National Catholic Reporter back issues from March 2007:
Reality and recovering hope.(EDITOR'S NOTE)
Mar 02, 2007; ... As we go to press in the week of Ash Wednesday, we have seen news show images There of Mardi Gras in almost New Orleans. was an anxious sense to the celebration, a need to show that the city is returning, that the party goes on, that the nation wants to believe a restoration is underway. ...
Retreats for Lent on radio.(U.S. BRIEFS)(Catholic Communication Campaign)(Brief article)
Mar 02, 2007 ... WASHINGTON -- The U.S. bishops' Catholic Communication Campaign is reprising a Lenten series of radio retreats in English and Spanish. Each program in the six-week series--in each language--features a different bishop each week. The ...
San Diego may file bankruptcy.(U.S. BRIEFS)(Brief article)
Mar 02, 2007 ... SAN DIEGO -- If more than 140 pending lawsuits alleging clergy sex abuse in the San Diego diocese cannot be settled, "the diocese may be forced to file a Chapter 11 reorganization in bankruptcy court," Bishop Robert H. Brom said in a message read at all Masses in the diocese Feb. 17 and ...
Condom giveaway.(U.S. BRIEFS)(Brief article)
Mar 02, 2007 ... NEW YORK -- New York City's plans to distribute 18 million condoms free to the public fails "to protect the moral tone of our community," Cardinal Edward M. Egan of New York and Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn, N.Y., said in a statement Feb. 15. City officials are encouraging ...
Contraception bill 'acceptable'.(U.S. BRIEFS)(Brief article)
Mar 02, 2007 ... DENVER -- Although it is not ideal, a bill that would require information about emergency contraception to be made available to rape victims in Colorado is something that "Catholics can accept and work with in good conscience," according to the state's Catholic bishops. ...
Monks to return.(IN THE BEGINNING)(to Algeria)(Brief article)
Mar 02, 2007 ... Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon, France, prays with Azzedine Gaci, right, head of the Rhone-Alpes Regional Muslim Council, near Medea, Algeria, Feb. 20 during a service in memory of seven French Trappist monks murdered in 1996. Algeria plunged into violence after its military canceled ...
Quotable & notable.(IN THE BEGINNING)(Brief article)
Mar 02, 2007 ... "There was a great saint who said God was evident when bishops are silent." --Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, speaking during a Tanzania meeting of Anglican leaders "Cuba--not the United States--has ...
N.J. bishop boldly goes where no bishop has gone before.(IN THE BEGINNING)(John J. Myers)
Mar 02, 2007 ... NEWARK, N.J. -- How's this for an eclectic resume? John J. Myers: archbishop of Newark and coauthor of Space Vulture. Myers, the 65-year-old conservative spiritual leader of 1.3 million Roman Catholics, cowrote a science-fiction novel with longtime friend Gary K. Wolf, creator ...
Hindu priest assassinated.(WORLD BRIEFS)(Selliah Parameswaram Kurukkal )(Brief article)
Mar 02, 2007 ... BATTICALOA, Sri Lanka -- When Hindu priest Selliah Parameswaram Kurukkal welcomed Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa with a blessing and a garland Feb. 3 during the president's tour of Vakarai, an area in eastern Sri Lanka still recovering from the Asian tsunami of 2005, the event was ...
Clerical celibacy reaffirmed.(WORLD BRIEFS)(Brief article)
Mar 02, 2007 ... VATICAN CITY -- Two months after taking over as head of the Vatican's Congregation for Clergy, Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes has issued a strong and lengthy defense of priestly celibacy. "Priestly celibacy is a precious gift of Christ to his church, a gift that must continually be ...
Pope writes to North Korea.(WORLD BRIEFS)(Pope Benedict XVI gives Bishop Lazarus You Heung-sik permission to go to North Korea )(Brief article)
Mar 02, 2007 ... SEOUL, South Korea -- Pope Benedict XVI has sent a letter to North Korean Catholics that is to be taken to Pyongyang March 27 by an international Caritas delegation. Bishop Lazarus You Heung-sik of Daejeon, president of Caritas Corea, will lead the delegation. It is the first time that a ...
