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Issue of October 5, 2007

October 5, 2007 -- NCR front cover

 


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   This Week’s Edition: October 5, 2007 

Vol. 43 No. 40

NCRonline.org   
Cover story --
Ethics of feeding tubes
A matter of life and death

By John L. Allen Jr.
Ethicists ponder practicality, rightness of Vatican rules on artificial feeding.

Full story
Tubes for food, water may cause discomfort

By John L. Allen Jr.
In its Sept. 14 ruling, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith recognized three exceptions to the requirement to provide food and water to patients in a persistent vegetative state: isolated or impoverished locations where use of a feeding tube is impossible; when the patient’s body can no longer assimilate food or water; and when the treatment causes “significant physical discomfort.”


Full story
Rome tightens rules as 'right to die' laws spread

By John L. Allen Jr.
It’s no accident, experts say, the Vatican began to tighten its position on the obligation to provide food and water to patients in a persistent vegetative state in the late 1980s, at the same time that some Western nations first began to experiment with decriminalizing euthanasia.


Full story
To awaken the conscience

By John L. Allen Jr.
One core issue in Catholic bioethics is the distinction between ordinary and extraordinary means, which goes back to the 16th century. The basic idea is that while one is morally obliged to use ordinary methods to preserve life, the pursuit of extraordinary, or heroic, measures is optional.


Full story
Nation
Nancy Mairs: the spirituality of a body in trouble

By Rich Heffern
Nancy Mairs is the author of eight books, including Ordinary Time, Remembering the Bone House, Carnal Acts and Waist High in the World. Raised as a Congregationalist in New England, she converted to Catholicism. Her poems and meditations on spirituality, on marriage and sexuality, on understanding vocation in a life circumscribed by multiple sclerosis have appeared in numerous periodicals. Her essay, “On Being a Cripple,” is used as a text in medical schools for students learning how to treat and talk with persons with disabilities.


Full story
Insurer rejects church policy application because of gay stance

By Religion News Service
A United Church of Christ congregation’s pro-gay stance puts it “at a higher risk” of litigation and property damage, a leading U.S. church insurer said in refusing to offer coverage to a Michigan congregation.

Full story
Mass celebrated on Chicago street where people were gunned down

By Michelle Martin
Violence can happen anywhere. But when Israel Morales, a neighborhood organizer and parishioner at St. Nicholas of Tolentine Parish on Chicago’s Southwest Side, was gunned down this summer near the church, community members decided they had to do something.


Full story
Jena uncovers America's parallel realities

By Tom Roberts
By many measures, Javonne Patterson is a good example of the benefits the civil rights movement won for African-Americans. A graduate of O’Hara Catholic High School in Kansas City, Mo., she’s a successful senior biology major at Xavier University in New Orleans and looks forward to medical school next year.


Full story
Ministers must now be Communion cops, archbishop says

By Daniel Burke
St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke is urging ministers to deny Communion to politicians who support abortion rights, arguing that it’s a “mortal sin” to offer the sacrament to “the unworthy.”


Full story
Fall Books
The politics of AIDS
THE INVISIBLE CURE: AFRICA, THE WEST, AND THE FIGHT AGAINST AIDS
By Helen Epstein
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 326 pages, $26


Reviewed by
Daniel Burke
A devastating picture of the CIA's record
LEGACY OF ASHES: THE HISTORY OF THE CIA
By Tim Weiner
Doubleday, 700 pages, $27.95


Reviewed by
Charles N. Davis
China Galland's pilgrim path
LONGING FOR DARKNESS: TARA AND THE BLACK MADONNA
By China Galland
Penguin, 392 pages, $16


 
LOVE CEMETERY: UNBURYING THE SECRET HISTORY OF SLAVES
By China Galland
Harper Collins, 275 pages, $24.95


Reviewed by
Sally Cunneen
Lighting the darkness in Sudan
VOICES OF SUDAN
By David Johnson
Elevate Publishing, 105 pages, $19.99


Reviewed by
Paige Byrne Shortal
'Hints at the marvelous'
THE BEST AMERICAN SPIRITUAL WRITING, 2007
Edited by Philip Zaleski
Houghton Mifflin, 336 pages, $28


 
THE BEST CATHOLIC WRITING, 2007
Edited by Jim Manney
Loyola Press, 241 pages, $14.95


Reviewed by
Daniel Burke
The undoing of Haiti
AN UNBROKEN AGONY: HAITI, FROM REVOLUTION TO THE KIDNAPPING OF A PRESIDENT
By Randall Robinson
Basic Civitas Books, 288 pages, $26


Reviewed by
Ben Terrall
A quest for a new foreign policy
ETHICAL REALISM: A VISION FOR AMERICA'S ROLE IN THE WORLD
By Anatol Lieven and John Hulsman
Pantheon Books, 199 pages, $22


Reviewed by
Tom Roberts
NCR Editorials
Media frenzy buries U.N. goals

When the U.N. General Assembly opened its 62nd annual meeting Sept. 25, the disproportionate attention accorded the controversial Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad overshadowed other topics. Granted, the fuss that followed Ahmadinejad forced valuable debate over such themes as freedom of speech, hospitality (or lack of it), and tolerance for half truths and misinformation. Nevertheless, his appearance was among a stream of high-profile events at the United Nations that siphon attention from significant projects underway in the wings. Not everything notable relates to government leaders and their theatrics.

Full editorial
Quotable & Notable

“We call it RCA, or Roman Collar Amnesia.”

-- Janice Hesselton, an employee of the Cleveland diocese, talking about an acronym commonly used at the chancery to describe memory problems that strike priests called to testify in court. Her comments occurred during testimony at the recent trial of a diocesan employee.


