Often people ask, Why do you pray? In all honesty, at one time I prayed because I was a Jesuit. In other words, my answer was, I’m supposed to pray. Prayer was an obligation and, to be frank, a burden. At times I have prayed in order to placate Godto get God off my back, as it were. Many times
More than 80 years ago, the British historian Lytton Strachey (1880-1932) made a name for himself by writing short biographies that debunked their subjects, but did so with elegance and wit. He combined the style of a minor Evelyn Waugh with the slant of a demolition expert like Robert Caro, whose s
For the first time in the nation’s various wars on drugs, the scientific, political and spiritual stars are aligned for a revolution to balance and strengthen all four legs of this country’s effort to tackle substance abuse and addiction: research, prevention, treatment and law enforceme
Not long ago I stumbled upon a book by the late Bruce Chatwin, called What Am I Doing Here, a collection of essays about the most unlikely topics: North African politics, art curation, the experience of nomadic peoples, Peruvian archeology and the like, connected only by a single strand—Mr. Ch
Misleading Title
With regard to Cardinal Walter Kasper’s Friendly Reply’ to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (4/23), the title on your cover is misleading, since Walter Kasper wrote and published the article in German, not as a cardinal but as a bishop, in 2000. More importantly, the English
Hate crimes—offenses stemming from hatred of persons based on their race, religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation—continue to be an affront to the national conscience. Their incidence among some groups, moreover, has been rising. Such is the case with Asian Americans. Margaret Fung, ex
