For our July 20-27 issue the editors of America asked three writers to assess the modern diaconate. William T. Ditewig, who for five years directed the U.S. bishops' office on deacons, takes a look at the unique ministry of the deacon in
In his new encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth), Pope Benedict XVI makes a persuasive case that the current global financial crisis is about more than economics; it is also about ethics. As such, he provides us with a moral framework for moving forward as one human family
Just as the permanent diaconate is not only for celibates, neither is it a “married ministry,” though currently most deacons are married. Rather, the permanent diaconate is a major order of ecclesial ministry open to married and to unmarried men.
This is shaping up as the season of “kindness.” I’ll cite only three book examples. First, there is On Kindness, by Adam Phillips and Barbara Taylor (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $20 hardcover). Phillips is a psychoanalyst who has written 12 other books. Taylor has written acclaime
War can never be understood as a rational exercise, for sin is by definition irrational.