More quotes

Viewpoint
Jenna 6 case highlights injustice

By Earl Ofari Hutchinson
Louisiana investigation found a juvenile justice system in trouble.


Full story
Nation
Legionaries sue Web site critic

By Michael Humphrey
The Legionaries of Christ, a religious order whose founder was recently disciplined by the Vatican following years of accusations that he had sexually abused young seminarians, has filed a lawsuit against one of its most public critics.


Full story
An urgent call to protect biodiversity

By NCR Staff
The Switzerland-based World Conservation Union called for urgent action to stave off a “global extinction crisis” as the organization released its 2007 Red List of Threatened Species Sept. 12.


Full story
World
Buddhist clergy give moral force to showdown with junta

By Marwaan Macan-Markar
After allowing nearly 10 days of massive anti-government protests led by Buddhist monks, Burma’s military junta Sept. 25 ordered a ban on demonstrations and a 60-day curfew. However, thousands of people took to the streets the next day, and troops were sent to disperse crowds in the nation’s capital Yangon.

Full story
Episcopalians make bid to stay in Anglican Communion

By
Peggy Polk
and Daniel Burke
Expressing their “passionate desire” to remain a full partner in the worldwide Anglican Communion, U.S. Episcopal bishops Sept. 25 said they remain committed to not allowing more gay bishops and pledged not to authorize public blessings of same-sex unions.


Full story
Musicians aim to convert musically traditionalist pope

By
Catholic News Service

British musicians recorded the classic Irish hymn, “Sweet Heart of Jesus,” in a calypso, disco style and sent it to Pope Benedict XVI on an iPod nano.


Full story
West Bank village scores partial victory against wall

By Claire Schaeffer-Duffy
Emad Bornat, a 37-year old videographer from the West Bank village of Bil’in, remembers when there was no metal barrier or Jewish settlement on the horizon of his hometown. The village’s western view looked out on agricultural fields, olive trees and open land. “It was beautiful,” he said.


Full story
Israel apologizes to Nobel Peace laureate

By Claire Schaeffer-Duffy
Last month, Dr. Zion Evrony, Israeli ambassador to Ireland, met with Nobel Peace laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire and her colleague Ann Patterson to apologize on behalf of his government for an April 20 shooting incident in Bil’in.


Full story
Fall Books
A personal look at Chávez's revolution
COWBOY IN CARACAS: A NORTH AMERICA'S MEMOIR OF VENEZUELA'S DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION
By Charles Hardy
Curbstone Press, 170 pages, $15


Reviewed by
Michelle Otero
Pacifism and power
GANDHI AND BEYOND: NONVIOLENCE FOR AN AGE OF TERRORISM
By David Cortright
Paradigm Publishers, 265 pages, $24.95


Reviewed by
Tobias Winright
A call to the laity to find its role
CATHOLICISM AT THE CROSSROADS: HOW THE LAITY CAN SAVE THE CHURCH
By Paul Lakeland
Continuum, 164 pages, $19.95


Reviewed by
Joseph Cunneen
The beauty in the silence
PORTRAITS OF GRACE: IMAGES AND WORDS FROM THE MONASTERY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
By James Stephen Behrens
ACTA Publications, 128 pages, $19.95


Reviewed by
Margot Patterson
Young adults' search for God
GOOGLING GOD: THE RELIGIOUS LANDSCAPE OF PEOPLE IN THEIR 20S AND 30S
By Mike Hayes
Paulist Press, 208 pages, $16.95
BLESSED ARE THE BORED IN SPIRIT: A YOUNG CATHOLIC'S SEARCH FOR MEANING
By Mark Hart
Servant Books, 129 pages, $11.99


Reviewed by
Erin Ryan
The Catholic Best-Sellers List

The Catholic Best-Sellers List for October 2007, according to the Catholic Book Publishers Association.
Inside NCR

Rita Larivee

FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK

Countering the postal hike
In recent issues of NCR, I’ve written about the 23 percent postal increase we face this year. That increase translates into an additional $95,000 annually just to mail the paper to our readers 42 times a year. As you can imagine, where that extra $95,000 will come from has been cause for consternation. It’s well over and above the reasonable increase for which we had budgeted.

Full story


Essay
Changing the laws of war

By Howard Friel
Conference seeks to legitimize civilian casualties.


Full story
Feature
Signs along the way

By Shona Crabtree
Roadside faith expressions are especially American.


Full story

Media
I dreamed Iran tortured Bush

By Raymond A. Schroth
I had a dream last night. There was President Bush on TV, on the Al Jazeera network. Bush had disappeared from public view a month before and his White House staff had been feeding the press old pictures of him biking and cutting brush on his Texas ranch. Blog sites were beginning to ask whether he might be back on the sauce.


Full story

Earth & Spirit
In the country of the bland

By Rich Heffern
Located in the backwaters of the Missouri Ozarks, Ray’s Store, like many rural roadside bait and tackle shops, looks ramshackle, needs paint on the front. A handwritten sign on the screen door says “No shirt, no shoes, no problem” and below “Smokers welcome.” A beat-up Harley Davidson squats on the porch.

Full story


 Poetry

Poetry October 5, 2007

 Letters to the Editor

Letters for October 5, 2007
 
Classifieds

Classifieds for October 5, 2007
 
Briefs

News Briefs for October 5, 2007

People for October 5, 2007
 


Last Words
 
'My books discuss the spirituality of a body in trouble. Sooner or later we'll all be there.'

-- Nancy Mairs

A memorable quote from this week's issue.

 
   
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