Although the official America review will not be out for a few weeks I wanted to without treading upon the reviewer s field recommend Ron Hansen s new book Exiles It s a masterfully told novel or fiction based on fact that toggles between the Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins

Yes I know I write a lot about Lourdes That s one of the hazards of being moved by something like a pilgrimage or a retreat experience But here s something new While the Order of Malta was on pilgrimage this year a few of the members of the Order followed our group around for the week a

These two stories are particularly interesting when taken together In the first dated May 17 here Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone the Vatican s Secretary of State reaffirms the church s ban on ordaining gay men whether in the diocesan world or in religious orders The Vatican was respondin

The Anchoress has an honest piece on how one goes about praying for someone--even if one is not initially inclined to It s no secret that for every Catholic fan of Senator Ted Kennedy and I am an enormous admirer of this remarkable man though I don t agree with him on everything there is

This weekend Michael Tueth SJ a professor of communications at Fordham University in New York gave what I think was a wonderful homily at the baccalaureate Mass for graduating seniors And you don t have to be a student to appreciate it In just a few paragraphs leavened with humor he a

Over the past few weeks I ve heard three stories about the recent papal visit that I ve found especially moving First The visit of Pope Benedict XVI with Cardinal Avery Dulles S J who has been ailing in a private meeting in Cardinal Egan s suite in St Joseph s Seminary Dunwoodi

There are some odd rules in the land of publishing For example if you blurb a book that is write a few sentences of praise for the back cover or for advertisements you can t review it Strange I know Or if you have some sort of professional connection to the author when you re r

In the latest issue of The New Republic an article by Steven Pinker the Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard attacks the concept of human dignity one of the central ideas of Catholic social teaching indeed of contemporary Catholic moral theology His point seems to be that dignity

The members of Order of Malta or at least its American branches concluded their annual one-week pilgrimage to Lourdes yesterday and your intrepid Jesuit reporter was among them As in the past few years I was as a guest of and chaplain for the Federal Association of the Order which makes

Tomorrow I take off for Lourdes the shrine in Southern France where well if you don t know that story you re probably reading the wrong blog Anyway let me share one thing before I leave My hosts for the trip are the Order of Malta officially called the Sovereign Military Order of M