Why Bergoglio? Obviously I wasn’t in the conclave or even in Rome, but if I had to sum it up in a sentence I’d say he’s a Latin American Sean O’Malley.
Much of the boomlet for O’Malley over the last couple of weeks focused on his simplicity, commitment to the poor and personal
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Reading the coverage of today's March for Life in DC reminded me of some writing I did ten years ago on my now-closed blog Sursum Corda. That year was the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. I wrote a week of daily reflections on the subject. You can read the originals here if you are interested
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I suspect the number of Commonweal readers out here in my particular part of Northern California may number in the single digits. Nevertheless, for those of you living within driving distance of Concord, CA (about 25 miles east of Oakland, CA), let me offer an invitation to a new Adult Formation
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I noted yesterday that the papal nuncio had cited--not approvingly, I hasten to add--a post from DotCommonweal that addressed the issue of religious freedom as well as the relationship between the bishops and the laity with respect to matters of public policy.
It occurred to me later that the
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Anyone who writes for publication wonders from time to time whether anyone is reading their work. It was with some interest, then, that I noticed that the Papal Nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, quoted a post from DotCommonweal in a recent address he made on the
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As evidenced by Cathy's wonderful post below, last night’s election results have turned statistician Nate Silver into a pop culture icon. Exhibit A is a new Twitter hashtag #natesilverfacts that parodies the Chuck Norris facts. The best #natesilverfacts are those that drink deep from the
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Last night was not a good night for the nation’s Catholic bishops. They have spent most of the last year arguing that Catholics--and people of faith generally--should prioritize three key issues in this election: abortion, same-sex marriage, and the conscience rights of Catholic institutions
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For those who are interested, I thought I would create an open thread for folks to offer predictions about the results tomorrow. I used to work in an office where we had a pool on this, March Madness-style. I suppose here we will limit it to bragging rights. Here are the categories:
1.
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As we approach next week’s election, Catholic voters are being inundated with messages that suggest that it would be gravely sinful to vote for President Obama.
This is not necessarily true.
In saying this, I want to make clear that I am not arguing that one should vote for President Obama
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In their dispute with the Obama Administration over the HHS contraception mandate, a number of U.S.bishops have suggested that they will have to close hospitals, schools and Catholic universities if the mandate is not modified or withdrawn.
But would the bishops really be required to do this?
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The other day, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput was interviewed by the National Catholic Register regarding the U.S. bishops ongoing struggle with the Obama Administration over the definition of a religious employer. He was asked about the statements of the U.S. bishops in favor of a right
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Rocco Palmo has posted Archbishop Rowan William's wonderful address to the Synod on the New Evangelization. Early on, Williams highlights how Henri de Lubac's theology influenced the Christian anthropology of the Second Vatican Council:
But one of the most important aspects of the theology of
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The new Pew Forum study is getting a lot of publicity for its finding that one American in five now responds “none” when asked about their religious affiliation. This is up from around 15 percent in 2007. The future of organized religion in the United States may look even bleaker because
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Rocco Palmo has posted the full text of Cardinal Donald Wuerl’s opening address to the Synod on the New Evangelization. Like much of what Cardinal Wuerl writes, it is thoughtful, well-organized. and covers the terrain well. Any summary is unlikely to do it justice. But let me just highlight
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The Synod for the New Evangelization begins tomorrow inRome. John Allen has a helpful FAQ on the Synod here. I’ve been reading through the instrumentum laboris, the working document for the Synod and found a passage I particularly liked. It reminded me of Karl Rahner’s suggestion many
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The folks over at the Pew Forum have a new interactive graph that allows you to look at support for the two presidential candidates by religious affiliation and degree of religious practice.
I know, you're dying to know what the Catholic numbers are, right? Among all Catholics, Obama has a
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One of the most well-received speeches at last week’s Democratic National Convention was the one given by Sister Simone Campbell, Executive Director of NETWORK, a Catholic social justice lobby founded and supported by American women religious. Campbell was one of the principal organizers of the
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The weblog Democratic Strategist has posted a document entitled "A Letter to a 'Middle of the Road Moderate' non-Latino Friend about the Moral Difference Between Democrats and Republicans." The letter, written by James Vega, is a response to a comment from a friend that "I don't
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Scarcely a week after comments from Archbishop Lori that suggested he had forgotten the distinction between formal and material cooperation with evil, we now have another bishop who appears to need some remedial education in moral theology.
In a column published this week (HT: In All Things),
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John Allen has posted an intriguing column on the future of the “center-left” within the Catholic Church in the United States. He notes that there are a large number of American Catholics who, while not enamored of recent positions taken by the U.S. bishops, are nevertheless committed to
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In its recent statement regarding the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith noted that its principal means of assessing the doctrinal fidelity of the LCWR was a review of keynote and leadership addresses at the LCWR annual assembly. Many of the
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I came across this table in the Atlantic Monthly today (originally posted at the AEI blog) that does a great job illustrating some of the central issues in the debate over inequality. It shows the change in income growth by income quintile (divisions of 20%) between 1979 and 2007.
The
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Last week the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released a new analysis of trend in political party identification by various religious communities. The overall finding is that, between 2008 and 2010, Republicans made significant gains among all religious groups, with the largest gains coming
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John Paul the Great University in San Diego is advertising itself on Facebook as the "Catholic Gaming School." Endorsed as "authentically Catholic" by the Cardinal Newman Society, the university is offering a degree in computer gaming design. Students will:
"Design,
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The Atlantic Monthly has an excellent article on the future of manufacturing in the United States, which is also something of a meditation on declining opportunities for workers with low and moderate skill levels:
This may be the worst impact of the disappearance of manufacturing work. In older
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O Wisdom, you came forth from the mouth of the Most High and, reaching from beginning to end, you ordered all things mightily and sweetly. Come, and teach us the way of prudence.
During the last week before Christmas, our family has adopted the practice of singing a verse from "O Come, O
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I had the privilege today of observing the implementation of the new Roman Missal from the other side of the altar, so to speak. It was my turn to lead our weekly Word and Communion service at the county jail near the parish.
Whatever we feel about the quality of these texts or the process by
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Like most parishes, mine has been preparing for the introduction of the new Roman Missal. We've had a series of homilies on different parts of the liturgy, with the new words being introduced and explained when appropriate. The choir has also been using new musical arrangements for the Gloria
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What a difference a day makes.
On Wednesday night, I posted an update on Occupy Oakland, one of the most active of the various “Occupy” groups in the country. The group had just organized a very successful “General Strike” and march on the Port of Oakland. At the end of my post, I
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It’s been a wild and wooly week here in the city of Oakland, which is quickly becoming the epicenter of the worldwide “Occupy” movement. Last week, city officials decided to forcibly remove Occupy Oakland protesters who had been camping out in Frank Ogawa Plaza in front of city hall since
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In the town where I grew up, there was a synagogue that had the distinction of having hired the first woman rabbi in the United States. I grew up with friends who spoke openly of their affection for Israel, and I absorbed from this environment a strong belief in the necessity of its existence
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The observances of the 10th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks largely focused, as they should have, on the victims of those attacks. In showing the capacity of ordinary people to exhibit extraordinary courage, many of these individuals exemplified the best of our country and the best of the human
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This week is our parish's "summer bible camp," a week-long gathering of children and adults featuring music, games, crafts with a smattering of catechesis. After years of attending, my son is now a counselor for the first time. We stayed up late helping the kids decorate their t-
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U.S. Catholic has published a new article of mine about evangelical Protestants who convert to Catholicism, a topic we've discussed here at DotCommonweal as well. There is also a sidebar for those inclined to ask "just what is an evangelical anyway?"
One interesting thing I found
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We prayed for the unemployed today during the prayers of the faithful. In the wake of Friday’s employment report, the prayer took on greater urgency for me.
It seems likely that we are in for an extended period of slow growth and high unemployment. Even if job growth were to pick up to
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Back during the debate over the Affordable Care Act, some of its critics questioned whether extending health insurance to the uninsured would affect their health outcomes. Even a few bishops, as I recall, suggested that the right to health care found in Catholic social teaching did necessarily
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Sorry folks. The content of the post I put up earlier somehow got deleted, which did, of course, deter several of you from responding!