The Rev. Emory Byrum and Tim Harrell were the first couple to have a civil union ceremony in Belvidere, N.J., when civil unions became legal in the state Feb. 19. Byrum, 73, is pastor at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Belvidere.(PEOPLE)(Brief article)
Mar 02, 2007 ... The Rev. Emory Byrum and Tim Harrell were the first couple to have a civil union ceremony in Belvidere, N.J., when civil unions became legal in the state Feb. 19. Byrum, 73, is pastor at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Belvidere ....
Jesuit Fr. Julio Giulietti, director for the Center of Ignatian Spirituality at Boston College, has been named president of Wheeling Jesuit University of Wheeling, W.Va.(PEOPLE)
Mar 02, 2007 ... Jesuit Fr. Julio Giulietti, director for the Center of Ignatian Spirituality at Boston College, has been named president of Wheeling Jesuit University of Wheeling, W.Va ....
Israel Carias Ortiz, director of Guatemala's Indigenous and Campesinos Development Association Los Achiotes and his two sons--age 9 and 10--were killed Feb. 6 on a rural road in Zacapa, 94 miles east of Guatemala City.(PEOPLE)(Brief article)
Mar 02, 2007 ... Israel Carias Ortiz, director of Guatemala's Indigenous and Campesinos Development Association Los Achiotes and his two sons--age 9 and 10--were killed Feb. 6 on a ...
Former priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale, 72, possibly Australia's most notorious pedophile, has begun writing letters of apology to his victims after finally coming to realize the damage he caused to hundreds of people, Australia's Herald Sun newspaper reports.(PEOPLE)(Brief article)
Mar 02, 2007 ... Former priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale, 72, possibly Australia's most notorious pedophile, has begun writing letters of apology to his victims after finally coming to realize the damage he caused to hundreds of people, Australia's Herald Sun ...
About 1,000 Peruvians have worked as private contract security personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last five years.(PEOPLE)(Brief article)
Mar 02, 2007 ... About 1,000 Peruvians have worked as private contract security personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last five years. But the recruiting of contract soldiers ...
Starting point.(IN THE BEGINNING)
Mar 02, 2007; ... Luke 6:27 is one of the most typical, yet most difficult, teachings of Jesus: Love your enemies. It is also found in Matthew's Gospel (5:44) ... the famous Beatitudes. Jesus delivered this address in Galilee, at the beginning of his public ministry: It was something of ...
Web site documents a crisis: victims, advocates turn to organization for accounting of church scandal.(NATION)(BishopAccountability.org)
Mar 02, 2007; ... Five years ago, internal documents of the Boston archdiocese, forced into the open by court orders, showed a pattern of bishops protecting abusers, covering up crimes, and putting children at risk. Nationwide, documents and press coverage revealed a similar phenomenon from Long Island, ...
Presbyterians face defection to evangelical denomination.(NATION)
Mar 02, 2007; ... A network of Presbyterian Church (USA) congregations has one foot out the door after voting en masse to build a new bridge with the more conservative Evangelical Presbyterian church. The New Wineskins Association of Churches says it's tired of battling the Presbyterian Church ...
New Yorkers resist parish closures.(NATION)
Mar 02, 2007; ... The New York archdiocese is meeting resistance from angry parishioners as it begins a massive realignment process that will see 11 parishes close and 10 others merge. While the majority of parishes are cooperating with the reorganization, a few are fighting the closures, with methods first ...
Bookstore owner, Dorthy Day's friend, dies at 92.(Nina Polcyn Moore)(Obituary)
Mar 02, 2007; ... Nina Polcyn Moore, who turned a religious bookstore in downtown Chicago into a center of progressive Catholic intellectual and cultural life in the 1950s and '60s, died in Evanston, Ill., Feb. 10. She was 92. Throughout her life, she was involved in social movements promoting interracial ...
