Called “the Chekhov of the suburbs” for his intimate if painful portraits of American suburban life, John Cheever was a prose master and, said one reviewer, “a boyish scamp.”

Last week he was a doctoral student at Santa Clara University. This week he is helping to lead a Jesuit humanitarian offensive over the phone. Tomorrow he will be in Poland leading that relief effort in person.

Prosecutors announced charges against former president Alfredo Cristiani and a dozen other people, including former military officers, in the massacre. The list of charges will apparently include murder, terrorism and conspiracy.

My new motto has become, “Preach the Exercises always; when necessary, use words.”

Christians today are split between “bottom-up” and “top-down” approaches to re-invigorating our sense of the common good.

The limbo experienced by asylum seekers waiting to be admitted to the United States and the traumatic experiences that forced them to leave their home country in the first place take a profound psychological toll.