I'm working on a feature about conceptions of hell among Catholics and I was looking for folks to share their personal experiences rather than theological
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Today is the feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. I was reflecting this morning about the location of the feast in the annual liturgical cycle. The date of June 24th reflects Luke’s testimony (Lk 1:36-37) that John was conceived six months before Jesus.
It’s interesting,
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I don’t really know how the legislative fight in New York over gay marriage will turn out this year. I am almost certain, however, of how it will turn out 10 years from now. By then, I would be extremely surprised if gay marriage has not been legalized in most of the Northeast and West
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I had to make a lunch for my son today and had told him Thursday morning that since it was Friday, he'd have to have clam chowder instead of his usual chicken soup. Then I read yesterday that because today was the Feast of the Annunciation, the usual Lenten discipline requiring abstinence from
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A couple of Fridays ago, we finally got a break from the rain. After I finished what I had to do for work, I went for a bike ride. I took one of my favorite routes that has just enough in the way of hills to be a workout but that only takes about 90 minutes. It was a great ride and I felt
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I was driving in the car today when the news came on that the United States and a coalition of European nations had initiated attacks against Libyan armed forces. I felt rush of varied emotions so quickly that it was difficult to keep my mind on the road in front of me.
Most Americans
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Over at Whispers in the Loggia, Rocco has posted excerpts from a recent talk by the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin. I found it moving and wanted to share some passages that particularly touched me:
Christian faith is not just a faith about doctrines or about rules and regulations or
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I read with interest the discussion below on John Meier, since I had the pleasure of meeting him for the first time yesterday evening. Meier was the invited speaker at the Graduate Theological Union’s 19th Annual “Reading of the Sacred Texts” lecture. The event was held at the GTU
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A few weeks ago I was chatting with our parish life director, a wonderful woman who has given so much to our community. She was close to finishing up work on a major parish building project and was also finalizing a new stewardship communication to parishioners. “And Lent is just a few weeks
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Tired of arguing about politics? Me too. Let’s argue about books!
The October 19th issue of The Christian Century asks a panel of Protestant and Catholic theologians the following question: “Suppose someone who hasn’t been keeping up with theology for the past 25 years now wants to
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In following the debate over whether a Islamic house of worship should be built at Ground Zero in New York, I was reminded of the debate many years ago about whether it was appropriate for a community of Carmelite nuns to locate themselves near the Auschwitz concentration camp. In both cases, it
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I know that many readers here have had the experience of writing a masters' thesis. It's an odd thing. You slave over the thing for a year or more, defend it, and then...well, nothing. It gets bound and is placed in the library of your graduate institution (at the GTU, it's called the "
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This week I was invited to contribute a brief reflection to the Patheos web site on the topic "The Future of Catholicism." Patheos bills itself as the "premier online destination to engage in the global dialogue about religion and spirituality and to explore and experience the
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Yesterday afternoon, the jury announced their verdict in the trial of Bay Area Rail Transit (BART) police officer Johannes Mehserle. Mehserle had been accused of second degree murder in the shooting death of Oscar Grant III, an unarmed African-American man who Mehserle was attempting to arrest
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One of the techniques of Ignatian prayer is to use the powers of your imagination to place yourself within a biblical scene. Placing yourself, for example, in one of the many banquets in the Gospels, you try to taste the food, to see the crowd reclining at table, to hear the laughter and
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Try this for a thought experiment: place yourself back in the heady months of the 2008 presidential campaign, a time when Catholics bitterly argued with one another about whether it was morally licit to vote for what some called “the most pro-abortion presidential candidate in history.”
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Earlier tonight a reader wrote to ask me to post some thoughts after the vote. My head is swimming—partly due to a case of the flu—so I don’t know if I can cover everything in one post.
To be honest, I’m not sure that my fevered brain can come up with words sufficient to the occasion
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I'm setting up an open thread for folks who want to comment on the House debate on health care reform (currently live on C-SPAN and MSNBC
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I just finished reading the EO. My key takeaway is that it doesn't do much more than restate the relevant language of the Senate bill. For those of us--myself included--who think the Senate language provides sufficient protection on the issue of abortion, that's not a problem. But if you have
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TalkingPointsMemo.com is reporting that Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) and the White House have reached agreement on an executive order which will clarify that federal funds authorized under the health care reform bill cannot be used for abortion. The text of the EO is provided after the story
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The NYT reported last Thursday that Arizona--facing a large budget deficit--is the first state to completely eliminate its Children's Health Insurance Program, eliminating coverage for 47,000 low income children. The state will also roll back Medicaid coverage for childless adults, which will
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In the wake of the all-but-certain collapse of health care reform legislation, there has been a lot of analysis about how this could have gone differently. Was there a different path that would have resulted in success? I thought I’d throw my two cents in for what it’s worth.
First of
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It’s over.
Seventeen years ago, I was a health policy analyst for the Service Employees International Union and having the time of my life. President Clinton had been elected in November of 1992, and the union became deeply engaged in the fight to pass comprehensive health care reform
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With the announcement that Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) had become the 60th vote in favor of the Senate health care reform bill, analysts on both sides of the abortion issue scrambled to interpret the language that was inserted to win Nelson’s support. Within the pro-life community, the reaction
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One of the blessings we’ve enjoyed this Advent is introducing a form of the “O” antiphons into our prayer before evening meals. Since our children now know the hymn “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” we decided to sing the verse corresponding to that evening’s antiphon, after which we recited
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It almost seems absurd to repost information that is available in dozens of other places on the Internet, but a few folks have asked my take on the current health care endgame.
After legislative maneuvering last week that led to the excision of the so-called “public option,” the Senate
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In an effort to stop thinking about health care reform for a while, I’ve been reflecting on the recent debate between Terrence Tilley and Thomas Weinandy that was featured on these pages a week back (click here and here). Most people reacting to the debate seemed quick to shove it into the “
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Over at the Atlantic Monthly, Ron Brownstein has a post about how the Senate Finance Committee health care reform bill would "bend the trend" on health care costs. An excerpt:
In their November 17 letter to Obama, the group of economists led by Dr. Alan Garber of Stanford University,
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I don't have much time to blog today but I wanted to note an interesting development in the ongoing Congressional debate about abortion in health care reform. The New York Times reports today that Rep. Brad Ellswirth (D-IN) is planning to offer an amendment to the House bill that would modify its
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In light of some recent discussion on the topic here, I thought I would offer my own thoughts about whether health care reform will “work.” Let me begin by saying that I fully expect that some things will not work out the way reformers expect. That is to be expected. The idea that a
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I spent the weekend in Tucson, Arizona, where my family was marking my father’s 80th birthday. It was a wonderful weekend, particularly because my father is in excellent health, having recently returned from a tour of the coasts of Greenland, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.
Although my parents
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Yesterday, the Senate Finance Committee passed health care reform legislation, making it the last Congressional committee to do so. The stage is now set for efforts to produce consensus floor bills in both the House and Senate, which would then—assuming both houses pass their bills--have to be
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U.S. Catholic magazine has undertaken a survey of women religious in the United States about the upcoming apostolic visitation. They plan to publish the results in January, but have already received more than 600 responses.
At the same time, the magazine also published another survey on
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Lest you all think that I spend all my time writing about "controversial" topics, I offer a recent profile of Blessed Fr. Damien de Veuster--a.k.a. Damien of Molokai--that I penned for the devotional monthly The Word Among Us. Blessed Damien will be canonized in Rome on October 11th
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Well, yes, as a matter of fact!
One of the good things about finishing up my graduate work is that I now have more time to read books about topics other than theology (although I’m keeping my hand in here and there).
