This is Part II of a three-part story. The first installment, "French Jesuits in New Orleans," is available here. In spite of its rich missionary history with its roots in Spain and France, the American Catholic church traditionally traces its birthday to the colonial period during wh

In 1814 John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson that he was unhappy with the Restoration of the Society of Jesus. Read today, the expression is surprising. One of the fruits of the revolution was religious freedom, and the American Catholic Church, concentrated in Maryland and Philadelphia, at that tim

Two days last month I flew to Kansas City and next took the F train and walked to Pier 60 on the Hudson River to help celebrate the anniversaries of the National Catholic Reporter 50th and Commonweal 90th One in the ldquo heartland rdquo of America the other in the center of the world The lo

Stories from the front lines

Israel-Gaza still smolders The op-ed pages news stories and recent books still argue about the outcome of the war Some even suggest that Gaza with its 2000 dead has won because it withstood Israel rsquo s overwhelming land and air attack Other commentators toy with despair because peace seems

When I was small, at our home in Trenton, New Jersey, I would sit on the stairs and listen to my father, the newspaperman, read aloud to my mother, the school teacher, as she knitted. Two books were Charles Reade’s The Cloister and the Hearth, the story of Erasmus before he became the famous m

I viewed Janos Szasz rsquo s strange and prize-winning film The Notebook the same week that Israel rsquo s invasion of Gaza allegedly to punish Hamas for aiming rockets at Israel reached its ugliest pitch As this is written 1 650 citizens of Gaza mostly civilians including 500 children and 64

ldquo In a selfish world they epitomize selflessness and compassion rdquo New York Times 9 17 Who rsquo s that It rsquo s rough out there Maybe he rsquo s taking about well-trained kindly policemen One of the remarkable cultural developments within the American Catholic Church during the l

The obligations we have as Americans and Christians to the home of the Jewish people.

World War I stories include several about enemies who discovered one another’s humanity. On the 100th anniversary of the United States' entry into the war, this is one.