The trafficking of women and children for purposes of sex has grown exponentially to become a major criminal activity mdash generating funds of around 12 billion a year just behind the criminal funds generated by illegal drug and arms sales The United Nations Protocol to Prevent Suppress and Pun

It is quite rare that a film haunts me for several days after seeing it making me imagine again its mesmerizing scenery and characters and wonder at its elegant if fierce intensity yet gentle and decent humanity Watching Winter rsquo s Bone which won the Grand Jury Prize at this year rsquo s S

Pundits have mused that Al Gore needs to produce an imperative sequel to his documentary An Inconvenient Truth In this second version he would explain why mdash given the great even overwhelming convergence among scientists on the primarily human caused global warming--so few people seem to r

nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp I had just finished reading Father Gregory Boyle S J rsquo s penetratingly spiritual truly hope-filled and uplifting book Tattoos on the Heart The Power of Boundless Compassion It had made my own

The eight UN Millennial Goals were unveiled with great splash and fanfare in 2000 with 189 UN member states formally endorsing them as a sort of solemn covenant The eight goals encapsulated previously agreed upon targets from a number of special UN sessions on international development With the

I was recently asked to write a ldquo white paper rdquo draft for the California Catholic Bishops for possible voting on the issue of life-sentence without parole for juveniles The United States Supreme Court currently is adjudicating two petitions from incarcerated prisoners from the State of

I am always looking out for good Lenten spiritual reading What I look for especially are books about conversion repentance deeper prayer transformation mdash all core Lenten themes It turns out a Jesuit housemate of mine Dan Kendall S J edited recently some earlier from 1975 lost writi

The last several years have been exceedingly unkind to Scientology In 2007 the Belgian State Prosecution Office announced that it thought the organization should be prosecuted for crime In late October 2009 a French court found Scientology France guilty of severe fraud in ldquo cheating rdquo

I have been musing about what it means to be beginning Ordinary Time for 2010 In one sense the term has a simple liturgical meaning Ordinary Time begins on the Monday after the Second nbsp Sunday of the Year The Baptism of the Lord There is paradoxically no first Sunday in Ordinary Time

I have been musing about what it means to be beginning Ordinary Time for 2010 In one sense the term has a simple liturgical meaning Ordinary Time begins on the Monday after the Second nbsp Sunday of the Year The Baptism of the Lord There is paradoxically no first Sunday in Ordinary Time