A few months back, I went on a bit of a Ron Hansen tear, reading—
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No time to blog right now but I thought I would link to this new essay in The New Republic by David Nirenberg about Pope Benedict's Caritas in Veritate. Enjoy
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I spent part of the afternoon reading the Joint Pastoral Statement on Health Care Reform issued by Bishops Naumann and Finn. I have to say that I was deeply disappointed. I believe that bishops, both individually and collectively, have the right and the duty to guide the faithful in the
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I remember an incident a view years back that really made me despair about our collective ability to get a handle on health care costs. I was consulting to a large, multi-site radiology practice that was taking a look at its MRI practice. While there were a small set of MRI scans that made up
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A comment on an earlier post made me think about the ways in which the meaning of the term “socialized medicine” has changed over the years.
Decades ago, the term tended to be used to describe a system in which the public sector directly provided health care services, as is the case in the
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One of the interesting dynamics in the current debate over health care reform is the number of people who are concerned about government involvement in health care. As someone who has been working in health care for more than 15 years, I have to say that the horses left the barn on that one a very
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Today is the feast day of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus. St. Ignatius is the author of a number of my favorite prayers, including this one:
Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding,
and my entire will,
All I have and call my own.
You
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Some readers have e-mailed me to ask where I've been the last couple of months. Everything is fine, thanks for asking. I've had some writing and ministry projects going on, as well as a recently completed family vacation (Disneyland, if you must know!).
I recently finished a feature for U.S
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Archbishop Donald Wuerl offers some timely reflections on the issue of Catholic universities and ecclesial communion in the latest issue of the Catholic Standard:
Institutions that are recognized as Catholic and that exercise their ministry and activities as a part of the Church and in the name of
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Pope Benedict has come in for some criticism for his relatively brief comments at Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust. There have suggestions that the Pope needed to offer a more moving, more personal address in the mold of his predecesor John Paul II.
One observer who appears not to agree with
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Here in the Diocese of Oakland, our new bishop, Salvatore Cordileone, was installed today at a mass at the Cathedral of Christ the Light. Although my office overlooks the cathedral, I was unable to attend due to the demands of my job. However, I was able to enjoy the text of my new bishop's
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Cardinal Justin Rigali, chairman of the U.S Bishops Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities, has called on members of Congress to endorse the Pregnant Women Support Act (HR 2035), recently introduced by Rep. Lincoln Davis (D-TN). Rigali released a statement on April 26th that read, in part:In a
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His experience living with the L'Arche community in Toronto once led Fr. Henri Nouwen to offer a reflection on why it is so very important that we understand the resurrection of Jesus--as well as our own resurrection--as the "resurrection of the body":
One reason is that the bodily
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In a meditation that is appropriate for Holy Thursday, Romano Guardini reflects on the meaning of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples and his command to them that they wash one another's feet. It is a call, he suggests, to follow in the way of Christ:
Every Christian one day reaches the
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I wonder if this is what the Obama administration had in mind when it said it wanted a "cabinet of rivals":
Five members of President Obama's faith-based advisory council have joined the debate over his plan to rescind recent conscience protections for healthcare workers, but could not
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Today's Gospel reading from Matthew speaks of the betrayal of Jesus by Judas. In his chapter by that name in The Lord, Romano Guardini suggests that none of Jesus' followers had much cause to look down on Judas. Nor, he argues, do we:
Betrayal of the divine touches us all. What can I betray?
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In the final chapters of The Lord, Romano Guardini follows Jesus into Jerusalem. His disciples marvel at the greatness of the Temple. Jesus says to him, "do you see all these great buildings? There will not be left one stone upon another that will not be thrown down!" Guardini
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I've been reflecting on the controversy over Notre Dame's decision to invite President Obama to speak at commencement this year. The decision has re-opened wounds within the Catholic community from the last election that have barely started to heal.
As the veteran of a number of battles over
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In the chapter of The Lord entitled "Belief in Christ, Imitation of Christ," Romano Guardini warns of the dangers of complacency in faith:
Woe to me if I say: "I believe" and feel safe in that belief. For then I am already in danger of losing it (see Cor 10:12). Woe to me
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For a variety of reasons, I have been remiss in posting more excerpts from Romano Guardini's The Lord. The following is one I have been thinking about for several days. It is a reflection on the story of Mary and Martha, and Jesus' comment that Mary has chosen the "better part:"
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A few weeks back I promised readers interested in Oakland's new Cathedral of Christ the Light an update on educational materials about the cathedral. Those materials are now available on the cathedral web site and can be accessed by clicking here. These materials include handouts (in
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In the chapter of The Lord entitled "Attachment and Detachment," Romano Guardini reflects on the meaning of a particular difficult parable, one we often refer to as the "dishonest steward." Just what does Jesus mean when he says that his disciples should make friends with
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Steve Waldman at BeliefNet continues to channel Billy Beane in his ability to aquire talent for his operation. First it was DotCommonweal's own David Gibson. Now he has convinced veteran blogger Amy Welborn to join the roster.
As many of you know, Amy's husband Michael Dubruiel died
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In the chapter entitled "Forgiveness of Sins," Romano Guardini reflects on the story of the healing of the paralytic (Mark 2:3-5) and asks "what must take place if forgiveness is to be experienced?":
Man must admit the general profundity of sin, must overcome his attitude of
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What does it mean to say that the Kingdom of God is at hand? In the chapter of The Lord entitled "Beginnings," Guardini offers some reflections:
Things in general, by their very existence, fill the spiritual ‘space' both within and around me, not God. God is present to me only
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My Lenten reading this year is Romano Guardini's The Lord, a classic spiritual work from the mid-20th century. Although of Italian descent, Guardini lived almost his entire life in Germany. He was a priest, a
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Last night my family and I had the privilege of attending a mass celebrated by the Jesuit Superior General Adolfo Nicolás, who was visiting the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley. The school had to set up a tent and seating on the patio outside the chapel in order to accommodate the
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David Brooks has a thoughtful column today on the decline of "institutional" thinking. In contrast to what might be termed "expressive individualism," Brooks talks about what it means to think institutionally:
In this way of living, to borrow an old phrase, we are not
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I thought this was actually quite well done...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2CaBR3z85c[/youtube
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I was listening to a BBC program this afternoon that was focusing on the financial crisis. One aspect of the program was discussing the moral and spiritual underpinnings of the crisis. Not surprisingly, there was a lot of focus on greed and the need for individuals in the financial sector
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I suspect there are some who find it especially tragic that violence has broken out in the land of Christ's birth during the Christmas season. Despite the fact that neither of the two parties follows the Christian liturgical calendar, many of us still cling to a vague sense that Christmas
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The thing that strikes me about John the Baptist is that he knew that he was not the Messiah. This seems obvious to us because we read the scriptures in light of our knowledge that Jesus was the Messiah, i.e. the Christ. So when faced with a statement like we read in today's Gospel--"
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My wife and I like to recite Compline (a.k.a Night Prayer) from the Liturgy of the Hours as the last thing we do before we turn out the lights. The one part of Compline that changes from season to season is the Marian Antiphon that is recited or chanted at the end. From the beginning of
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William Saletan at Slate writes about the case of a 70 year old woman (yes, you read that right) who recently gave birth thanks to assistive reproductive technology. He concludes with the following observation:
Maybe, as we extend our reach in this area, we'll learn to control it. We'll stop
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One of the things I did to enter into Advent this year was to read the Book of Isaiah from beginning to end. Like many Catholics, I've heard or read so much of the book over the years in the liturgy that it was easy to feel that I had read it. Even in my graduate OT class, we were pressed
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Some of the bishops may have to up the dose on their heart meds. TalkingPointsMemo reports that a leading candidate for Secretary of Labor is an openly gay labor activist (a protege of David Bonior) who is a former field director for NARAL. Oh, and she's Catholic, and--as her bio makes
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Our parish men's group was meeting yesterday and reflecting on the readings for the First Sunday of Advent. Perhaps not surprisingly, most of us seemed to interpret the command to "be alert" in the context of our own personal salvation. Are we going to be among the sheep or the
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Note: Grant Gallicho beat me to the punch in citing the Ross Douthat column below. I feel I need to give him credit for being first to the blog with it!
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In the wake of the election, I've been pondering the future of conservatism--both philosophical and political--in the
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I want to take a moment to extend thanks to the members of the DotCommonweal community who agreed to pray for the candidates at the Kairos retreat that was held over the weekend of November 7-10.