Priest known for hispanic ministry dies at age 78.(APPRECIATION)(Fr. Joseph Augustine Fahy)(Obituary)
Mar 02, 2007; ... Georgia's Latino community lost a dear friend with the death of Passionist Fr. Joseph Augustine Fahy, who died Jan. 22 of pneumonia at age 78. For more than two decades, he served with the Hispanic ministry of the Atlanta archdiocese. Fahy's friend, Jorge Lawton, a specialist in ...
PETA targets abbey's egg farm.(NATION)(People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Mepkin Abbey)
Mar 02, 2007; ... Armed with the words of Pope Benedict XVI, an animal rights group is calling on a South Carolina Trappist monastery to shut down its egg production facility because, the group claims, the monks mistreat the monastery's 38,000 hens. In a news release, the Norfolk, Va-based People ...
Episcopal church remains in Anglican communion, but under review.(NATION)
Mar 02, 2007; ... Top Anglican bishops concluded a tense five-day meeting in Africa Feb. 19 by calling for a new international council to solve disputes between liberals and conservatives in the Anglican communion and its U.S. branch--the Episcopal church. At the heart of the meeting was the ...
About Katrina catastrophe exposes U.S. race reality.(NEW ORLEANS)(Cover story)
Mar 02, 2007; ... A year before Katrina made landfall, another Category 5 hurricane hit the Northern Hemisphere and battered the island of Cuba with Category 5 winds of 160 miles per hour. More than one and a half million Cubans were evacuated to safety from the storm. The storm destroyed 20,000 homes, ...
U.S. wages campaign of fear against Iran.(VIEWPOINT)
Mar 02, 2007; ... The current Bush administration is promoting a campaign of fear based upon Iran's supplying weapons to Iraqi insurgent groups. One explanation for this might be that since it is becoming increasingly obvious that the neo-conservative plan to remake the Middle East into a pro-democratic, ...
Reasonable accommodation to religious values is a U.S. tradition now in jeopardy.(THE LION'S DEN)
Mar 02, 2007; ... What does the swearing in of a Jewish firefighter in New York City have to do with an evangelical pharmacist in Ohio, Catholic hospitals in Texas and New York state, and foster child agencies in Massachusetts and Great Britain? Taken together, they reveal one facet of what I would call a ...
This season of temptation.(LENT 2007 - meditation on The Brothers Karamazov)
Mar 02, 2007; ... The great Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky left the abstract liberalism of his earlier Utopian socialism forever behind him when he returned to Russia in 1859 after years of imprisonment and exile in Siberia. There he had come before the reality of God, the dignity of his immortal soul, ...
We're not dead yet: reports of the coming demise of newspapers are overly pessimistic.(MEDIA)
Mar 02, 2007; ... Last year there was a mini-riot on our campus. What started as an off-campus student party got too big for its space, spread out into the campus of St. Peter's College and onto the street. People hit one another. The cops came and hauled a few students off to the pokey. Our ...
Lydia.(POETRY)(Poem)
Mar 02, 2007; ... <Pre> Lydia One of them named Lydia, a dealerin purple fabric ... Acts 16:74-75 Lydia walkswith the assurance of purple. Paul talks, with the arrogance of onenewly made new, of this Jesusraised from the dead. ...
2007.(Poem)
Mar 02, 2007; ... <Pre> 2007 How round the world is, stillturning toward and away from thesun.Wherever we are, we knowwhat time it is in Baghdad. We can even walk the streetsinto explosions, watch a grocer ...
Young 'friars' at work today.(The New Friars: The Emerging Movement Serving the World's Poor)(Book review)
Mar 02, 2007; ... THE NEW FRIARS: THE EMERGING MOVEMENT SERVING THE WORLD'S POOR By Scott A. Bessenecker InterVarsity Press 199 pages, $75 This book looks at a significant movement going on throughout the world: young people serving in solidarity with the poorest of the ...
