A Desert Storm and The Future of War

The 43-day war in the Persian Gulf ended on Feb. 27 exactly as it began—amid controversy over its morality. Catholics who backed Operation Desert Storm and those who opposed it both found their positions validated by the events of the war. “The outcome of the war so well vindicated the arguments for its justice,” said Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, director…

Facing A moral Problem in The Inner Cities

In the view of Franciscan Father James Goode, the freeways that arch above America’s inner cities are a metaphor for the profound alienation of the races and the nation’s flight from the problems of the black ghetto. As the country’s leading black Catholic evangelist, Father Goode has, in the past 20 years, preached in the violent, poverty-torn heart of nearly…

Memoirs of A Country Journalist

“The light of morning revealed what the wild storm of the night had done. The glazed branches of trees weighted with crystal ice hung low over the snow-covered earth. I was glad to hear my father say that he would delay his milk delivery so that we children could ride to school with him. We dressed warmly against the wind-driven…

Why Rev. Dan Berrigan Won’t Be Voting This Year (or Any Other)

This year’s presidential hopefuls seem adrift, far removed from the world of heartache and hopelessness that Rev. Daniel Berrigan, S.J., finds in New York City neighborhood where he lives. When New Yorkers cast their primary ballots on April 7, Father Berrigan won’t be among them. “I’ve never voted in my life; it’s never made any sense to me,” he said…

A Sermon in The Rocky Mountains

Outside, the old neighbor lady pokes her head out the door. Clutching the sweater she’s pulled around her nightgown, she shuffles to the end of the porch and peers down the alley, calling for something. A fat white cat emerges in a slow trot and moseys around the base of the porch, up the steps and into the house. The…

The Untold Story of Abortion in America

  History has long been among the casualties in the country’s long cultural war over abortion, according to Marvin Olasky, author of the new book, Abortion Rites: A Social History of Abortion in America (Regnery, 1992). The accepted wisdom today, repeated from news decisions, is that abortion has been widespread and widely tolerated throughout much of the country’s history. According…

Catholic Leaders Worldwide Growing ‘Green’

Like the slow turning of nature at springtime, there has been a quiet “greening” of the Catholic hierarchy in recent years.

Responding to what they see as a growing ecological crisis, and finding new natural wisdom in their Scriptures and traditions, bishops from Italy to Indonesia, and from North America to the Amazon, have been stitching together what might be called a Catholic catechism on the environment.

Keeping Babies Healthy in A Down Economy

Cody coos, all wiggles and squirms, as his mother puts the finishing touches on another diaper change in his crib in a half-finished room of a basement apartment in Castleton, N.Y.

“He’s like my second skin,” said Helen Bridenbeck. “He has just been the joy of my life.”

A New Frequency of Faith

When the nation’s first commercial Catholic radio network went off the air in May 2000 after just 18 months in operation, the signal seemed loud and clear—“all–Catholic, all–the–time” is a format without a future.