Why do so many Catholics still distrust Thomas Merton Forty years ago today Thomas Merton a Trappist monk and perhaps the most popular American Catholic writer in history stepped out of a bathroom shower during a visit to Bangkok Slipping on the wet floor he grabbed a poorly wired fan for supp

President-elect Obama should nationalize Amtrak rsquo s rail lines and build high-speed rail lines connecting major cities throughout the East Coast and Industrial Midwest Amtrak already receives a federal subsidy because it can rsquo t make a profit There are two major reasons it can rsquo t make

Cardinal George Pell the archbishop of Sydney Australia about to celebrate the Tridentine Mass in Rome on Dec 8 H T to orbiscatholicus blogspot and Robert Mickens James Martin SJ

Over the next few days we will throw out some policy ideas for the new Obama administration Readers should send in their own proposals by posting a comment While the financial crisis permits Obama to spend almost unlimited amounts of money in his first year trying to jump start the economy he st

This feast always makes me think of St Bernadette Soubirous nbsp As you ll remember the Virgin Mary appeared to her in one of the last apparitions at Lourdes and said in the local patois I am the Immaculate Conception nbsp This was in 1858 four years after Pope Pius IX had proclaimed

Last night I finished reading Paul Mariani s astonishing new biography Gerard Manley Hopkins A Life which we reviewed in a Bookings section of our magazine a few weeks ago nbsp It is simply extraordinary nbsp For many years the standard biography of Hopkins has been Gerard Manley Hopki