National Catholic Reporter back issues from November 2005:
Keeping Arthur on speed dial.(EDITOR'S NOTE)
Nov 04, 2005; ... "Meet me at the clock in the lobby of the Waldorf Astoria," said Arthur Jones. "You'll know me because I'll be wearing a lavender cap." It was about a year after I'd arrived in Kansas City as managing editor of NCR. I can't recall why I was in New York at the time, but Arthur, who was then ...
Parishioners testify in court.(U.S. BRIEFS)(Brief Article)
Nov 04, 2005 ... PORTLAND, Ore -- Parish properties belong to the parishes not to the Portland archdiocese, Catholic parishioners told a federal bankruptcy court at a mid-October hearing. All 390,000 Catholics in the archdiocese are class-action defendants in the archdiocese's bankruptcy case. ...
Bishops cut mailing costs.(U.S. BRIEFS)(Brief Article)
Nov 04, 2005 ... WASHINGTON -- In an experiment that could bring savings of tens of thousands of dollars in coming years, the U.S. bishops' conference has sent all bishops a proposed Lectionary for Masses With Children in CD-ROM format. Printing and mailing of the 768-page document would have ...
Immigration reform sought.(U.S. BRIEFS)(Brief Article)
Nov 04, 2005 ... WASHINGTON -- More than 100 religious organizations from across the political spectrum are joining forces to demand immigration reform from the U.S. government, saying it is time to help illegal immigrants "come out of the shadows" and become lawful permanent residents. "We ...
Guatemala is a 'time bomb'.(WORLD BRIEFS)(Brief Article)
Nov 04, 2005 ... GUATEMALA CITY -- Church workers say Guatemala faces a health emergency and a long-term hunger crisis in the aftermath of the flooding and mudslides of Hurricane Stan. "This is a time bomb," said Dr. Mario Fuentes, head of the pastoral health program for the San Marcos diocese, in one of ...
Lord of the Miracles.(IN THE BEGINNING)(Brief Article)
Nov 04, 2005 ... Thousands of Catholics gather for the Lord of the Miracles procession through central Lima, Peru, Oct. 18, in a ...
Quotable & notable.(IN THE BEGINNING)
Nov 04, 2005 ... "Surely Mrs. Rosa Parks was sent to us by God, because few among us were so well prepared to play such a momentous role in history."--Coretta Scott King on the civil rights icon who died Oct, 25 at 92 "In selling Miers, Rove commits a mortal spin"--Headline atop a column by ...
Boston archdiocese says it will open financial books to public.(IN THE BEGINNING)
Nov 04, 2005 ... In a move expected to inspire imitation far beyond Massachusetts, the Boston archdiocese has pledged to disclose all of its finances to the public next year, even if the state Legislature doesn't require it. "During the first quarter of 2006, we will release consolidated ...
Military service refused.(WORLD BRIEFS)(Brief Article)
Nov 04, 2005 ... SEOUL, South Korea -- A Catholic student has refused compulsory military service because he says he wants to follow Jesus. "If I accept such horrible training, I could not help but abandon Jesus' Gospel. Then there would be no meaning left in my life," Plus Ko Dongju said in a statement ...
Caritas India wants more work.(Brief Article)
Nov 04, 2005 ... NEW DELHI -- Caritas India, the relief agency of India's Catholic bishops, has asked the Indian and Pakistan governments for permission to extend cross-border assistance to villages in the quake-hit Kashmir region. Caritas India acted on the prompting of its Pakistani counterpart. ...
'Counter-divestment' promoted.(evangelical group )(Brief Article)
Nov 04, 2005 ... JERUSALEM -- The International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, an Israel-based evangelical group that brings thousands of pilgrims to Israel every year and supports both Jews and Arabs in the Holy Land, has launched a campaign to encourage Christians around the world to invest ...
Financial accusations 'untrue'.(WORLD BRIEFS)(Brief Article)
Nov 04, 2005 ... LAGOS, Nigeria -- Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria is vehemently denying an allegation that African church leaders were offered money to distance themselves from liberal churches in the United States and Canada. In an open letter, he called the accusations "irresponsible," ...
