When you have a party, invite the poor. I have been asked, now and then, how someone might vote from the perspective of Gospel values, Christian values, Catholic values. Usually, I demur, not because I am reluctant to answer, but because I don’t think such questions are really serious. If I sa

"See how they love one another." According to Tertullian, a Christian writing in 197, this was the amazed comment of outsiders observing the members of the new Christian sect that was then sweeping the Roman Empire. That was in the second century, early in the history of Christianity. Duri

Two scientific teams, one public and one private, jointly announced in June that their researchers, working separately, had deciphered the human genetic code. Elation in the scientific community and extensive media coverage signaled the importance of their accomplishment for the capabilities of medi

Encuentro 2000 Celebrates Diverse U.S. ChurchEncuentro 2000 opened with Native American drums calling the participants from across the nation to gather in assembly. At the end of its final liturgy, 5,000 worshipers tied ribbons to one another’s wrists, a traditional Hmong sign of sending forth

Evaluated in ConscienceSister Jeannine Gramick’s unenviable situation (Signs of the Times, 6/17) calls to mind the dictum of St. Thomas Aquinas (envisioning, actually, an even more extreme situation): When an ecclesiastical decision that is evaluated in conscience as certainly unacceptable is

Kent State is my American Jerusalem. Ever since I stopped at the campus on a whim while driving across Ohio in 1993, I have made yearly pilgrimages to this sacred-secular ground of antiwar activity, where four students died and nine were injured. But I’m no nostalgic baby boomer, no former rad

Six years have passed over the Holy See since 1870, and its organization has been dying out year after year. All this darkness, confusion, depression, inactivity and illness, made me understand the Tristis est anima mea usque ad mortem [My soul is sorrowful even unto death].The author of these words

I am a slothful pray-er. At Mass I pray standing up, kneeling or sitting along with the flock. But at home I seem to pray more earnestly—in a prone position. Sheer laziness, probably, but I rationalize the act by assuring myself that God doesn’t mind. The posture isn’t important, n

Justice and Human RightsI would like to add to the fine editorial, Solidarity in Globalization (6/3). Representing the Sisters of St. Joseph at the United Nations, I have come to realize that, in addition to all that was so eloquently expressed in your editorial regarding how Americans need to respo

CD, Internet Site Aiming for World Youth Day AudienceYoung people around the world will be able to participate in some of the World Youth Day activities without leaving home, through Internet and music CD’s. The Nashville-based Gaylord Entertainment Co. has been contracted by the Vatican to cr