Commonweal back issues from January 2006:
Cardinal George responds.(Letter to the Editor)
Jan 27, 2006 ... John Wilkins's article on the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) in the December 2, 2005, issue ("Lost in Translation") is partial and biased. Perhaps that is to be expected, since he was not present at the events he describes and therefore his account is, by ...
Lost in translation.(Letter to the Editor)
Jan 27, 2006; ... So the bishops and the Vatican are puzzling over whether "not worthy to receive you" or "not worthy that you should enter under my roof" is the more appropriate response just before Communion ("Reforming the Reform," Kevin Eckstrom, December 2, 2005). I, in turn, am puzzled about how ...
Silence & the liturgy.(Letter to the Editor)
Jan 27, 2006; ... I attended a penance service soon after reading Roger Repohl's fine article on the need for more silence during the liturgy ("Quiet, Please," December 16, 2005). The service was breathtaking: for forty-seven minutes preceding the opportunity for private, auricular confession, we ...
Legislating from the bench.(Letter to the Editor)
Jan 27, 2006 ... I appreciate Cathleen Kaveny's timely essay, "Letter v. Spirit (December 16, 2005). Kaveny is right, of course, that "good judges do far more than apply the law" and that "the real question is how"--not whether--" a justice will approach the task of constitutional interpretation." But ...
Which book when?(Letter to the Editor)
Jan 27, 2006; ... In spite of having a couple of English lit degrees, I wasn't aware that critics are of different minds on the proper sequence of reading the Narnia books. Robert Bell ("Inside the Wardrobe," December 16, 2005) recommends Lewis's own sequence as published, but he doesn't tell us why ....
Justice & Alito.(Samuel Alito)(Editorial)
Jan 27, 2006 ... Like John Roberts, Judge Samuel Alito appears to be a very decent person, a meticulous legal craftsman, and a man of deep conservative conviction. His all-but-certain elevation to the U.S. Supreme Court promises to fulfill the hopes of the Republican Party's right wing and the fears of ...
Religion & science: bridging the gap.(Column)
Jan 27, 2006; ... From the Terri Schiavo controversy to the stem-cell debate to the conflict over intelligent design, 2005 was rife with contentious issues that portrayed religion and science as wholly separate and competing realms of thought and experience. Two stories challenge that ...
The cult of national security: what happened to checks & balances?(Short Take)
Jan 27, 2006; ... Recent revelations that President George W. Bush authorized U.S. intelligence agencies to engage in domestic surveillance have revived old apprehensions about the abuse of executive power. Dark references to Watergate litter the airwaves and editorial pages. On Capitol Hill, outraged ...
After the big chill: intellectual freedom & Catholic theologians.(Contemporary Theology)
Jan 27, 2006; ... Suppose we indulge our fondest hopes. Let us imagine that Pope Benedict XVI turns out to be quite unlike what many expected, and that he embraces a spirit of theological openness and generosity. No longer would a respected and respectful editor of a Jesuit journal be removed for the sin of ...
Patriot Act: "THE COLBERT REPORT".(Television Program Review)
Jan 27, 2006; ... A footnote to those year-in-review roundups from 2005: Let's hand a laurel to Brooks Brothers, the upscale clothier, for its contribution to political satire. I'm talking about those natty suits and ties worn (according to program credits) by Stephen Colbert in the inspired Comedy Central ...
Really?(God's Choice: Pope Benedict XVI and the Future of the Catholic Church)(Book Review)
Jan 27, 2006; ... God's Choice Pope Benedict XVI and the Future of the Catholic Church George Weigel Basic Books, $26.95, 307 pp. George Weigel has chosen a risky title for his book on the election of Pope Benedict XVI. The claim that Joseph Ratzinger was "God's ...
Is Seeing Believing?(Doubting Thomas)(Book Review)
Jan 27, 2006; ... Doubting Thomas Glenn W. Most Harvard University Press, $27.95, 288 pp. How best do we know what we know? What proof, gained by what sense, most assures us that what seems so, is in fact so? Is it sight, as often claimed, that best comforts us: "To see is ...
Aquinas to the Rescue.(Reason and the Reasons of Faith)(Book Review)
Jan 27, 2006; ... Reason and the Reasons of Faith Edited by Paul J. Griffiths and Reinhold Hutter T. & T. Clark, $35, 373 pp. Probably the most famous line from Blaise Pascal's Pensees claims that "the heart has its reasons that reason knows nothing of." Taken in isolation, ...
Correction.(Correction Notice)
Jan 27, 2006 ... Because of an editing error, the name of book reviewer Ernest ...
Ever met a Christian?(The Last Word)(evangelism)
Jan 27, 2006; ... Reports on Benedict XVI's outreach to Jews and Muslims during his first papal trip abroad last August provoked in me a set of paradoxical reflections on the nature of evangelization. Does our concern for spreading the faith sometimes, and in subtle ways, unduly emphasize the ...