Asylum versus ImmigrationRe “Step Up on Syrian Refugees” (Current Comment, 9/19): The editors’ comment on the Syrian refugee issue is certainly needed and welcome, but America continues to miss the important distinction between asylum and immigration. Thus the statement that &

Who are “Real” Catholics?Re Of Many Things, by Matt Malone, S.J. (9/12): Is the answer to “Who gets to say who real Catholics are?” not “the church”? Our Lord gave the church as the final arbiter in matters of sin between brothers, going so far as to say that if t

An Open InvitationSuperintendents and the National Catholic Educational Association respond to “Reinventing Catholic Schools,” by Charles Zech (8/29).Charles Zech fails to mention the incredible work being done in Catholic schools across the country today. As the superintendents of Catho

The true story of Catholic schools is their continued success despite difficulties.

The Class SystemRe “Commending Phoebe” (Editorial, 8/29): While I am in strong favor of women's ordination to the diaconate, I fear this will only lead to expanding the “class system” that already seems to exist in the diaconate office. Already we have a distinctive separ

Incompatible PositionsRe “Defend the Hyde Amendment” (Editorial, 8/15): There is no such thing as a pro-life Democratic Party position. It was excluded from the party in 1992 when they refused to let Pennsylvania’s Gov. Bob Casey Sr. (a defendant in that year’s Supreme Court

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Union in Communion“Longing for Communion,” by Timothy P. O’Malley (7/18), presents the concrete situation confronted by many Catholic-Lutheran partners today in the United States. The starting point for a pastoral approach to these couples ought to be the union, however imperfect,

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Church WallsI could not agree more with Matt Malone, S.J., when he writes, “It will also be useful to have in Washington a diplomat who represents the vicar of Christ, the one who breaks down walls” (Of Many Things, 6/20). I only wish the church had not built so many during its long tenu