Community SolutionsI would encourage readers to read Mr. Kennedy’s essay, “Dignity For All” (10/20), carefully, beginning with, “We convinced the government to put the park under local control…. We set up a community reinvestment fund so that a portion of every entranc

Back to BasicsIn “Preferential Options” (10/13), Congressmen Paul Ryan writes, “Before we can repair the safety net, we have to repair the thinking behind it.” The safety net is needed to keep people from falling so far down financially that their basic needs are not met. Unt

All Are WelcomeAs a mother of five children, four of whom have A.D.H.D. and two of whom also have an autism spectrum disorder, I am grateful for the welcoming attitude in Brian Doyle’s “Suffering Children” (10/6).I was a squirmy, talkative young child and more than once had to be s

Guilty NationRe “Prison Possibilities,” by Valerie Schultz (9/29): Ours is a crazy society. We believe that sending someone to prison for life will somehow restore justice in the world for a loved one whose life was cut short. At a rate of 716 people per 100,000, the United States incarc

Marriage JusticeRe “Remarriage, Mercy and Law,” by The Editors (9/22): As a Catholic happily living in a sacramental marriage, I deeply value the indissoluble nature of that union. But my limited experience of people who have divorced is that almost always the divorce was inevitable, or

False Mercy“The Message of Mercy” (9/15) brought out the nature of mercy very beautifully, but Cardinal Walter Kasper lost me at the conclusion. The church already tolerates “brother and sister” arrangements for the sake of re-admittance to the sacraments and allows the conti

Place of GraceRe “Grace on the Greyhound,” by James Martin, S.J. (9/1): I find it commendable that Father Martin decided to spend a few hours in solidarity with the poor by traveling by bus from Massachusetts to New York. I was a little disappointed, however, at where he decided to place

Racism in AmericaI am an African-American woman and life-long member of the Catholic Christian faith. Thank you so much for the dedicated issue, “Black and Catholic” (7/7).“Civil Rights Aftermath” (Vantage Point, 1964) ends with the statement “Let us get on” with

Not ExemptTaking the advice of Matt Malone, S.J., I read “side-by-side” the two essays on Israel/Palestine, “For Israel,” by John Conley, S.J., and “Gaza Again,” by Margot Patterson (8/4). Father Conley disappointed.My disappointment, bordering on intellectual sho