Starting point.(IN THE BEGINNING)(Brief Article)
Nov 04, 2005; ... There is a new digital camera on the market. Its manufacturer boasts of its anti-shake mechanism. The technology somehow stills the inner workings of the camera when you take a picture. It is therefore far less risky to take a picture using a slow shutter speed and a wide aperture or lens ...
John Latham.(PEOPLE)(Brief Article)
Nov 04, 2005 ... Not wanting to offend Muslims in the wake of July's suicide bombings, the Tate Britain, London's museum of modern art, has removed a sculpture by conceptual artist John Latham. The 1991 work, titled "God Is Great," consists of a large sheet of glass in which copies of the ...
President's Council on Bioethics.(PEOPLE)(Brief Article)
Nov 04, 2005 ... Edmund Pellegrino, a physician, Catholic bioethicist and former president of The Catholic University of America, has been named chairman of the ...
Jesuit Conference.(PEOPLE)(Brief Article)
Nov 04, 2005 ... Jesuit Fr. Thomas H. Smolich, provincial of the California province, has been named the next president of the ...
Rod Parsley.(PEOPLE)(Brief Article)
Nov 04, 2005 ... The Rev. Rod Parsley of Columbus, Ohio, has launched Reformation Ohio, which he describes as "the largest evangelical campaign ever attempted in any state in America." He said that the next four years would see Reformation Ohio convert 100,000 Ohioans to Christianity, ...
Gabriel Malzaire.(PEOPLE)(Brief Article)
Nov 04, 2005 ... A quick handshake at the sign of peace is not enough for Catholics of the West Indies, Bishop Gabriel Malzaire of Roseau, on the island of Dominica, told the ...
The lesson of 'Grandma Housing': facing slashed spending on the poor, activists look to priest's example.(NATION)
Nov 04, 2005; ... What lessons are to be learned from a storm named Katrina or from a long-deceased priest named Baroni? To some influential House Republicans debating federal expenditures last week, the primary lesson of Katrina is that government spending on the poor must be slashed. To other ...
Correction.(Correction Notice)
Nov 04, 2005 ... The article on Monika Hellwig's death (NCR, Oct. 14) inaccurately stated ...
O'Malley sees renewal in Boston church: Archbishop cites reports of returning Massgoers, increased revenues.(NATION; Sean O'Malley)
Nov 04, 2005; ... Archbishop Sean O'Malley knows he's being watched. "Being archbishop of Boston is like living in a fishbowl made out of magnifying glass," he told NCR in an interview at the Pierre Hotel here Oct. 7. O'Malley was in the city to accept the Graymoor Award presented by the ...
Kevorkian case brings lawyer to 'new monkey trial'.(NATION; Jack Kevorkian)
Nov 04, 2005; ... If s being called the "new monkey trial," recalling the 1925 Scopes Trial in Dayton, Tenn., in which lawyers Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan debated a state law barring the teaching of evolution in schools. But the trial now taking place in the U.S. Middle District ...
Catholic teacher fired for failing to display flag: American flag is important fixture in Catholic school classrooms, he is told.(NATION)
Nov 04, 2005; ... Stephen Kobasa taped two notes to the flagpole in his classroom: A quote from the Trappist monk Thomas Merton about the church not belonging to "any political power bloc" and a verse from St. Paul's letter to the Galatians, emphasizing the universality of Christ: "There is neither Jew nor ...
Mixing bitter with sweet: Eucharist synod emphasizes both orthodox rules, pastoral concern.(WORLD)
Nov 04, 2005; ... Sloganeering is always a hazardous business, but if one had to come up with a sound bite to characterize the spirit of the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist, which concluded Oct. 23 in Rome, perhaps the best stab at it would be "orthodoxy with a human face." The allusion is to ...
"Tonight we will have nothing to eat.".(Advertisement)
Nov 04, 2005 ... On their hands and knees in a small stream in Haiti, young boys crawl through the mud, looking for food. Driven by hunger, they try to catch tiny fish with their bare hands. Sometimes they spend two hours fishing and come up with nothing. Their stomachs remain as empty as their ...
Arthur Jones wrote fast, often and well.(RETROSPECTIVE)
Nov 04, 2005; ... When the great muckraking intellectual I.F. "Izzy" Stone folded his newsletter, I.F. Stone's Weekly, in 1971 and "retired" to writing long essays for The New York Review of Books, he wrote, "No one could have been happier than I have been with the weekly. To give a little comfort to the ...