Hillary Clinton's hawkish record.(COLUMN/OPINION)
Mar 02, 2007; ... Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has already assumed front-runner status for the Democratic Party nomination for president despite a foreign policy agenda that closely parallels that of the Bush administration. Since most of the public criticism of the former first lady has been ...
Fr. Drinan.(Letter to the editor)
Mar 02, 2007; ... * Jesuit Fr. Robert Drinan, who was remembered in your paper (NCR, Feb. 9), was a prime exemplar of how to understand and implement the proper relationship between moral and civil law. Simply put: Civil law must never mandate a moral evil, but does not need to prohibit all moral vice nor ...
Confession's worth.(Letter to the editor)
Mar 02, 2007; ... * The cover story on confession (NCR, Feb. 9) surely provokes a discussion. As one who has availed herself of the sacrament of reconciliation for 80 years, I am happy to see that the knowledge we now have of psychiatry confirms our need for this sacrament. Just as the Baltimore Catechism ...
The benefits of climate change.(Letter to the editor)
Mar 02, 2007; ... * Regarding your editorial about global warming (NCR, Feb. 16), climate change could be a blessing in disguise. It might be the one thing that will bring nations together ....
Enneagram is superficial.(Letter to the editor)
Mar 02, 2007; ... * I find the article titled "Dismantling our trances" (NCR, Feb. 2) to be primitive in its description of inner change. The fact that some people have been using it for centuries might be a viable explanation of its primitive character, but then what, I ask, is going on when modern people ...
Jimmy Carter's 'apology'.(Letter to the editor)
Mar 02, 2007; ... * It sounds like selective editing to characterize Jimmy Carter's comments at Brandeis University as an apology (NCR, Feb. 9). Granted, he admitted that one of his statements in his recent book appears to condone suicide bombings until Israel accepts the ultimate goals of the Road Map ....
Be wary of gates.(Letter to the editor)
Mar 02, 2007; ... * In "A thankless job at the Pentagon" (NCR, Dec. 8) Charles N. Davis supported Robert Gates to be Donald Rumsfeld's successor as secretary of defense, noting that based upon a working relationship with him when he was CIA director in the early 1990s, Gates "did not demonstrate any ...
Religious garb.(Letter to the editor)
Mar 02, 2007; ... * Let's not be ridiculous. Joan Chittister's article "More than fashion" (NCR, Feb. 16) may smack of some truth, but the fact is that we just cannot tell who these people are. If it is required to see a face on a driver's license for me, my husband, my children, etc., then it should be ...
Embezzlement in dioceses.(Letter to the editor)
Mar 02, 2007; ... * In her letter to the editor (NCR, Jan. 26), Katherine Hughes complains that the headline on Joe Feuerherd's article on church embezzlement (NCR, Dec. 29) is misleading. Statistics can be a confusing science. Ms. Hughes would make the assumption that since 55 percent of the dioceses ...
Bishop Gumbleton's removal.(Letter to the editor)
Mar 02, 2007; ... * Why was Bishop Gumbleton asked to retire and then removed against his wishes from his parish in inner-city Detroit when there is a priest shortage, no one available to replace him and the parishioners wanted him to stay (NCR, Feb. 2)? Why indeed? He has stated he was removed on orders ...
Erosion of civil liberties continues.(EDITORIALS)
Mar 02, 2007 ... Secret prisons and prisoners held without charge or due process are certain signs that a country lives under lawless authoritarianism and not the rule of law. Such behavior was a hallmark of the old Soviet empire, one of the fundamental differences, if you will, between us and them. ...