The retreat was held in the prison gymnasium, a very large (and also very drab) place. Over the
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From Pro-Publica (HT: TalkingPointsMemo)
The South Financial Group, South Carolina's largest bank, announced earlier this week that it had been approved to receive $347 million from the U.S. government. But the bank's founder and longtime CEO Mack Whittle won't be sticking around. He retired with
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I was up late last night baking chocolate chip cookies, watching the returns, and trying to sort my feelings about the election. I was pleased, yes, but in a way that was hard for me to grasp.
As I watched the returns come in, the first thing I felt was a sense of satisfaction. I felt
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As of this morning, Pollster.com had 12 states as either "leaners" or "toss ups." As a hardcore "quant," I feel compelled to make some predictions. Here are my calls. Feel free to make yours:
Obama: FL, MO, OH, PA, VA, ND, NV
McCain: GA, NC, IN, MT, SD
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I need your help, folks.
Over the weekend of November 7-10, I will be part of a team leading a retreat for a group of inmates at a state prison in Northern California. Our program--known as Kairos--has many similarities to Cursillo. We are providing an experience for these men that will
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I've been reading and reflecting on a number of the public statements made by bishops about the upcoming election. While some of this writing rises to genuine eloquence at times, much of it comes across as pro-forma: "Hello, election time is upon us, there are many important issues, abortion
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Go read this right away. Ignore my post below.
Sorry, Cathy. I had no idea this was coming
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One of the things that has frustrated me this election season is the way that two concepts from Catholic moral theology have been thrown around in ways that distort the way they actually operate in the tradition. I checked my perceptions with a couple of theologians whose judgment I trust, but I
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Tonight I attended a parish educational event on "Faithful Citizenship." We had three speakers, one who spoke about the USCCB's document "Faithful Citizenship," one who spoke about the activities of the state Catholic Conference, and one who spoke about a ballot initiative on
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On balance, I'd have to count myself a fan of Eugenio Pacelli, better known to the world as Pius XII. Pope Benedict celebrated a mass this week on the 50th anniversary of Pius's death, an event that led to some controversy due to the ongoing debate about Pius' actions during World War II.
My
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In the spring of 2003, my wife and I were wrestling with whether to move to a larger house. My wife has a large family, and our small house wasn't really up to hosting the epic family holiday events that usually feature 20-30 people at a minimum. At
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I was struck by the following excerpt from a recent article in the NYT about Catholics and the election:
One parishioner ruled out voting for Mr. Obama explicitly because he is black. "Are they going to make it the Black House?" Ray McCormick asked, to embarrassed hushing from a half
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The roots of my father's family lie in Northern Virginia, where several generations lie buried. A number of my ancestors there owned slaves. Another, a fiery Methodist evangelist, helped organize the secession of southerners from the Methodist Church after it condemned slavery. My grandfather
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While much of the attention yesterday was on Hillary Clinton, Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) may have had the best line of the night. Observing that Senator John McCain (R-AZ) had voted with President Bush 90 percent of the time, he quipped: "That's not a maverick, that's a sidekick!"
As
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George Wesolek, Director of Public Policy and Social Concerns for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, has an interesting essay in this week's edition of the Archdiocesan newspaper. He argues that the decision of many dioceses--and the USCCB--to have separate offices for social justice and pro-
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Writing in The New Republic, Michael Sean Winters argues that Senator Barack Obama can close his “Catholic gap” by drawing more explicitly on themes from Catholic Social Teaching, such as the common good and the dignity of the human person:
Obama doesn't need to take drastic action
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Okay, one more post on this topic and then I’ll stop—promise! In the comments on my original post, Joe Scianadoir helpfully posted the most recent ICEL translations of the three prayers in questions. So I’ve modified my chart so you can compare them to the 1997 versions and the original
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Since Fr. Joe has opened up the discussion on translations, I thought I would join in. While writing my masters' thesis, I created the table below to compare certain translations of three collects from the Roman Missal. The first column is the Latin. The second is a "traditional"
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Two weeks ago we had a vigorous discussion about the merits of certain aspects of the revised English translation of the Roman Missal. The discussion was sparked by the unexpected failure of the revised Proper of Seasons to gain the necessary two-thirds vote at the recent USCCB meeting. The
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This past Monday I was privileged to be part of a small group that gathered to witness the raising of the exterior cross of the Diocese of Oakland's new Cathedral of Christ the Light. I made a short video of the event for those who may be interested. The cathedral will have its first Mass
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In a somewhat surprising development, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops—meeting this week in Orlando—failed to approve a new translation of the portion of the Roman Missal that contains the priest’s prayers for each season. Part of the problem, apparently, was that a number
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David Brooks has an interesting column about what might be termed the "debt culture" and its disproportionately negative impact on low and moderate income families:
The agents of destruction are many. State governments have played a role. They aggressively hawk their lottery products,
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David Horsey of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer captures some of the spirit of the moment
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David Brooks has a fascinating (but I think ultimately flawed) column in, yes, the New York Times talking about the potential impact of neuroscience on religion. He argues that neuroscience will prove as challenging to 21st religion as evolutionary biology did to 19th and 20th century religion
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A few months ago Pope Benedict declared a year dedicated to St. Paul, which would start on June 28th with a vespers service Basilica of St. Paul's Outside the Walls in Rome, on the eve of the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.
So here's my question: is anyone out here seeing any planning for activity
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Fareed Zakaria of Newsweek writes about John McCain's recent foreign policy speech. McCain made some fairly radical proposals that have gone largely unnoticed as the press continues to focus on the Clinton-Obama contest:
In his speech McCain proposed that the United States expel Russia from the
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I’ve spent some time this weekend re-reading the addresses and homilies that Pope Benedict has given over the last few days. They are a great gift to the Church in the United States. One can see a real effort to engage many of the issues we are facing here: the continuing impact of the
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So far during his apostolic visit, Pope Benedict has struck a generally positive tone. That makes the pointed language he used at today's ecumenical prayer service all the more striking. Here is an excerpt from his address (Rocco has the translation):
Too often those who are not Christians, as
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Having been at work during Pope Benedict’s delivery of his Vespers address this evening, I spent the ride home on the train reading it. I suspect that reading it rather than hearing it may color these reflections.
My first thought, I have to admit, was that this was an address that had been
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The New York Times and BeliefNet have both set up blogs to comment on the upcoming apostolic visit of Pope Benedict XVI. The former will have a multi-author lineup that will ultimately include many names known to readers of this site. The latter, of course, features DotCommonweal's own David
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I feel the need to start a new thread about the CDF’s recent statement regarding the validity of baptisms administered using the formula “creator, redeemer, and sanctifier.” I think the CDF’s action was appropriate and necessary and agree with Joe Komonchak that the various attempts at
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Rocco (among others) is reporting the death, at age 95, of Walter Burghart, S.J., the famed Jesuit theologian and preacher:
Numbered by many among the nation's most eminent clerics of any denominational stripe, Burghardt authored countless works long and short, served on the Holy See's
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My thesis is due to my committee in six days.
Please pray for me.
And for my wife and children, who I think are more eager for this to be done than I am--if that is possible
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Look, you do business on your fast-days,
you oppress all your workmen;
look, you quarrel and squabble when you fast
and strike the poor man with your fist.
Fasting like yours today
will never make your voice heard on high.
Is that the sort of fast that pleases me,
a truly penitential day
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A provocative headline, to be sure, but I was looking at some exit poll data tonight and noticed how Obama was performing significantly lower among Catholic Democrats than among Democrats generally. Obviously there are a lot of other factors at work here--race, ethnicity, gender, class, etc.--but
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If there are any remaining doubts that Senator Barack Obama has entered the realm of genuine pop culture phenomenon, this music video should dispell them.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY[/youtube]
Apparently this was prepared completely at their own initiative. My only
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Slate is excerpting a new book by its military affairs correspondent Fred Kaplan. It is entitled Daydream Believers. Among other items, he argued yesterday that the foreign policy debate these days isn't "Realists versus Neoconservatives, but realists versus fantasists."