No easy travels: Israeli-Palestinian issues at core of dialogue, friendship.(TALKING WITH THE RABBI)(Cover Story)
Nov 04, 2005; ... In the first note I ever received from Rabbi Yehiel E. Poupko, there was a hint that the terrain I was being invited into would present no easy travels, no quick way between start and finish, if, indeed, there might ever be anything approximating a finish. The Israeli-Palestinian problem ...
Media and marriage: 'Good Night' examines Murrow-McCarthy clash in the 1950s; 'Squid' screenwriter revisits his parents' divorce.(MOVIES - Good Night, and Good Luck; The Squid and the Whale)(Movie Review)
Nov 04, 2005; ... Good Night, and Good Luck is a short, powerful film built around the face-off between CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow and the mendaciously anticommunist U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis. Though a story of the 1950s, when the country was briefly terrorized by the latter's House Committee on ...
Poe's role in the story of American literature.(Book Review)
Nov 04, 2005; ... POE By James H. Hutchisson University Press of Mississippi, 290 pages, $30 In his new biography of Edgar Allan Poe, James M. Hutchisson, a professor of American literature and Southern studies at The Citadel, Charleston, S.C., means to provide an introduction to the famous poet ...
In the Kitchen.(POETRY)(Poem)
Nov 04, 2005; ... <Pre> In the Kitchen ('In the sixth month the angel Gabriel ...' Luke 1:26) Bellini has it wrong.I was not kneelingon my satin cushion,in a beam of light,head slightly bent. Painters alwaysskew the scene,as though my lifewere wrapped ...
Let Go.(POETRY)(Poem)
Nov 04, 2005; ... <Pre> Let Go My mind keeps turning the corners of yesterday,its angers, its embarrassments, the sweat of its labors,the long bus ride to another frustration And so I breathe this morning's air,cool at last ...
The world debates while children die.(COLUMN)
Nov 04, 2005; ... I recently spoke at the funeral service of a child. There are no words or ideas to make sense of such an occasion. There are no explanations, no justifications, not even any prayers that quiet the mind. I have lately been haunted by the realization that every day 31,000 ...
Caring for an elderly society will demand the wisdom of Solomon.(THE LION'S DEN)
Nov 04, 2005; ... As a rough rule of thumb, if you are looking for wisdom on some crucial human problem, the last place you might expect to find it is in a government document. But like all rules, whether of simple thumb or more sophisticated electronic digits, this one may once in a long while be broken. ...
An African and an American disagree on ordaining women.(VIEWPOINT)
Nov 04, 2005; ... I picked up the phone to hear a precise French accent pleading, "Peg, tell me it is not so!" "What is not so, Abena?" "On the news they say they will ordain a woman as priest. How can this be in the Catholic church? All day I pray, 'Jesus, how can a woman be priest?' ...
Only the pope can resolve widening chasm on ministry.(VIEWPOINT)
Nov 04, 2005; ... It was a steaming July day in the province of Quebec. In a Benedictine abbey near where the Ottawa and St. Lawrence Rivers converge, a sister sat across from me in a white wimple, heavy shapeless habit, lace-up shoes and a long veil that fell in impeccable folds. She was perhaps in her ...
A challenge to Benedict to create an inclusive church.(VIEWPOINT; Pope Benedict XVI)
Nov 04, 2005; ... While Pope Benedict XVI served in his former job as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he affirmed the Roman Catholic church's practice of gender apartheid in its selection of males-only for priesthood. A woman, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, cannot ...
Life in prison.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
Nov 04, 2005; ... * Congratulations on your editorial about the many in the United States, particularly juveniles, who are serving life sentences (NCR, Oct. 21). You referenced The New York Times. Over a year ago, Arthur Jones wrote a series in NCR about juvenile justice and high-lighted the story of Mario ...
Clare Pratt defense.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
Nov 04, 2005; ... * When I read the "Katrina criticism" letter in the Sept. 30 issue of NCR, I was surprised to read about a Clare Pratt whom Fr. Thomas Doyle accused of serving the bureaucracy in Rome. Although I read and reread the entire issue to see what Clare Pratt might have said that was so ...
