An ossuary is a stone box used in ancient Judea in the first centuries B.C. and A.D. to store the bones of a person who had died and whose flesh had decomposed. It served as a second burial. Hundreds of ossuaries have been recovered in the last century. Many of them are preserved in Israeli museums
According to analysts and diplomats concerned with the Middle East, anti-American hostility—at all levels of society, but especially among the educated—is at an unparalleled high across the Arab world. The main cause of Arab anger, apparently, is the Bush administration’s obvious e
Every Jesuit novice is required to make a 30-day retreat, during which he is encouraged to pray for the graces of poverty and humility, for insults and persecutions in the name of Christ and, most important, for growth in love for all, especially of the poor, as Jesus loves them. I tried my best to
Most Respected
Avery Dulles, S.J., as the only American theologian ever to be raised to the College of Cardinals, is arguably, at least in the eyes of the Vatican, the most respected theologian in the country. Yet when he submits an article to your magazine on the important
When the bishops gather in Washington, D.C., for their annual November meeting, their agenda will include voting on a revised version of their 1992 pastoral letter, “When I Called for Help: A Pastoral Response to Domestic Violence Against Women.” Although the updated version makes use of
November is the month for remembering the dead, and with cold weather rendering the lives of homeless people even more difficult, my own remembrance of the dead focuses on a Catholic Worker named Michael Kirwan. The third anniversary of his death from cancer was Nov. 12. I met Michael two dec
From this evil-smelling spring of indifferentism flows the erroneous and absurd opinionor rather deliriumthat freedom of conscience must be asserted and vindicated for everyone Pope Gregory XVI rsquo s condemnation of religious liberty in the encyclical Mirari Vos 1832 was still official Catholic