Much of the Catholic world turns its attention this month to the Brazilian town of Aparecida, where the fifth General Conference of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopates takes place from May 13 to 31. Pope Benedict XVI is making his first visit to the Americas as pope to open the conference,
Recently, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommended that all pregnant women receive prenatal testing for Down syndrome. When Down syndrome is identified during pregnancy, however, the pregnancy termination rate grows to an estimated 90 percent, which leaves those of us who
You Are a Child of God British A. Robinson is the director for public-private partnerships in the Office of U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator at the U.S. Department of State and the former director of social and international ministries for the Jesuit Conference in the United States. In his inaug
The skeletal body of Jeremy Bentham sits on public display in a glass-fronted case at University College London. Bentham, the founder of utilitarianism, left careful instructions for the use of his remains on his death in 1832. His body was to be used for a public medical lecture, then dissected, t
Among the books I would list as must-read but too-little-known is Ronald G. Musto’s The Catholic Peace Tradition (Orbis, 1986; Peace Books, 2002). A history of 2000 years of Catholic peacemaking, it is a vast survey from which I never cease to learn. The sheer accumulation of information gives
Unaccountable Journalism
Paul Rusesabagina, the man who inspired the film Hotel Rwanda, writes in his book An Ordinary Man, Words are the most powerful tools of all, and especially the words that we pass to those who come after us. In a speech at Wake Forest University on
The massacre at Virginia Tech drew shocked comment not only in the United States, but from the media in other countries as well. Canada’s Globe and Mail, for example, noted that even as deadly a massacre as the one at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., in 1999 failed to bring about a n