Conscience clauses.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
Nov 04, 2005; ... * In his letter (NCR, Oct. 7), Howard Moon argues that Catholic politicians and judges should act as Catholics first and public officials second, that is, in accord with church teaching. By logical extension (supported by many of our bishops), we are all Catholics first and voters second ...
Iraq embargo.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
Nov 04, 2005; ... * The reference to the "prewar embargo against Saddam Hussein's government" in the story "Peace group won't pay fine" (NCR, Aug. 26) was inaccurate. The main issue regarding the legal and moral controversy of the 13-year embargo is that it was a postwar blockade, which made it ...
Iranian nukes.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
Nov 04, 2005; ... * Robert Royal's column "Diplomacy, Iranian style" (NCR, Oct. 7) betrays thinking, American style. The United States has the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons; we have withdrawn from nonproliferation treaties and declared our intent to research and develop new nuclear weapons; we have ...
Philadelphia cover-up.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
Nov 04, 2005; ... * Do know that I appreciate what you do to help keep us informed. However, the Oct. 7 expose concerning the cover-up of abuse in the Philadelphia archdiocese was, to my way of thinking, graphic to the point of exceeding norms of Christian decency. What happened over those years ...
Intelligent design.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
Nov 04, 2005; ... * Stafford Betty's Viewpoint about intelligent design gets us nowhere (NCR, Oct. 21). Creationism requires a creator and intelligent design requires a designer, obviously, even as Darwinism required a Darwin. Darwin, however, can be scientifically demonstrated. The Creator can't be. He's ...
Peace Corps volunteers.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
Nov 04, 2005; ... * I support Colman McCarthy's endorsement of the National Call to Service Act (NCR, Oct. 14). It is time to tear down all barriers to any person of goodwill who desires to work as a Peace Corps volunteer. Ultimately, the benefits of individual friendships far outweigh ...
At synod, hopeful signs of openness.(EDITORIALS)
Nov 04, 2005 ... It is a simple truth that the Catholic church often moves at the pace of an institution that thinks in terms of millennia. Save for rare moments Such as Vatican II, the reform council of the 1960s, it doesn't undertake rapid overhauls of the way it thinks and acts. Against that ...
Tired of giving in, Rosa Parks sat.(EDITORIALS)
Nov 04, 2005 ... We are, by religious imagination and by virtue of our American character, drawn to the story of Rosa Parks, the "simple seamstress" whose uncomplicated act of defiance--she, a black person, sat on a bus and refused to obey the rules of segregation--ignited a larger civil rights movement ...
As his conscience dictated.(EDITOR'S NOTE)
Nov 11, 2005; ... John McNeill is not among the pantheon of current church movers and shakers. He is an example of one who, having been compelled to tell the truth as his conscience dictated, was then ostracized from the community (see story on Page 8). He didn't fit, as is the case with so many of our gay ...
Anniversary of devastation.(IN THE BEGINNING)(Brief Article)
Nov 11, 2005 ... A man receives Communion under the ruins of a convent in Lisbon, Portugal, Nov. 1, during a Mass marking the 250th anniversary of a 1755 earthquake that devastated the city. Thousands of people were attending All Saints' Day Masses inside Lisbon churches when ...
Methodists side with tradition.(U.S. BRIEFS)(Brief Article)
Nov 11, 2005 ... NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- An openly gay United Methodist minister lost her bid to return to the pulpit Oct. 31 when the church's highest court upheld her conviction on charges of being a "self-avowed practicing" lesbian. And, in a separate decision that could have even wider ...
Bishops decry housing 'reform'.(U.S. BRIEFS)(Brief Article)
Nov 11, 2005 ... BROOKLYN, N.Y. -- The U.S. bishops' domestic policy chairman, Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, has reiterated opposition to amendments pending in Congress that would limit access to federal funding for affordable housing. The Federal Housing Reform Act of 2005, H.R. 1461, ...
Judge: Vatican lacks standing.(U.S. BRIEFS; sex abuse cases)(Brief Article)
Nov 11, 2005 ... PORTLAND, Ore. -- Ruling on a motion filed by the Holy See, a federal bankruptcy judge says the Vatican has no standing to seek to limit questioning of the highest-ranking American in the Vatican. However, Judge Elizabeth Perris said Oct. 26 that she would consider the request as having ...