It's a
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Random thoughts on the Republican primary this morning...
Observers of the Republican primary have noted how many self-described conservatives within the party are struggling with the idea of John McCain being the party's standard bearer. Writing in the Weekly Standard, Benjamin and Jenna
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Creighton University's web site on the 35th General Convention of the Society of Jesus has posted the homily (click the first link under "Latest News") preached by newly elected Father General Adolfo Nicolas, S.J. Here is an excerpt:
The prophet Isaiah says that serving pleases the
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Cass Sunstein--who was a colleague of Sen. Barack Obama at the University of Chicago School of Law--offers an intriguing way of thinking about Obama's distinctive approach to politics, which he describes as "visionary minimalism." Here is a cite:
"Visionary minimalist" may
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Washington Post (and Commonweal) columnist E.J Dionne offers an interesting historical perspective on the Obama-Clinton debate:
If Obama seems to have history's winds at his back, Clinton is carrying history's burdens. In trying to push her way back into the contest by Feb. 5, when nearly two
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Iowa isn’t the only interesting caucus around. Tomorrow, the 35th General Convention of the Society of Jesus convenes in Rome. The central order of business will be the election of a new Superior General to replace Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, who has led the order since 1983. CNS, Rocco, and the
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The Associated Press is carrying a heartwarming story of a U.S. soldier who has adopted an Iraqi boy with cerebral palsy. National Guard Captain Scott Southworth first met Ala'a when he paid a visit to an Iraqi orphanage run by the Sisters of Charity in 2003. He returned several times to visit
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Matt Bai, who covers national politics for the N.Y. Times magazine, has a very thoughtful article in the Sunday magazine about how the Bill Clinton presidency continues to exert a strong influence on today's Democratic Party. He notes that all three of the leading Democratic candidates have been
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The San Francisco Chronicle had an article up a couple of days ago about the impact of the "surge" of U.S. forces in Iraq:
Some analysts believe that the United States is merely helping warring factions arm themselves during a lull in violence that will explode again once
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Fr. Robert Imbelli has posted some observations below on the new USCCB document on liturgical music entitled Sing to the Lord: Music in Divine Worship (MDW hereafter). He has noted the increased emphasis on the use of Latin in liturgical music. I spent part of the weekend comparing this new
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James Davidson and Dean Hoge have an essay in this week’s
Commonweal entitled “Mind the Gap.” It highlights an emerging gap between the
ways that clergy and laity understand their respective roles in the Church.
The core of this gap is a disjunction between two models of
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Today is the feast day of Blessed Miguel Pro, S.J., who was martyred 80 years ago today in Mexico.
Pro was born in Guadalupe in 1891. He entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1911, the same year that Mexican president Porfirio Díaz was overthrown. In the resulting chaos, an anti-clerical
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The Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church recently held their tenth plenary session in Ravenna, Italy from 8-14 October 2007. The fruit of that dialogue is a new document, entitled Ecclesiological and Canonical
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David Gibson (below) points us to some of the emerging web commentary on the USCCB’s consideration of a new document on liturgical music. Some critics of contemporary
liturgical music are hopeful that the document will lead to a greater
appreciation for the Church’s broader musical tradition
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A bipartisan group of lay Catholics has issued a statement (text here) entitled "A Catholic Call to Observe Civility in Public Life." The statement reads, in part:
As Americans we acknowledge deep divisions over some policy issues;
and recognize that some, who are active in
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Evangelical pollster George Barna (whose research on Catholics was discussed in these precincts a few months back), has released a new study of attitudes of young adults toward Christianity. Here are a couple of interesting excerpts from the Barna press release:
The study shows that 16
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For those of you who are interested in such things, Gallup has done some interesting subgroup breakdowns of support for the leading Democratic and Republican candidates for President. Hillary Clinton, for example, leads among virtually every single sub-category among Democrats one can
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Those of you inclined to think of us Californians as Pinot-Noir-sipping, baby-radicchio-with-a-port wine-vinagrette-eating, Green-Party-voting-fifth-columnists-for-Al Qaeda ought to hightail it out to Mariposa County, CA. Known nationwide as the home of the beautiful Yosemite Valley, I'm sure
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Fascinating article in the New Republic this week about a number of evangelical Christians who have embraced Eastern Orthodoxy. I've read a fair amount of coverage about prominent evangelicals crossing the Tiber, but this is the first feature length article I've seen about evangelicals embracing
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Very interesting story in the NYT about how the international charitable organization CARE is turning down $45 million in food aid from the U.S. government. They are concerned that sales of the food overseas--which charitable groups use to finance their activities--may undermine local farmers:
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Since I am a part-time student at a Jesuit institution, I would be remiss if I did not mark today’s feast day of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus.
A comprehensive list of links to Jesuit information and activities around the world would quickly exhaust the bandwidth of
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It’s been a tough week for the truth. Michael Rasmussen and Alexandre Vinokourov
both left the Tour de France after doping allegations. FBI Director Robert Mueller has
offered sworn testimony that conflicts significantly with that of Attorney
General Alberto
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More than a few of those commenting enthusiastically about
the release of Summorum Pontificum have suggested
that some of the liturgical reforms made in the wake of Vatican II were not in
accord with the Council’s intent. It’s
certainly true that some of the reforms went beyond
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The Barna Group has published a new study of American Catholics that concludes that Catholics are more or less indistinguishable from the general public with respect to many social and cultural attitudes. This led George Barna to offer some bracing--one might even say harsh--words about the
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Newsweek has a fascinating essay by Ed Husain, the author of the recently released The Islamist: Why I Joined Radical Islam in Britain, What I Saw Inside and Why I Left. Unlike some other commentators, Husain is not at all surprised that physicians were involved in the recent attacks in Britain.
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It’s here.
Yes, it’s true that the actual publication date of the motu
proprio Summorum Pontificum is not until
Saturday, but Rocco Palmo at Whispers in the Loggia has obtained an advance copy and has all the details for your
reading pleasure.
As expected, the document will make it
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Michael Gerson (a former speechwriter for President Bush) has an interesting analysis of Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) recent speech on religion and politics. Gerson had some words of caution for those who would use religion to baptize a specific set of policy proposals:
Obama's criticism
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We've been discussing the op-ed by Commonweal contributor Melinda Henneberger in the New York Times, but I didn't see a link to it among the posts. So here is a link, and here is an excerpt to whet your appetite:
The standard response from Democratic leaders has been that anyone
lost to them
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Today is the feast day of St. Romuald (950-1027), the founder of the Camaldolese Benedictine Order. The Camaldolese--like the Carthusians--combine eremetic and cenobitic elements into their rule of life, living together as a community of hermits.
If you are ever in Northern
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John Allen has put up so many posts on the Catholic Theological Society of America conference that he is essentially "liveblogging" it. He has a fascinating one up today on an address by the outgoing President of the CTSA, Daniel Finn of St. John’s University in Collegeville
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Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria looks at the foreign policy challenges facing the United States in the post-Bush era. It's a long article, but definitely worth reading. Here is an excerpt:
There are many specific issues that the United States needs to get far more engaged in, from the
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One of the voices I am missing in the current debate over the forthcoming motu proprio on the liturgy is that of the liturgical historian Fr. Aidan Kavanagh, OSB. Kavanagh, the author of such well-regarded works as On Liturgical Theology and Elements of Rite, died on July 9, 2006.
