We were told to meet at the Bronze Door of the Vatican Palace on the morning of Dec. 23 last year. After the security check and a short wait at the foot of a monumental marble stairway, we were led up through the vast courtyard of St. Damasus, down a long gallery decorated with frescos of old maps a

Sadly the question of how a president of the United States might lead effectively in wartime is again pertinent in terms of both historiography and policy Recently the nation learned that Michael Beschloss rsquo transcription of Lyndon Johnson rsquo s recorded conversations reveal that Johnson

Thomas Cahill rsquo s highly successful Hinges of History series has established him as one of the most engaging and popular authors in the field of religion today Three volumes have been published thus far How the Irish Saved Civilization The Gifts of the Jews and Desire of the Everlasting Hills

"Gay priests are living a lie", declares Garry Wills in his book Papal Sin: Structures of Deceit (Doubleday, 2000). As a priest-psychotherapist who has spent 25 years conducting workshops, support groups and retreats for gay priests and religious men and women, this statement and those who

Cardinal Law Hears Concerns of Boston Catholics On the verge of tears, a sorrowful Boston Cardinal Bernard F. Law told more than 2,500 area Catholics who gathered March 9 to discuss clergy sex abuse of minors, "In my most horrible nightmares I would never have imagined that we would have come to th

Its name evokes peace but Jerusalem is a city in constant turmoil where controversy often turns deadly In 1996 when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opened the Hasmonean tunnel under the Haram al Sherif the Muslim sanctuary above the Temple Mount more than two weeks of hard fighting between P

Have you heard the one about the confirmation liturgy at which a liturgical dancer presented the gifts to the bishop? After receiving them the bishop turned to the pastor and said, If she asks for your head, she can have it! This allusion to the story in Mark’s Gospel about John the Baptist an