As I begin my seventh year of cell-to-cell ministry on Florida’s death row, it is not surprising that I am frequently asked to speak to Catholic audiences on the realities of the American death penalty. Most invitations are from Catholics who are sincerely interested in the truth, but who know
When I got married at the relatively advanced age of 42, I wore my mother’s satin wedding dress from 1946, as my three sisters had done. I also carried her prayer book, wore borrowed pearls and tossed the bouquet. Since my father had died years before, my two brothers accompanied me down the a
Have you seen any angels lately? A whole crowd of people sighted one recently in Texas. I got the news in an urgent e-mail from my niece just a few days ago. “Uncle Bob,” she wrote, “we need your prayers. My daughter Jacquelyn and five of her friends were in a terrible accident las
I am cutting circles out of bright orange construction paper and turning them into jack-o’-lanterns. As the pile of scraps grows higher, I find myself thoroughly enjoying the unusual challenge of using magic markers to make scary-looking teeth. A few months ago, I volunteered to take over bull
Society Owes Them
In Adults Left Behind (10/11), William J. Byron, S.J., observes that adults now unable to read were perhaps failed by their schools when they were children, and points out that society owes them something now. Many of those who could not read in school then dropped out
Gregory Lee Johnson turned up in Dallas, Tex., for the Republican National Convention in 1984. To show his contempt for the policies of the Reagan administration, Mr. Johnson burned an American flag, while other demonstrators shouted approval. A Texas criminal court convicted Mr. Johnson of flag des
In his textbook of moral theology, Henry Davis, an English Jesuit theologian, wrote that of all the principles of moral theology, the principle of material cooperation is the most difficult to apply. The principle is used to analyze the contribution one makes or the assistance one gives to the wrong