"It was truly amazing how Martin Luther King could sustain his hope for a beloved community at a time when nobody, black or white, seemed to believe in it or even care."

For me, a Catholic bishop, the past four years have been Dickensian—the best of times and the worst of times. How they have been the worst of times hardly needs explanation, but the growing realization that they have also been the best of times has come to me as an ever-deepening conviction an

These days as I a citizen by right of birth of the United States and Ireland wheel my grandson Navid a citizen by right of birth of the United States and Iran through my local shopping mall I look about at people of all shades and shapes and combinations wishing a world of justice and harmon

Witness of MercyNickel Mines, a small farming town in Lancaster County, Pa., has been a place of both human grief and divine grace this month. The horrific killings of five young Amish girls, who were captured, bound and then shot by a deranged man who burst into the town’s one-room schoolhous

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is the most controversialand courageousthinker to address the status of Muslims in Western societies today Born in Somalia and raised a Muslim she fled to the Netherlands in 1992 to escape an arranged marriage As an interpreter for Somali refugees she gained firsthand experience c

Cuban Immigrants FavoredCubans stand apart in notable ways from other Hispanic groups in the United States, according to a report by the Pew Hispanic Center. What especially distinguishes them is that U.S. policy has been much more welcoming to Cubans than to immigrants from the Caribbean and Centra

Immigration and AssimilationAmerican Catholics, long thought of as a church of immigrants, continue to see their numbers augmented by an influx of new Americans. Dealing successfully with this new population will be a major challenge for the church in the new century. If history is any guide, we wil

Knights’ Relief Quick and Generous The $10 million raised by the Knights of Columbus for hurricane relief on the Gulf Coast represents the largest disaster relief effort in the organization’s 124-year history, reported Patrick Korten, vice president for communications. Almost before the

The Fourth of July is a time for challenging ourselves on the state of the American proposition.

U.S. Bishops Urge Immigration ReformPresident George W. Bush’s address on May 15 about immigration reform received mixed reviews from advocates for immigrants, who expressed gratitude for his support of legalization for illegal immigrants but had concerns about his plan to deploy National Guar