonist It also provides a bridge to next Sunday when another tax collector is praised The beginning o
Columns
A National Near-Death Experience
What matters most?” is a question for perpetual reflection and revision—unless, of course, one is facing imminent death. “Who am I?” and “Where am I headed?”—questions I posed philosophically in this space just two months ago—suddenly have a ring of pr
Faith
The Quest for Authentic Liturgy
To draft principles and norms of translation for the nearly 800 vernacular languages of the Catholic world is a formidable taska task that should involve the broadest consultation of episcopal conferences as well as liturgical and biblical scholars. The Authentic Liturgy (Liturgiam Authenticam), a 3
News
Signs of the Times
Cardinals Give Measured Support to Retaliatory AttacksAmerican cardinals, speaking separately, have given measured support for the retaliatory strikes launched by American and British forces against military targets and suspected terrorist camps in Afghanistan. This is a just war, declared Cardinal
Politics
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Culture
Vatican
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Podcasts