A long time ago, in the 1960’s, I found myself in a march protesting what I thought was some covert racism at Saint Louis University. As I carried my sign calling for more serious recruitment of African-American students, I saw someone in the picket line looping back toward me. His sign sporte
When I met Antanos Hasrouni at the height of the conflict in Lebanon, the bitter irony of his life hung like a cloud about him. Chased by the war to a rented room in East Beirut, Hasrouni was readying a tiny apartment for the nine other members of his family who would join him. He had previously spe
When more than 400 Catholic moral theologians from around the world gathered in Padua, Italy, from July 8 to 11, the meeting evoked an awareness of God calling the church to deeper communion and generated among them a powerful desire to work for greater unity throughout the global human community. T
Some see Halloween as a time for pretty outfits and make-believe—“My, what a handsome scarecrow” and the like. Personally, I always looked on the holiday as an occasion for casting ourselves headlong into our fears—of mortality, monsters and the dark—and laughing at the
I have had to learn three hard lessons about political life. First, perception “is” reality. Second, loyalty counts more than morality. Third, symbols trump reasoned argument. These are lessons every natural-born politician knows. But, I confess, in my case they may never take firm hold.
A Magnificent Witness
I do canonical work for women religious in the United States and in other countries. Some of this work has been with cloistered sisters. Therefore, I was deeply touched by the beautiful photographs of the women from the three Carmelite monasteries (Who Can
Among the great spirituals created by the African-American churches in the South is one that compares death to a train. The same train, it says, that called for my father and my mother and my brother is whistling at the station for me. This train makes only one-way trips, for it is traveling to the