Priest trial for inciting genocide transferred to Belgium.(IN THE BEGINNING)
Nov 11, 2005 ... The Rwandan and Belgian governments have agreed to transfer from Kigali, Rwanda, to Brussels the case of a Belgian priest accused of helping to mastermind the 1994 genocide. However, Fr. Guy Theunis, a member of the Missionaries of Africa, still faces a hearing before a Rwandan court. ...
Quotable & notable.(IN THE BEGINNING)
Nov 11, 2005 ... "It's wart" --The liberal Americablog.com's first posting on the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court "It's important to have this fight." --David Keene of the American Conservative Union who said the fight for Alito will prepare conservatives ...
Essay contest announced.(U.S. BRIEFS)
Nov 11, 2005 ... WASHINGTON -- Maryknoll, the U.S. Catholic mission society, has announced an essay contest for students in grades six to 12. In 750 words or fewer, entrants are to tell Pope Benedict XVI about the biggest concerns of ...
Beatification delayed.(WORLD BRIEFS)(Brief Article)
Nov 11, 2005 ... VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI gave his approval for the beatification of 25 church figures in October and November, but French Fr. Leon Dehon was not among them. A Vatican panel named by the pope was continuing to study whether anti-Semitic writings and speeches by Dehon ...
Nuns attacked in India.(WORLD BRIEFS)(Brief Article)
Nov 11, 2005 ... JAIPUR, India -- Three elderly nuns on their way to a retreat were pulled from a bus and beaten Oct. 25 by stick-wielding residents of youth hostel run by the Hindu nationalist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Two other nuns made it onto the bus, which sped away from the early morning ...
Sectarian violence revived.(WORLD BRIEFS)(Brief Article)
Nov 11, 2005 ... JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Indonesian troops were on high alert Oct. 31, bracing for a new cycle of sectarian violence in a province where machete-wielding assailants beheaded three Christian schoolgirls and seriously wounded a fourth. Religious leaders called on their followers to ...
Starting point.
Nov 11, 2005; ... As I rode along in the air-conditioned tour bus, I saw them sitting in doorways, chatting on street corners, hurrying into shops, resting on benches. I wondered what thoughts were running through their minds. Were they worried about cancer in their parents, warts on the bottom of their ...
Ed Cachia.(PEOPLE)(Brief Article)
Nov 11, 2005 ... Ft. Ed Cachia was removed as pastor of St. Michael's Parish in Cobourg, Canada, after he wrote an article in the Cobourg Daily Star urging the ordination of women and reportedly told his bishop he celebrated Mass with women ...
Mother Angelica.(PEOPLE)(Brief Article)
Nov 11, 2005 ... Yearlong celebrations to mark the 25th anniversary of the Eternal Word Television Network were kicked off in Denver last month. The network started in an Alabama by ...
Madonna Buder.(PEOPLE)(Brief Article)
Nov 11, 2005 ... The Sister of Christian Community who has made history for her participation in Ironman competitions (NCR, Oct. 7) around the world set another record in October at ...
Steven Beach.(PEOPLE)(Brief Article)
Nov 11, 2005 ... Do couples that pray together really stay together? Researchers at the University of Georgia will examine the effects of prayer on marital relationships in a three-year study set to begin this fall. The $1.1 million study will involve 500 ...
The Vatican.(PEOPLE)(Brief Article)
Nov 11, 2005 ... The Vatican has appointed Archbishop John J. Myers of Newark, N.J. the ecclesiastical delegate in charge of the process for admitting married former Anglican or Episcopal clergy to the ...
Report chronicles abuse, cover-up in rural Irish diocese: government considers inquiries into church nationwide.(WORLD)
Nov 11, 2005; ... The Catholic church in Ireland is in free fall after the first government inquiry into its internal affairs has revealed that in the small rural diocese of Ferns in Country Wexford on the southeast coast between 21 and 28 priests raped and sodomized young boys and girls over a 40-year ...
40 years bring 'profound change': Catholics have accepted message of Vatican II document on Jews, cardinal says.(WORLD)(Interview)
Nov 11, 2005; ... Cardinal William Henry Keeler of Baltimore, 74, is undoubtedly the American prelate most identified with the outreach and dialogue with Judaism that followed the Second Vatican Council, and especially its document Nostra Aetate, issued on Oct. 28, 1965. Keeler was a peritus, or theological ...