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By
Patricia Lefevere
Activists mark
30 years of struggle to reform criminal justice system in face of prison
expansion.
Thirty years
is not a life sentence. But for 30 years Charles and Pauline Sullivan have
devoted their days to reforming the criminal justice system, in Texas and
across the nation.
The couple founded
Texas CURE -- Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants -- in 1972.
Full
story
Ex-felon
proposes ‘new way’ for prisons
By
Patricia Lefevere
Lawyer James
Hamm thinks of the U.S. prison system as a sock turned inside out. He wants
to turn it right side out.
American prisons
are defective and dysfunctional, he said. They’re run on economies of scale
that produce recidivism. The system is unable to handle large numbers of
unmotivated offenders and lacks the “brains and resources” to control prison
gangs and institutional violence. It operates on an “extremely limited”
mission statement: Keep them in until they’ve done their time, then turn
them loose, he said.
 Full
story
 Secretary
balances Catholicism, policy
By
John
L. Allen Jr.
Bush’s man acknowledges
‘deviations“ from church teaching.
One of the most
senior Roman Catholics in the Bush administration says that despite a recent
Vatican document insisting that Catholic politicians must align their policy
choices with church doctrine, he can’t do his job “by solely relying on
Catholic teachings.”
Full
story
Traditionalists
deny rumors of reconciliation
By
John
L. Allen Jr.
Rumors over
Easter weekend concerning a “reconciliation” with the church of three of
the four bishops ordained illicitly by traditionalist Archbishop Marcel
Lefebvre in 1988 and the Vatican are false, according to two of the bishops.
Lefebvre’s Society
of St. Pius X rejects the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council
(1962-65), along with its teaching on ecumenism, interfaith relations and
religious liberty. The society is headquartered in Menzingen, Switzerland,
and numbers 360 priests, 50 brothers, 120 sisters and 53 oblate sisters,
living in 140 houses in 27 countries.
Full
story
 South
Africa’s rural poor inspire work of Belgian priest-artist
By
Robin
Gallaher Branch
Catholic News Service
A Belgian priest
and artist who has worked in South Africa since 1966 said the country’s
rural poor have inspired his work.
“I am very much
attracted to rural life,” said Oblate Fr. Wilfried Joye, 63, an expressionist
painter whose large oils depict religious themes and daily life in South
Africa’s townships and countryside.
Full
story
Peace
push pervades at Easter
By
John
L. Allen Jr.
Experts reflect
on legacy of pope’s stand against Iraq war.
Fallout from
the Iraq war lent an unusually political subtext to Holy Week in Rome,
with fresh declarations on the conflict from Pope John Paul II, and continuing
reflection on just what the legacy of his peace initiative will be.
Full
story |
A year ago, the
country’s attention was riveted on the Catholic bishops, the plight of
the victims of sex abuse by Catholic clergy and the plans to deal with
the crisis at an upcoming meeting in Dallas.
The meeting was
a media madhouse, the cameras catching the bishops trying their best to
convey accountability and approving a charter that was as severe and absolute
in dealing with accused priests as the bishops had been lax and irresponsible
in the preceding decades.
Full
editorial
Protest
ordinations neglect community
At a recent Call
to Action conference in Northern California I was asked about how I thought
women’s ordination would happen. I made my usual joke about not wanting
any bishops to “lay hands” on me. More seriously, I suggested that the
very lack of adequate numbers and quality of priests in the Catholic church
meant that more and more of the ministry is being done by theologically
educated lay people, mostly women. This is giving Catholics increasing
experience of good ministry coming from women. Many bishops would like
to ordain these women, but are prevented from doing so by church policy.
But I suspect that, as this continues, there will be a breakthrough at
the top to change the present exclusion. This change, like most change
in the church, will come from the bottom up.
Full
story
Spirit
in a world of connection
For Navajos,
spirituality is tightly woven with everyday life, and laughter is a sign
of holiness.
