Sexual abuse by priests has done untold harm to innocent children and adolescents who were physically, psychologically and spiritually damaged by people they should have been able to trust and respect. Outrage at these crimes has been directed not only at the perpetrators but also at those church of

The mood this easter in the American church is particularly solemn. The penitential season of Lent and the six-month anniversary of the attack on our country have combined with almost daily revelations of clerical misconduct to create a most somber tone. Despite all the scandal and muckraking, the l

In this issue, America deals with a crisis that is causing enormous pain and great scandal in the churchsexual abuse by priests. These crimesthere is no other word for themhave physically, psychologically and spiritually damaged hundreds, perhaps thousands, of children and their families. They have

During the Easter triduum this year, homilists will find themselves, sadly, with a great deal of contemporary material that echoes the story of Good Friday. The events of Sept. 11, the continuing war in Afghanistan, the conflict in the Middle East, the turmoil in places like Nigeria and Pakistan, as

One day President George W. Bush was denying a request from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for the U.S. administration to resume its active engagement in the search for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. A few days later he was dispatching retired Marine General Anthony Zinni to try once a

When Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801, the problem of the Barbary pirates was waiting for him. These Moorish privateers, outfitted in Algeria, Morocco, Tripoli and Tunis, were prowling the seas off the North African coast as their predecessors had done for two centuries. They plundered Brit

A sharp cutoff in refugee admissions represents one of the lesser noted repercussions of September’s terrorist attacksa repercussion with dangerous ramifications for the more than 20,000 refugees who had already been approved for entry into the United States before the attacks. Many were fleei

The Bush administration has waged an effective war in Afghanistan, and, for the most part, has waged it in a just manner. After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, we wrote that the terrorists should be brought to justice because of their crimes and because of the danger they pose to life in this country

Hunger and homelessnessmore and more Americans are feeling the cruel effects of both these painful phenomena. Such is the overall conclusion of the U.S. mayors’ annual Status Report on Hunger and Homelessness, issued each December as a survey of over two dozen cities. The current report docume

Sexual abuse of minors by priests is once again making national headlines. No news story about the church is more shocking and scandalous than a report of children being sexually abused by priests. No victim is more defenseless than a child being preyed upon by an adult, especially an adult in a pos