This year the Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle, commonly known as the Paulists, is beginning the process of seeking beatification for its founder, Isaac Thomas Hecker. To see Father Hecker declared blessed would indeed be an encouraging sign not only for our Paulist community but also for
The Catholic Church’s social teachings need to be heard today throughout our country. Our church has much to say to this moment. But our collective record in conveying these teachings is rather modest. Can we do better? What voices can be gathered to share our rich and growing heritage of soci
In a recent article in The Nation, the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, author of American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville, expressed his shock at the moribund state of the American secular left. He found it strange, as an outsider, that so many progressives seem to
As we moved into the Easter season this year, I found myself thinking of a comment by the sacramental theologian Peter Fink, S.J., about how difficult it can be to get Catholics to pay attention to the Easter season. After 40 days of Lent and the Easter Triduum, people’s focus and imagination
Truly Distinguished
I write this as a board member of the Venerable John Henry Newman Association. It has been a concern of the association for some time to distinguish itself from the Cardinal Newman Society, which society appears so prominently in your editorial, Measuring
Hunger here in the richest nation in the world? Impossible, one might think. But the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ annual Hunger and Homelessness Survey makes it clear that hunger and food insecurity (not always having access to enough food to meet basic needs) not only exist, but are on the rise
Some time after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center four years ago, I read the results of a study of 437 adults over age 50 that indicated that their sense of control over their lives dropped significantly after that event. I found it interesting that the people who were more religious su