Awhile back
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An article in the Armed Forces Journal by Lt. Col. Paul Yingling entitled "A failure in generalship" is apparently making quite a stir in military and national security circles. Yingling is deputy commander of the 3rd Armoured Calvary Regiment and is a veteran of the
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The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe has responded to the pastoral letter issued by the nation's Catholic bishops. The letter called on Mugabe to end oppression in the country and allow for democratic reform. It also warned that violent confrontation and
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I have a small prayer request for the DotCommonweal community. This Saturday my son Joseph will celebrate his First Communion. His cousin (and my godson) John will do so the following day. Please pray that these two fine young men take to heart the words of Saint Augustine: "Receive what
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This week's Newsweek cover features the words "God and War" and the focus is on chaplains in the armed services. The cover story focuses on Army Chaplain Roger Benimoff. As Newsweek write Eve Conant puts it, his story is a "tale of a devout young man who begins his time in Iraq
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Below, Grant Gallicho links us to David Gibson’s op-ed in the today’s New York Times. Gibson—a former reporter at Vatican Radio, author of two books on Catholicism, and an occasional occupant of DotCommonweal’s comboxes—is generally a thoughtful commentator on church affairs
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I was interested in seeing how the major presidential candidates were reacting to the decision in Gonzales v. Cahart. Below I have collected the statements from the major candidates from each party, listed in alphabetical order. Enjoy:
Clinton
This decision marks a dramatic departure from four
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The blog Valle Adurni has posted what it claims to be the new English translation of the order of the mass. Some key points:
1) "And with your spirit" has replaced "and also with you."
2) "communion of the Holy Spirit" has replaced "fellowship of the Holy
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Grant and Fr. Robert have re-ignited the discussion about Fr. Jon Sobrino below, so it will be interesting to see where that goes.
But I want to pose a slightly different question. How should the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith exercise its role of doctrinal oversight? Or if you
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The New York Times has a profile of Fr. Benedict Groeschel, confessor to the late Terrence Cardinal Cooke, founder of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, perennial critic of the media's coverage of things Catholic, and well-known defender of the poor and unborn. There was a tidbit about Fr.
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The Washington Post is reporting that Zimbabwean archbishop Pius Ncube is ratcheting up the pressure on President Mugabe in response to an escalation in state violence aimed at democracy activists.
Mugabe's opponents reported that a hospitalized activist had died of injuries suffered when
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John Allen has posted an analysis of the issues around the CDF's notification regarding the works of Jesuit theologian Jon Sobrino. He makes the important point--overlooked in many news accounts--that the notification has little to do with past disputes about Liberation Theology and much
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Those interested in following the current agonia of the Anglican Communion would do well to bookmark Articles of Faith, the weblog of Ruth Glendhill, the religion correspondent for the London Times. Also interesting is a thoughtful analysis of the conflict posted on the First Things blog
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I suspect that many readers are already aware of the passing of Fr. Robert Drinan, S.J., who died yesterday at the age of 86. CNN's story lays out the contours of his colorful--and often controversial--career as a priest, attorney, civil rights activist and member of the House of Representatives.
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I've been a bit busy with other commitments and writing projects, so my blogging has suffered of late. But I wanted to briefly note the arrival of a new blog--Intentional Disciples--that is sponsored by the Catherine of Sienna Institute. The Institute is a program of the Western Dominican
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Before my son was born, one of the gifts I received at a baby shower was a book by Donald Hall entitled Fathers Playing Catch With Sons. The book took me back to some wonderful days in my youth when my father and I would go out back and I would pitch to him. This being the days before $95 replica
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Slate's Jake Weisberg asks the question "was victory in Iraq ever possible?" and concludes that the answer is "maybe." Weisberg is wary about throwing in his lot with those who would use the example of Iraq to disparage any future U.S. involvement in humanitarian intervention
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Last April, the NYT Magazine ran a story on abortion in El Salvador (Times Select membership required to read) that stated that a small number of women were serving 30 year jail terms for having had abortions. The case of Carmen Climaco, who had received such a sentence after having an abortion at
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Michael Gerson--a former speechwriter for President Bush--has written an interesting reflection on the debates within the Republican party about its direction in the wake of the November elections. Gerson has some trenchant observations about those who preach a return to what he
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The Old Testament canticle for Lauds this morning is from Jeremiah (14:17-21). Every time this one comes around on the cycle, I think of what is going on, not just in Iraq, but in a wide swath of nations running from Afghanistan into north and central Africa
Let my eyes stream with tears day
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"One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all." Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine
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Rejoice in the Lord always! Again, I say, rejoice!
It’s the first word in this phrase that gives “Gaudete Sunday” its name. The phrase is sung—rarely these days—as the entrance antiphon for the Third Sunday of Advent.For a long time, I absorbed the standard catechetical line about
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The New York Times is reporting that a number of universities have recently increased their tuition because having lower tuition was actually turning off applicants.
Yes, you read that right.
I got curious and did a little checking as to what the going rate (tuition +room & board) was
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This is how punchy I get at the end of the semester. I wrote THIS IS THE TITLE PAGE on one of my paper drafts so I could set up the pagination properly and then go back and insert the title material later. Several hours later, I mischeviously inserted the word "not" in between "
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Not to clutter up the precincts with too much personal material, but I would ask if all DotCom readers could pray for my son Joseph tomorrow morning as he receives the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time
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I had a conversation with one of my professors recently about blogging where she wondered--more reflectively than critically--about the "ephemerality" of the medium. Posts are up and then they roll off, never to be seen again.
But not always. I still get e-mails about this piece I
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The Washington Post reports that for the second time in one year, the Christian Coalition has named a new a leader and then removed him before he took office:
The Rev. Joel Hunter, pastor of a nondenominational megachurch in Longwood, Fla., said he resigned as the coalition's incoming
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Sorry, that was just my reaction when I saw this headline and story:
10 Is the New 15 As Kids Grow Up FasterZach Plante is close with his parents — he plays
baseball with them and, on weekends, helps with work in the small
vineyard they keep at their northern California home.
Lately, though
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The Boston Globe reports that many African countries have sharply reduced the deaths of young children in recent years, belying the notion that the continent was making little progress against killer diseases:
Across sub-Saharan Africa, the mortality rates for children under age 5 in some
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John Allen provides a good "backgrounder" to Pope Benedict's upcoming trip to Turkey, which starts on November 28th. He notes that while Turkey is one of the few Islamic states where conversion is not illegal, significant restrictions on religious freedom remain and the Christian
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Fr. Neuhaus at the First Things blog offers up some thoughts about the Ted Haggard scandal, including this paragraph:
But what they do know about the gay world? Largely the sleaze that comes to the surface in public scandals. There was an op-ed in Wednesday’s New York Times asserting that 70
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A rather enormous amount of digital “ink” has been spilled over the last couple of days analyzing the election. I can’t imagine there is any discernable trend—Catholic or otherwise—that hasn’t been thoroughly analyzed by smarter people than me.
After the election I felt the same way
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CNN is reporting that a 1999 Pentagon simulation projected that the United States would need at least 400,000 troops to secure Iraq after an invasion. Even then, the simulation suggested that Iraq could descend into chaos.There wasn't any mention of the results of this simulation in Bob Woodward's
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When I got off the train from work the other day, there were
a couple of people sitting at a card table registering voters for the upcoming
election. I had to fight a sudden urge
to run as fast as I could in the opposite direction.
