By
Rich Heffern
Advent is an evangelist that preaches a two-pronged Gospel.
Full story
By
Margot Patterson
Journalist Nicholas Kristof talks about genocide in Sudan and what
can be done to end it.
Full story
Curial cardinal says celibacy can be discussed
By
John L. Allen Jr.
Pope Benedict XVI’s choice as the church’s top official for
priests has said that celibacy “is not a dogma,” and that the
Catholic church “can reflect” on the subject. The explosive character of the issue, however, was reflected in a
“clarification” issued in the name of the cardinal by the Vatican
Press Office Dec. 4.
Full story
By
John L. Allen Jr.
Whatever one makes of Pope Benedict XVI’s shift from a “red
light” to a “yellow light” on Turkey’s candidacy for the
European Union, it was actually not the most jarring discontinuity between
Joseph Ratzinger the cardinal and Benedict the pope during the Turkey trip.
Full story
By
Deirdre Cornell
Musing on Oaxaca and the country as a whole, our neighbor, Señor
Roberto, recalled the words of dictator Porfirio Díaz: “The
sleeping tiger must not be awakened.” Díaz’s words echo with
special resonance in his own state, where a teachers’ strike grew into a
broad-based coalition demanding the resignation of the governor.
Full story
Roundtable offers high-powered counsulting, faces skepticism
By
Joe Feuerherd
The driving concept behind the lay-led National Leadership Roundtable on
Church Management is simple enough: Take the best tools of modern management --
detailed budgeting, comprehensive financial disclosure, human resource policies
that reward high performers -- promote them widely within existing church
structures, and then apply them to the diocese and parish.
Full story
$60 million to settle abuse claims in L.A.
By
NCR Staff
The Los Angeles archdiocese has announced it will pay $60 million to
settle 45 sexual-abuse claims made against its clergy. The decision will help
bring to a close 8 percent of the 562 cases brought against the nation’s
largest archdiocese, and will cover two periods when the church had little or
no insurance against sexual abuse claims.
Full story
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Iraq report step in right direction
The Iraq Study Group Report is many things: the realist response to
neoconservative adventurism, a devastating critique of a miserably failed
policy, and a call for diplomacy and politics to supplant arms as the key
weapon in the arsenal of the world’s only superpower in the planet’s
most volatile region.
Full editorial
Carter's experience worth a hearing
Former President Jimmy Carter certainly stirred a hornet’s nest
with the publication of his new book: Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. He
has said he intended to be provocative, and he has, provoking the kind of
discussion he envisioned as well as the not unexpected criticism and
condemnations.
Full editorial
“The richest 1 percent of adults own 40 percent of the
world’s household wealth, while half the world shares barely 1
percent.”
-- Findings of a study released by the Helsinki-based World Institute
for Development Economics Research, which shows an ever-widening disparity
between the world’s rich and poor
More quotes
A new book remembers Sr. Ita Ford
This moving 250-page volume was put together by Sr. Ita Ford’s
family and friends. Her legacy is being carried forward by her brother William
Ford, a New York lawyer who has had significant victories in courts against
some of the Salvadoran warlords now living in affluence in the United
States.
Full story
The limits to assimilation
Muslim immigration poses a new and perhaps overwhelming challenge to
the United States.
Full story
By
Raymond A. Schroth
Young black males need society's attention.
Full story
Bible not the only book used for politicians' oath-takings
By
Religion News Service
When Keith Ellison, the Minnesota Democrat who last month was elected
the first Muslim in Congress, announced he would take his oath as a member of
the House on the Quran, he provoked sharp criticism from conservatives.
Full story
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FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK
The light and quiet of winter
I think often this time of year of light and quiet. Light, because so
much of what the Catholic community thinks about in December is the coming of
the Light and because so much of what surrounds us during this season, at least
where seasons exist and the cold visits, invites us to quiet.
Full story
Starting Point
By
James Stephen Behrens
I am 57 years old and the voice of my mom still comes to me at times.
She lives some distance from here, but her presence is never far. Last week was
my week as lead cantor. I looked at the hymn one morning, just before 4:00, and
did not know it. I whispered to Tom Francis. He hummed a few notes, but it did
not sound right. He smiled and said, “Well, let’s try it together and
see.”
Full story
Subtle triumphs
By
Joseph Cunneen
'The Nativity Story' is moving and unsentimental; 'Climates' show pain of human
relationships.
Full review
Jimmy Carter on Palestine
Reviewed by
Philip C. Wilcox Jr.
Full review
Poetry for December 15, 2006
Letters for December 15, 2006
Classifieds for December 15, 2006
News Briefs for December 15, 2006
People for December 15, 2006
Last Words
A memorable quote from this week's issue.
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