The Immigration President?
President Bush’s 2004 immigration proposal seems on first reading to be both enlightened and in keeping with his policy of homeland security. The proposal, which would provide illegal workers certain rights and enable them to shed their illegal status and be counted as documented workers, is b
Feeling the Pain
The first step in teaching moral values to young journalists is to get them to feel pain—not their pain, the pain of others. From that, other virtues—compassion, skepticism, courage and the like—might follow. But virtue is getting harder to teach. Last spring two news stories force
Standing With Pregnant Students
If a student at a Catholic college becomes pregnant, what kind of support, if any, can she expect the college to give her to help her carry her pregnancy to term? Not much, many observers would suppose. Students at Catholic colleges, particularly those that have a residential regulation that prohibi
America’ in the College Classroom
In our electronic, computerized, digital world, it was refreshing for me recently to discover once again the power of the printed word, specifically the words printed in a magazine like the one you are holding in your hands or are reading on America’s Web site.I teach at John Carroll, the Jesu
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. "It is a beautiful honor to die for one’s country.” In this famous line, the Roman poet Horace gave lasting expression to an ideal of republican virtue inherited from an age when citizen soldiers defended their homeland against its enemies. Even
Letters
Letters
Satisfactory Return
I read Michael McGreevy’s letter (5/3) about the editorial Trading Jobs (4/5), and I think the mind-set expressed by Mr. McGreevy is outrageous. It is, however, typical of investment bankers and lawyers.
Those of us who manage a business in manufacturing, as well as our friends who manage a service business that renders a genuine…
Editorials
Catholics and Politics 2004
The presidential campaign of 2004 promises to be the most expensive in U.S. history. Unfortunately, and not by accident, the most expensive presidential campaign in history also threatens to be the least enlightened. The enormous sums available to campaign organizations are for the most part investe
Faith in Focus
The Jesuits Are Too Liberal
The other evening, I was canvassing classmates for donations to the annual fund for the Jesuit high school I attended. A classmate I called said he would not make a contribution because he felt the Jesuits were too liberal. Whenever I hear something like that, I have a tendency to back off. We gradu
Catholics love to discuss doctrine and the church. Why are they shy about Jesus?
Catholic students are quick to talk about their experience of church—but what about their experience of Christ?
Books
The Pope’s Light Cavalry
This book as its subtitle indicates is a history of the Jesuits from their origins up to the present day It is well researched broadly learned sophisticated fast-paced sympathetic yet critical somewhat impressionistic in approach and sometimes breezy in style I recommend it Jonathan Wright
Big Apple: Hold the Caramel
Journalism can be a difficult and tricky trade for those whose heads are on straight and whose hearts are in the right places It is hard to get past the people those looking for decent housing the immigrants who seem to hold so much of the rest of this country up on their brave and…
Hellish Lives
A former Algerian army officer named Mohamed Moulessehoul writing under the pseudonym Yasmina Khadra paints a graphic picture of Afghanistan and Kabul under Taliban rule that is as troubling as it is unforgettable His evocative prose describes a once proud city brought to its knees by Islamic fund
The Word
Look What Blew Into Town
The blowing wind is a mysterious phenomenon It cannot be seen but its effects are constantly around us In the summer it can be a cooling touch on the skin while in the winter it can slap one hard in the face It carries the seeds that will eventually germinate into new forms of life…
I Believe in God
Legend tells us that St Patrick used the three-leafed shamrock to teach about the three persons in one God It is an ingenious pedagogical device very neat and understandable But it does little to explain the mystery we call God While the readings for today do not really describe the divine esse
Faith
Catholics love to discuss doctrine and the church. Why are they shy about Jesus?
Catholic students are quick to talk about their experience of church—but what about their experience of Christ?
News
Signs of the Times
Judge Says Bishops Manipulated Review BoardThe head of the U.S. Catholic bishops’ National Review Board on sexual abuse by members of the Catholic clergy said on May 11 that a letter she wrote to the head of the bishops’ conference on March 29 prompted the U.S. bishops to decide they wil
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