Ten years ago, I would have been those people behind the
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I was taking my kids trick-or-treating tonight when I came across the door of a neighbor a few houses down. There was a small piece of paper taped to the door that read (roughly) as follows:
ESTE HOGAR ES CATOLICO. NO ACCEPTE PROPAGANDA DE PROTESTENTES. VIVA CRISTO REY!Okay, not the most
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Slate magazine's Fred Kaplan takes a hard look at the statistics behind the Lancet study on Iraqi deaths due to the war. The study's figure of 655,000 has proved controversial. Kaplan lays out a case why we should treat the number with some skepticism. He also makes the
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Glamour magazine is running a Woman of the Year contest, which is not really a big surprise. What may be more of a surprise is that one of the candidates is a Houston janitor who is a mother of 2, a union organizer, and a breast cancer patient. Her name is Ercilia Sandoval and you can
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John Rose, an Associate Editor at First Things, reports on Philiip Jenkins delivering the annual Erasmus Lecture at the Union League Club in Manhattan. Jenkins apparently touched one of the issues raised in Pope Benedict's Regensburg speech: the relationship between Christianity and
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Gordon Atkinson (a.k.a. Real Live Preacher) is one of my favorite Christian bloggers. He's a pastor of a small Baptist congregation in Texas. He writes regularly about the joys and the pains of ministry and the challenges of faith in a way that often touches me deeply. He parlayed his blogging
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Joseph Bottum has written what is sure to be a controversial article (Amy Welborn’s commentariat are already at it) for First Things entitled When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano: Catholic Culture in America.Bottum’s argument is that there are signs of a new distinctively
Catholic
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I was thinking about Cathy's Post below when I came across these passages in Barbara Brown Taylor's When God is Silent:
In the silence surrounding his death, Jesus became the best possible companion for those whose prayers are not answered, who would give anything just to hear God call them by
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Today, of course, is the Feast of Saint Francis and my children are dutifully bringing stuffed animals to school this morning to be blessed. Contemporary hagiography often seems to reduce St. Francis to a lover of animals and friend of the natural world. At such times, we might do well to ponder
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In celebration of today's feast of the Guardian Angels, I'll relate something that happened to me last week. I was riding my bike along a dark road when I hit a patch of gravel. My bike stopped. I didn't. As I was sailing over the handlebars, I felt like someone was telling me to "go to the
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In addition to being Respect Life month (see below), October is also the month of the Holy Rosary. My old blogging companion Tom Kreitzberg (check out his blog Disputations) once put together a set of 31 ways of praying the rosary, one for each day of the month. So if you find the rosary "
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In preparation for Respect Life month, the USCCB Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities has issued a new pamphlet entitled Created, Loved and Redeemed by God. It closes with the following observation:
No amount of good social policy, such as programs that feed the hungry and shelter the
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Jim Manney of Loyola Press has an interesting blog called People of the Book, which focuses on Catholic book publishing. He has a recent post about a new book by Jeremy Driscoll, OSB entitled A Monk's Alphabet: Moments of Stillness in a Turning World. Here is an excerpt:
God so hates religious
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A recent trend I’ve noticed in the Catholic blogosphere is a
fascination—sometimes bordering on obsession—with the public pronouncements of
Pope Benedict. The global reach of the
Internet has allowed every homily, Angelus address, speech, or off-the-cuff
remark to be quickly translated
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September 13th is the feast day of Saint John Chrysostom (d. 407), patriarch of Constantinople and Doctor of the Church. Ordained a priest in Antioch in 386, he quickly gained fame as a preacher (hence the posthumous title chrysostom or “golden mouth”). In 397, he was chosen to succeed
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Archbishop Rowan Williams--who happened to be in New York City five years ago on September 11th--offered some thoughts today. Here is an excerpt:
Last week, we had a visit from one of the most senior rabbis in Israel;
and among much else we talked candidly about the bloody conflict of
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ERRATA: The original version of this post asserted that Catholics for the Common Good were the organizers of the West Cost Walk for Life. This is incorrect. While CCG has certainly been a supporter of the event, the Walk for Life is organized by an independent 
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Since the Georgetown controversy has highlighted the relationship between Catholics and Evangelicals, I thought I would post a link to this article about Commonweal contributor Peter Feuerherd's new book Holy Land USA: A Catholic Ride through America's Evangelical Landscape.&
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A little over a week ago I posted a link to a story in The Christian Century about six Protestant theologians who had recently converted to Catholicism. One of them, Rusty Reno, blogs at First Things and has posted a comment on the article. In it he makes some rather trenchant comments about the
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Slate magazine has an interesting reflection on the state of Conservative Judaism. The piece was occasioned by a commencement address by Ismar Schorsch, the outgoing chancellor of New York's Jewish Theological Seminary. Schorsch was not optimistic about future prospects for Conservative Judaism.
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Terry Mattingly over at Get Religion has put together a little contest. See if you can guess which of the following headline/lede combinations about the new Pew Forum poll came from the New York Times and which came from the Washington Times:
Headline: Few see Democrats as friendly to religion
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Daniel L. Byman and Kenneth M. Pollack pen an almost impossibly grim prognosis for the Middle East as Iraq slides inevitably into civil war:
The debate is over: By any definition, Iraq is in a state of civil war. Indeed, the only thing standing between Iraq and a descent into total Bosnia-like
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The San Francisco Chronicle ran a story on Saturday about how the efforts to rebuild New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina have highlighted the great divide between poverty-stricken neighborhood and more affluent areas:
In the middle-class districts of Broadmoor, Lakeview and Eastover, the
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The Christian Century has an account of six Protestant theologians who have recently converted to Catholicism. The group includes three Lutherans—Reinhard Hütter, Bruce Marshall, and Mickey Mattox; two Anglicans—Rusty Reno and Douglas Farrow; and a Mennonite—Gerald Schlabach. Mattox, Reno
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And while we're on the topic of conscientious objectors of various descriptions, you might want to check out this article from Sojourners about an increasing number of service men and women seeking CO status. Here's a clip:
When Jason Webb joined the Army in 2004, he hoped his assignment as a
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A friend sent along this short review of a book on African Christologies. The author, who teaches
at Daystar University
in Nairobi,
organizes the Christologies under four headings: Jesus as life-giver
(especially healer), Jesus as mediator (particularly as ancestor), Jesus as
loved one (
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I am painfully aware that it should be Fr. Joe Komonchak rather than me mounting a defense of episcopal conferences. But I came across the following translation of a Vittorio Messori article on Amy Welborn's blog about his interview with the incoming Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio
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ERRATA: The post below assumes that Charlotte Allen and I shared a similar upbringing and catechetical formation. I have since been informed that this is not the case, so that affects at least part of the analysis below. I apologize to Ms. Allen and to our readers for the error.
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Since we've been talking about proposals to repeal or reduce the Estate Tax, I thought I would provide a little update. Congressional Republicans are supporting a bill that would tie reductions in the estate tax to an increase in the minimum wage.
Some things just leave you speechless. I wonder
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Several of the participants of the Mirror of Justice blog have been having a running debate over the last several days about Catholic Social Teaching (CST) and the proposed repeal of the Estate Tax. I can't possibly link to all the individual posts, so you'll just have to click over and scroll
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The other day I was interviewed by a journalist working on an article on “labels” in Catholic life, i.e. “liberal,” “conservative,” “orthodox,” “progressive,” and so on. I’ll freely confess that I am not a great interview. I speak in long, meandering sentences with large
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Michael Walzer--a political science professor at Princeton University and author of the book Just and Unjust Wars--has an article out in The New Republic where he discusses the ethics of the war Israel is currently waging in Lebanon. Walzer is exceptionally clear on the core
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Michikio Kakutani has a review in today’s NYT of a new book about the Iraq war entitled Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq. The author is Thomas Ricks, senior Pentagon correspondent of the Washington Post. He suggests that “George Bush’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003 ultimately
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The Los Angeles Times reports that 100 people died yesterday in Iraq. There were two car bombs that killed 60 people and another 40 died or were found slain in other incidents.
I remember a couple of years back--after the initial justification for the war had been discredited by the failure to
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Michael Scaperlanda over at Mirror of Justice has posted a link to a fascinating presentation that William Galston gave on Religion, Moral Values, and the Democratic Party. The event was sponsored by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and the transcript includes questions from the floor.
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Those of us who regularly peruse Catholic periodicals online often overlook local diocesan newspapers. One would certainly never claim that these are great sources of hard-hitting investigative journalism. Still, I often find the kind of inspiring stories that nourish my faith.
In the most recent
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Over at Slate, Fred Kaplan has an interesting post about a new Army Field Manual on counterinsurgency. He poses a couple of interesting questions:
"Successful … operations require Soldiers and Marines at every echelon
to possess the following," the authors write. (Emphasis added.)
