As the seat of the nation's government, Washington, D.C., should serve as a model city in the care of its poorer residents - but in fact its record is bad. In at least one low-income neighborhood, however, an idea of what can happen when a community pulls together has assumed concrete form. The

Located 80 miles east of Havana on Cuba’s northern coast, the city of Cárdenas, from which young Elián Gonzalez comes, is a relatively poor but bustling and friendly town of some 40,000one of those places where you instantly sense that everyone knows everyone else. It’s a place of huma

Call to Renewal Announces Covenant Targeting PovertyRepresentatives of more than 50 multidenominational, faith-based service and policy groups organized as Call to Renewal announced a Covenant to Overcome Poverty at a rally on the steps of the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 16. At a time of record prosperity,

Although the architecture of its cathedral is Neo-Byzantine, the affairs of the Archdiocese of Westminster have usually been conducted in a straightforward English manner, appropriate to its setting between Victoria Station and New Scotland Yard. So the 4.1 million Catholics in England and Wales wer

I remember the darkened church, filled with a reverent silence interrupted only when an opened door allowed the sounds of traffic and voices to intrude momentarily. A heavy slam of varnished wood signaled the arrival of the next worshiper, who checked her name on the list and tapped the weary should

The 20th century has concluded. Thomas Merton remains the single most influential American Catholic spiritual author of that century. Judging from the number of current publications by and about Merton, his spiritual vision remains as captivating today as when he broke upon the scene in 1948 with hi

Report Says Hunger Can Be Halved in 15 YearsA new report from the Bread for the World Institute says world hunger can be cut in half over the next 15 years with the help of an extra U.S. contribution of $1 billion per year to nutrition programs. The trends in hunger eradication are promising, said t

An older Jesuit once told me he felt that priests have a much harder life than laypeople. We’re always "on call," he explained, and have so many responsibilitiescelebrating Masses, hearing confessions, living in community, preparing homilies and the like. Laypeople can set their own