A review of Philip Jenkins's book on Europe and Islam

Tragedy struck the family of Francisco-Javier Domínguez Rivera, a 22-year-old native of the State of Puebla in Mexico, in mid-January 2007. Francisco was shot to death by a U.S. Border Patrol agent while attempting to cross the desert between Bisbee and Douglas, Ariz. The agent reported that he had

As Hispanics in the United States increase in number, they will likely exert more influence on the nation as a whole, and especially on the U.S. Catholic Church. For while Hispanics make up 14.2 percent of the populace, they make up more than a third of its Catholics, a percentage expected to increa

Raids by federal agents on five Swift meatpacking plants last December around the country, as well as raids in New Bedford, Mass., in March, called public attention to the fear haunting the lives of undocumented immigrants. As the raids demonstrated, fear of family breakup runs high among the undocumented, with the specter of breadwinners deported and U.S. citizen children left behind in the United States.

With a new president in Mexico and a more immigration-friendly majority in place in both houses of the U.S. Congress, our nation is positioned to take a fresh approach to relations with Mexico in particular and Latin America in general. Catholics on both sides of the border are particularly well sit

Freedom Commission Notes Violations in Turkey The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom strongly urged the U.S. government to include concerns regarding Turkey’s religious freedom violations on the U.S.-Turkey bilateral agenda. The United States should urge Turkey to continue its

Papal Visit to Conference in Brazil Begins May 9Pope Benedict XVI is making his first trip to the Western Hemisphere in mid-May, traveling to Brazil to open a strategizing session with Latin American bishops. The May 9-13 visit begins with a string of pastoral events in São Paulo, where the pope wi

Sin of the WorldSlavery, it is said, was America’s original sin. In recent theological writing, it can also be described as a prime example of the sin of the world, a sin that runs through time and space infecting both persons and institutions. As a new exhibit at the New-York Historical Socie

Jerusalem Hospice Open to Patients of All FaithsWhen Sister Monika Dullmann first came as a volunteer to Saint-Louis Hospital in Jerusalem as a young theologian, the most difficult task she faced was watching terminally ill patients suffer. Sister Monika, now the hospital director, said 20 years of

U.S. Peace Activists Visit Vatican On the fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq, three U.S. Catholic peace activists paid a discreet but significant visit to the Vatican. The officers of the Indiana-based Catholic Peace Fellowship were in Rome in mid-March to promote the issue of conscientious objec