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Robert Blair Kaiser--Time magazine's correspondent at Vatican II and author of the recent A Church in Search of Itself: Benedict XVI and the Battle for the Future--has apparently founded a new organization, takebackourchurch.org. According to the mission statment, the organization is "
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Senator Barack Obama has posted his keynote address delivered at the Call to Renewal conference (see E.J. Dionne's coverage here). Here is an excerpt:
More fundamentally, the discomfort of some progressives with any hint of religion has often prevented us from effectively addressing issues in
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The retirement of Cardinal Ted McCarrick as Archbishop of Washington has generated a lot of reflection on how McCarrick and other bishops tried to deal with politicians who reject the Church’s teaching on abortion or other important moral questions. Peter Steinfels most recent column
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Newsweek reports on an interesting online survey conducted by Beliefnet about beliefs in hell:
Conservatives are more confident than liberals that they'll avoid hell—and that they know someone who won't. Liberals are less confident about their own chances of escaping hell and less sure they can
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One story that we haven't commented on here yet has been the ecumenical implications of a decision by the Church of England to ordain women bishops. Cardinal Walter Kasper has been warning the CofE that moving ahead with such ordinations would create a "serious and long lasting chill"
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Rocco Palmo is (more or less) liveblogging today's meeting of the U.S. bishops in Los Angeles, where they are meant to be voting on the proposed text of the Roman Missal. He also provides a helpful link (reproduced here) to this morning's remarks by Bishop Arthur Roche of Leeds, chairman of the
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In his "Beliefs" column in the NYT, Peter Steinfels writes about a recent conference of legal scholars that examined the potential impact of same-sex marriage on religious liberty:
Is same-sex marriage on a collision course with religious liberty? It wasn't surprising that before the
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Emily Yoffe writes the "Dear Prudence" column for Slate magazine. In her latest installment, she talks about how she received a letter from a woman in her mid-30s who was about to marry a wonderful man. Neither of them wanted children, and wanted to know how to fend off inevitable
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Given the debate that has emerged below with respect to Commonweal's editorial about Pope Benedict's speech at Auschwitz, I offer for further reflection the remarks of Rabbi Eugene Corn of the American Jewish Congress, which were published in The Forward. Here is an excerpt:
At Auschwitz,
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The Philadelphia Inquirer is running a special set of features on Catholicism, giving what might be termed a "state of the faith" report in the United States and Europe
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In responding to Cathleen’s question below, I have to say that I’m not really mystified why DVC is so popular. I hear the writing is bad, but anyone who thinks that is a barrier to popularity hasn’t been reading the best seller lists lately. I myself am currently enjoying a series of badly
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Interesting piece up in the Wall Street Journal (you need to be a subscriber to read the whole thing) about Senator John McCain's (R-AZ) efforts to woo evangelical voters by giving a commencement address at Jerry Fallwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg. But the article notes that Fallwell has
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I'm seeing press reports on pro-life sites and listserves that Amnesty International is considering adopting a policy in favor of defining access to legal abortion as a human right. Richard Stith over at Mirror of Justice has also been writing about this
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At least some--certainly not all--of the recent debate over immigration focuses on the economic impact. Writing at Slate, Daniel Gross looks at a new BLS study that pulls the available data together. Here's an interesting clip:
Not all immigrants are uneducated, low-skilled workers—not by a
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I have an unusual hobby. I like to spend my holiday weekends with convicted felons...:-)
This Memorial Day weekend, I and a team of 50+ people will be heading up to a state prison here in California to lead a retreat for 42 inmates of the facility. The retreat is sponsored by an ecumenical prison
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That ought to drive some search engine traffic in this direction...:-)
Bill Saletan at Slate magazine has been writing an interesting blog/column for awhile now called "Human Nature" in which he posts links to interesting stories about science, technology, and society.
In his most
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Bishop John D'Arcy of Fort Wayne-South Bend--in whose diocese the University of Notre Dame resides--has issued a response to Fr. John Jenkins' "A Closing Statement on Academic Freedom and Catholic Character."
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I took Margaret’s suggestion and read through Anthony Cordesman’s “litany of errors” in Iraq. There wasn’t much there that I could find to disagree with. And while we’re talking about useful on-line resources for information about the war, let me recommend the weblog Intel Dump by Phil
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I wanted to draw DC readers’ attention to three interesting articles on parish life from three different publications. The first is from Godspy, an online Catholic magazine that deserves to be more widely known. The article, entitled Unleashing the Laity, talks about the
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The New York Times is reporting that seven Catholic cardinals were among more than 50 religious leaders who signed a petition asking for a constitutional amendment blocking same-sex marriage.
I seem to recall a joke making the rounds in pro-life circles two decades ago that the kiss of death for
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John Cavadini, Chair of the Department of Theology at Notre Dame (and Commonweal contributor) has weighed in with an "open letter" regarding President Jenkins' recent "closing statement" on the ongoing controversy at the university. It reads, in part:
But Ex Corde Ecclesiae,
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Recent posts about the LA Religious Education Congress, as well as persistent (if as yet unconfirmed) rumors that Pope Benedict plans to grant wider permission to celebrate the Tridentine rite have got me thinking about liturgy. So much ink (or pixels) has been spilled on the liturgy wars that the
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I noticed that in our ongoing discussion of Catholic identity at Catholic colleges and universities, our fellow blogger Peter Steinfels has yet to weigh in. This is a shame, because one of the best treatments of this issue that I've read is the fourth chapter of Peter's book A People Adrift,
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Tim Reidy’s new article in Commonweal on campus ministry at Princeton is the kind of thick, juicy piece of reporting and analysis that makes me want to invite Tim back out to San Francisco so I can argue with him over Irish Coffees at the Buena Vista.
Tim’s argument is that an increasing
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The New York Times ran a story today on the impact of President Bush's tax cuts on investment income. Here is the lede:
The first data to document the effect of President Bush's tax cuts for investment income show that they have significantly lowered the tax burden on the richest Americans,
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Yesterday was an interesting day. I spent the afternoon in an upper level graduate seminar hearing presentations on feminist, womanist, tribal, post-colonial and queer theology. Then I came home and found the latest catalog from Ignatius Press sitting in my mailbox.
I suppose I could just shrug
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Since I live in California, I wanted to offer a few random thoughts about the whole immigration law contretemps. I'm not driving toward a particular conclusion here. I just want to offer some fodder for discussion.
California's economy is deeply dependent on the labor of undocumented workers.
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Apropos of our discussion on this site a few days ago about the Cardinal Newman Society, America magazine has an editorial this week on this very topic. The editorial notes that after the promulgation of Ex Corde Ecclesiae, the USCCB set up a standing committee of bishops and presidents of
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"There is no intellectual, cultural, religious or political tradition of interpretation that does not live by the quality of its conversation; there is also no tradition that does not eventually have to acknowledge its own plurality and ambiguity."
--David Tracy, Plurality and Ambiguity
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We are approach the one year anniversary of the death of Terri Schiavo. Schiavo's case ignited a debate both inside and outside the Church about the ethical issues involved in end-of-life care. In the March 10th issue of Commonweal, Paul Lauritzen discusses the recent evolution of Catholic
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A number of the issues we have been discussing lately--the Boston Catholic Charities situation, the removal of Tom Reese as editor of America, etc.--involve issues of ecclesiology. Specifically, they raise the question about the circumstances under which the Holy See should intervene in the
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Over at First Things, Richard John Neuhaus has some nice things to say about DotCommonweal in general and this author in particular (scroll down after the link). So I thank him for that. But I’m not sure we’re entirely in agreement on every point.
But I’m almost reluctant to keep the debate
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Much ink continues to be spilled about the issue of "Catholic identity" at historically Catholic colleges and universities. I learned today, for example, that the Cardinal Newman Society is continuing its crusade against Fr. Richard McBrien of Notre Dame, making yet another plagiarism
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Just a point of clarification on my earlier post. I was not trying to argue, that "liberal Catholicism" was responsible for the decline in vocations to the priesthood and religious life.
My point was rather that most of those who are entering seminaries, monasteries and houses of
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With regard to the issues raised by Mark and Margaret, I think the latter’s raising of the “what” question is important. If we’re wondering “where” something is, we need to know “what” we are looking for. As Margaret suggests, “Commonweal Catholic” or “liberal Catholic” can
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You’ve probably heard this one before: a priest was walking down the street when he was accosted by a thief who demanded his wallet. As the priest was reaching for the wallet, his coat fell open to reveal his collar.
The thief, startled, said “I’m sorry Father, I had no idea.”
The
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I want to begin by extending greetings to my fellow DotCommonwealers. May the peace of Christ be with you!
I’m excited by this launch. For more than 80 years, Commonweal has been at the center of an intergenerational conversation about the relationship of Catholic faith to modern culture,
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