Tony Hillerman
is the top mystery writer in America today. His success comes from a series
of novels featuring the Native American police detectives Jim Chee and
Joe Leaphorn working on the huge Navajo reservation that covers parts of
Arizona and New Mexico. The 15th in the series, The Wailing Wind,
was published early this year.
Full
story
 We’re
not a Christian country
By
Jim O'Leary
Mark Twain was
poking fun at religion with his “War Prayer.”
“O Lord our God,
help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us
to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead;
help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded,
writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane
of fire. ... We ask it in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the source
of love.”
Full
story
As
filming ends, ‘Passion’ strikes some nerves
By
Cindy Wooden
Catholic
News Service
The Jerusalem
and Garden of Gethsemane sets were dismantled at Rome’s Cinecitta Film
Studios in late March, but the talk about Mel Gibson’s upcoming film, “The
Passion,” did not stop.
The film focuses
on the last 12 hours of Jesus’ life and, not surprisingly, struck some
nerves, particularly because of its graphic violence and concern over how
the Jews will be portrayed.
Full
story |
FROM
THE EDITOR'S DESK
As Iraq stands
between liberation and whatever the future holds, the complexity of not
only that country but also the region begins to show itself. Shiite marches
to the holy city of Karbala are said to provide diversion, if unintentionally,
from Iranian agents infiltrating to influence the political process to
serve Iranian interests that, in this case, have little to do with democracy.
The oil is said to have begun flowing in the South, but who will control
it? And who, ultimately, will be in charge of the country? Clerics are
jockeying for position at the top of the political heap, but so are interests
from the outside, including Iraqis who have been in exile and now want
to run the country.
Full
story
A
door on the second floor
By
James
Stephen Behrens
Two men delivered
my furniture and I liked them a lot. I never got their names and feel bad
about that now but I shook their hands and offered them a Coke before they
started to move the furniture. I ordered a lot of furniture and they said
it was the largest delivery of their day. And then they said that they
did not know that I lived on the second floor. They smiled at each other
and told me that happens a lot. The man at the store where I bought my
furniture did not ask me what he was supposed to ask about the heights
at which I am now living. And I did not think to tell him all on my own.
It did not seem relevant to me at the time.
Full
story
Lessons
for future in Iraq’s tragic history
 |
A
HISTORY OF IRAQ
By Charles Tripp
Cambridge
University Press, 350 pages, $14 |
 |
IRAQ
SINCE 1958: FROM REVOLUTION TO DICTATORSHIP
By Marion Farouk-Sluglett
and Peter Sluglett
I.B. Tauris,
364 pages, $29.98 |
Reviewed
by Faith J. Childress
As the United
States shifts its focus in Iraq from invasion to rebuilding infrastructure
and filling the political vacuum left by the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime,
now is an opportune time to catch up on the history of colonialism and
authoritarian rule that typifies Iraq’s political history. Charles Tripp’s
second edition of A History of Iraq is the most recent (2002) and
Peter Sluglett’s third edition of Iraq Since 1958: From Revolution to
Dictatorship -- coauthored with the late Marion Farouk-Sluglett --
was published in 2001.While both volumes are readable, detailed and updated,
readers who want a general overview of Iraqi history will find A History
of Iraq the better choice. Iraq Since 1958, on the other hand,
is an excellent volume for readers who are interested in the role of communism
in Iraq and who want a more detailed account of the rise of the Baath Party
and Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Full
story
Poetry
for May 2, 2003
 Letters
for May 2, 2003
Classifieds
for May 2, 2003
Summer
Listings II
News Briefs for May 2, 2003
Correction
In the April
11 NCR, a photo in an Addenda item identified as retired Norwich,
Conn., Bishop Daniel Hart was actually that of retired Bishop Joseph Hart
of Cheyenne, Wyo.
Last
Words
| 'Humor is a side effect
of living deeply. Are applicants to Catholic seminaries ever checked for
a funny bone?' |
|
Rich
Heffern
|
A
memorable quote from this week's issue.
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