Casting a dark look over the past year, and an even darker look at what lies ahead, the U.S. mayors’ annual Status Report on Hunger and Homelessness predicts a rise in both throughout the country—an increase that, sadly, is already well under way. Released in December, the report, which

Last fall’s sniper attacks in the Washington, D.C., area brought gun control briefly back into the national consciousness. In the wake of those attacks, the Maryland Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend—who holds an impressive track record on gun safety—mad

In all of human history it would be difficult to find an example of a country that cut taxes as it prepared to go to war. But this is exactly what President Bush now proposes to do. In a worst-case scenario, the U.S. military may find itself under fire in three countries: Iraq, Korea and Afghanistan

Pope John Paul II’s message for this year’s World Day of Peace, Jan. 1, 2003, anticipates the 40th anniversary of Blessed Pope John XXIII’s landmark encyclical Pacem in Terris in April. At a time when the world seems more troubled than at any time since the collapse of Communism in

Even in a nation that is for the moment the richest and most powerful on earth there are many who must be glad to see the year 2002 go. Only an inattentive chronicler could fail to record that this was not a good year for the U.S. Catholic bishops, the managers of the Democratic Party, the frustrate

The Christmas celebration in Bethlehem will be muted this year. Few pilgrims are expected. Since the 40-day occupation and siege of the Church of the Nativity last April, Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah told America, the Christians of Palestine feel abandoned by the world (see the interview in this is

To the extent of their knowledge, competence or authority the laity are entitled, and indeed sometimes duty-bound, to express their opinions on matters concerning the good of the church.” It might surprise many Catholics that this bold statement on the responsibilities of laypersons in the chu

Whether they exercised it in the fall elections or not, most citizens of the United States took it for granted that they had the right to cast a vote on Nov. 5. But for close to four million people with felony convictions, no such right existed, because almost all states have disenfranchisement laws

The eight million Haitians who share the Caribbean Island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic have the unwelcome distinction of populating the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. It is also a country that has endured for two centuries a series of governments inept and oppressive in vary

The Republican Party and President Bush must be congratulated for a stunning victory in the Congressional midterm election. Not only did they overcome the normal historical pattern, whereby the party in the White House loses Congressional seats in a midterm election; they did it in the middle of a r