| Faith at Large --
Profile |
By
Renée LaReau
Astronomer Aileen O'Donoghue finds spiritual, intellectual home in the night skies.
Full story
Giant Jesus: highway guardian or Christian kitsch?
By
Religion News Service
In the year that “Super Savior,” a 62-foot-tall statue of
Jesus with upraised arms, was installed on land reclaimed from a cornfield just
north of the Monroe interchange on Interstate 75, traffic fatalities on this
notorious stretch of road slicing through southwestern Ohio have dropped
precipitously.
Full story
By
Joe Feuerherd
In selling Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers to the public, and to the
100 senators who will decide whether she joins the high court, the
administration of the nation’s first MBA president is offering a case
study in confused marketing, and religion is at the core of the botched
effort.
Full story
By
Ralph Cipriano
Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham has responded to attacks on
her credibility by calling on the Philadelphia archdiocese to release 45,000
pages of secret church records that document sexual abuse of hundreds of
children.
Full story
Program urges priests to recruit
By
Joe Feuerherd
Priests are the most successful recruiters of future priests and should
be encouraged to identify men suitable for ordination. That’s the thesis
behind “Fishers of Men,” a new program of the U.S. bishops’
conference Committee on Vocations.
Full story
By
John L. Allen Jr.
Bishops focus on priest shortage, status of divorced Catholics.
Full story
Archbishop Gregory: 'Honest give-and-take' at synod
By
John L. Allen Jr.
Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta, the former president of the U.S.
Conference of Catholic Bishops, sat down with NCR for an
interview about the Synod of Bishops Oct. 19 at the North American College, the
American seminary in Rome.
Full story
U.S. military buildup in Paraguayan jungle causes alarm
By
Ben Dangl
When Donald Rumsfeld visited Paraguay in August, protesters greeted his
entourage with chants such as, “Rumsfeld, you fascist; you are the
terrorist!” as a military band welcomed him by playing the “Star
Spangled Banner.”
Full story
Muddled thinking behind targeting gays in seminaries
By
James C. Cavendish
In fulfilling its pledge to respond to the clergy sexual abuse crisis,
the Vatican last month began its apostolic visitations to U.S. seminaries to
evaluate their admissions procedures, whether they are properly preparing
seminarians to live chastely and whether there is any evidence of homosexuality
in the seminary.
Full story
| Catholic Colleges &
Universities |
|
The sin must be named
With the release Oct. 12 of a 155-page report describing decades of
sexual abuse by clergy in the Los Angeles archdiocese, there now exists
compelling and preponderant evidence that at least three living cardinals of
the Catholic church in the United States have been complicit in what any
reasonable observer would term criminal activity.
Full editorial
“I had come to conclude that to be a good priest I should be
married.”
-- William Manseau, a “suspended” priest, who appeared with
his wife Mary, a former nun, on a Barbara Walters special Oct. 17. Their son
Peter has written a book Vows: Son of a Priest and a Nun. William said,
“Celibacy is a gift of the Holy Spirit. You can’t legislate a gift
from God.”
More quotes
Let's talk straight about Iraq
Full story
Nobel Peace Prize is little better than an Oscar
Full story
The crisis of credibility in Philadelphia
By
Maureen Paul Turlish
Clergy sex abuse scandal is likely to deepen.
Full story
The Nobel Peace Prize and the nuclear danger
By
David Krieger
In this 60th anniversary year of the destruction of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Nobel Committee chose again to focus its award on
abolishing nuclear weapons.
Full story
By
Lawrence Davidson
Thirteen academics and peace activists traveled to Syria under the
auspices of Conscience International, a private aid organization run by James
Jennings, a man with talent for diplomacy and good works. We went to meet with
Syrian academics to tell them that not everyone in the United States believes
in a “clash of civilizations,” and that the Bush administration does
not represent all Americans. We quickly learned that the Syrians already
suspect this is the case. They have been watching America for some time.
Full story
Despite tension with Chinese government, Vatican endorses bishop
By
Religion News Service
A bishop ordained in China’s state-sanctioned church has received
tacit approval from the Vatican despite rising tensions between Pope Benedict
XVI and the Chinese government, a Vatican-affiliated Web site reported Oct.
19.
Full story
New agencies concerned for safety of journalists in Iraq
By
Claire Shaeffer-Duffy
The conduct of U.S. troops toward journalists in Iraq is jeopardizing
the safety of reporters and impeding full coverage of the war, according to two
media organizations. Last month Reuters News Agency and the New York-based
Committee to Protect Journalists told U.S. lawmakers that detentions and
accidental shootings are limiting journalists’ ability to operate in
Iraq.
Full story
Guatemala recovery will be long process
By
Jill Replogle
The town of Nahualate was flooded when the Nahualate River -- swollen
with rain left by Hurricane Stan -- overflowed its banks, filling houses with
water and burying cars, mattresses and crops under several feet of silt. The
flood took out the Bailey Bridge connecting the southwestern Guatemalan coast
to the rest of the country.
Full story
| Catholic Colleges &
Universities |
|
FROM
THE EDITOR'S DESK
Praise for a beat reporter
Several years ago, when word got out that John L. Allen Jr. was working
on a book about Opus Dei, more than a few people approached me wondering what
kind of book it would be. Would he, finally, get them? Would it be a whitewash?
Would he get anyone to talk to him? And so on.
Full
story
By
Christopher de Vinck
There is, in a forgotten land, a place where a boy and a girl smeared
their faces with charcoal and ran out the front door with white pillowcases
that flapped in the still night like thin little ghosts.
Full story
Starting Point
By
Karen O'Brien
My paternal grandma was larger than life in every sense of the word. Of
Lithuanian heritage, she was a robust, barrel-shaped woman who wore purple
everything long before the poem was written, and donned red wigs topped off by
hats that looked like fluffy fabric layer cakes. She had little use for formal
churchgoing but kept a home rich in folk belief and good cooking -- there was
always something simmering on her stove, morning noon and night.
Full story
Excerpt from John Allen's new book looks at Opus Dei's reputation for
secrecy.
Full story
Critique of America's war-making doesn't go far enough
Reviewed by
Brent Cunningham
Full review
Christian mission and art in New Spain
Reviewed by
Rebecca Beyer
Full review
Letters for October 28, 2005
Classifieds for October 28, 2005
News Briefs for October 28, 2005
People for October 28, 2005
Last
Words
| 'They took the universe, which is
fascinating, squeezed everything out of it and made high school science.' |
|
-- Aileen O'Donoghue
|
A memorable quote from this week's issue.
|
