On Sept. 13, 1983, Peter-Hans Kolvenbach was elected 29th superior general. He retired in 2008.

“I wasn’t raised religious and I don’t know anything about religion,” he said in 2004.

Saints and theologians, not to mention authors and poets, have long debated this thorny question: Why did Judas do it? To answer that we need to know something about the man himself.

There are so many mistaken notions about St. John of the Cross (1542-91) that we might do well to clarify some of them.

We might think the battle for Christmas is over words. But the struggle is waged at a far deeper level of our lives.

The days were lengthening. Daylight itself seemed brighter. The sap was rising in the trees, and with it I felt the wanderlust rising in me.