Support Urged for Anti-Torture Provision in Defense Department Appropriations BillU.S. law and policy about torture of prisoners is more about who we are than who they are, an adviser to the U.S. bishops told congressional staffers on Nov. 2. In urging support for an anti-torture amendment to the ap

The logjam of denials about the torture and abuse of prisoners in U.S. detention sites in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo has finally been broken. Capt. Ian Fishback’s letter in September to Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, has cleared the way for steps that may at last establish

"Nattering nabobs of negativism” was the phrase Spiro T. Agnew used to describe the press when he addressed the convention of California Republicans on Sept. 11, 1970. The vice president had his own reasons for despising what he called “the effete corps of impudent snobs.” Loc

On this day in 1965, the Vatican II’s “Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions,” also known as “Nostra Aetate,” was promulgated by the council—despite surprises, shocks and setbacks along the way.

Cardinal John J. O’Connor died five years ago, but I frequently remember the times we worked together on the critical issues faced by our two communities. Our friendship was a result of the Second Vatican Council. In October 1965, 2,200 Catholic bishops adopted Nostra Aetate, the Declaration o

The face of leadership in Catholic organizations has changed dramatically in less than a generation. Catholic health care offers a clear illustration. Forty years ago most of the presidents of Catholic hospitals in the United States were Catholic women religious. Today those hospitals are nearly all

Basil Pennington Dead at 74; Known Worldwide as Writer and Teacher of PrayerAbbot M. Basil Pennington, the Trappist monk known worldwide for his books and ministry on centering prayer, died on June 3 at the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center in Worcester from injuries sustained in a

Catholic Press Group Silent on ResignationCatholic Press Association members voted 48 to 28 on May 26 against a statement expressing concern about the resignation of Thomas J. Reese, S.J., as editor in chief of America magazine and emphasizing the importance of Catholic journalists’ exercising

What does the number 26,300,000 signify? It’s not the number of seconds in a day (734,400); it’s not the population of France (61,000,000); it’s not Donald Trump’s salary for his work on The Apprentice this year ($3,200,000 to say "You’re fired" 34 times). It

Neighbors Describe Pope as Humble Cat LoverSince the papal election on April 19, tidbits have begun trickling out from those who came to know Pope Benedict the man, as distinguished from the theologian. "I like him more than Wojtyla [Pope John Paul II]. Maybe that’s because I knew him,&qu