Manly men and their warrior Jesus.(EDITORIALS)
Mar 02, 2007 ... Beware: The warrior Christian seems to be all the rage these days. Mark I. Pinsky, author and religion writer for The Orlando Sentinel, recently reported on the new movement toward testosterone soaked manly man Christianity. Think Jesus as warrior. Does your pastor have a set of crossed ...
Life in the Pentagon's shadow.(EDITOR'S NOTE)(Editorial)
Mar 09, 2007; ... My first fascination with defense spending and how deeply the military-industrial complex reaches into the U.S. culture began nearly 30 years ago when I decided to investigate how much the Pentagon was spending in just two counties in Pennsylvania. I can no longer remember the ...
Feeling like 'we'.(IN THE BEGINNING)
Mar 09, 2007 ... Low-income clients move through the grocery line at St. Margaret Mary Alacoque Church food pantry in the Los Angeles suburb of Lomita. The food tables in the parish hall are staffed by church volunteers who prepare all week for the event, which provides groceries for some 250 families. As ...
Christian caucus for Israel.(U.S. BRIEFS)(Brief article)
Mar 09, 2007 ... WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have formed a new "Christian Allies Caucus" to show bipartisan support for Israel and work with U.S. "churches and Christian groups" to support Israel. Its cofounders are Rep. Elliot Engel, D-N.Y., and Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Fla. A similar ...
Mid-March antiwar events set.(U.S. BRIEFS)(Brief article)
Mar 09, 2007 ... BALTIMORE -- Thirteen Baltimore Christian leaders--including Catholic Auxiliary Bishop Denis J. Madden--used the backdrop of Ash Wednesday and props of a dead soldier's combat boots to launch an antiwar initiative that will culminate with mass rallies in Washington March 16 and 17. They ....
'Now you know how we feel'.(U.S. BRIEFS)(Brief article)
Mar 09, 2007 ... WASHINGTON -- The openly gay Episcopal bishop at the center of the Anglican debate over homosexuality said his church should reject demands to ban any more gay bishops and same-sex unions even if it leads to a break with the worldwide Anglican communion. "Does anyone believe ...
Quotable & notable.(IN THE BEGINNING)
Mar 09, 2007 ... "We need to stop endlessly repeating, 'You're special,' and having children repeat that back. Kids are self-centered enough already." --Jean Twenge of San Diego State University, lead author of a study that found today's college students are more self-centered than their ...
Tehran delegation returns, stressing talks between U.S., Iran.(IN THE BEGINNING)
Mar 09, 2007 ... A delegation of 13 U.S. Christian leaders who recently traveled to Iran to help defuse tensions over Tehran's nuclear ambitions will meet with members of Congress to discuss their trip. "Our governments have not spoken for 30 years," said the Rev. Jeff Carr, of Sojourners/Call ...
Priest detained again.(WORLD BRIEFS)(Brief article)
Mar 09, 2007 ... HANOI, Vietnam -- Police in central Vietnam detained Fr. Nguyen Van Ly Feb. 18 after a raid on his office. Authorities seized six laptop computers and numerous documents, and placed the priest under house arrest, according to the Free News Agency, an information service linked to the ...
Patriarch fears return of arms.(WORLD BRIEFS)(Cardinal Nasrallah P. Sfeir)(Brief article)
Mar 09, 2007 ... BEIRUT, Lebanon -- The patriarch of Lebanon's Maronite Catholic church has warned that Lebanon's rival political factions are engaged in an arms race that has become like the weapons stockpiling of the country's 15-year civil war. "All the parties have started again to be armed ...
Catholics form women's group.(WORLD BRIEFS)(Brief article)
Mar 09, 2007 ... LAHORE, Pakistan -- As a new bill that would grant women and girls more rights and protection makes its way through Parliament, hard-line groups have been fighting to keep a status quo they claim has divine sanction. The same day the new bill went before the National Assembly, Feb. 13, the ...
Starting point.(IN THE BEGINNING)
Mar 09, 2007; ... I once saw a street called Solitude. I wouldn't mind living on a street named Solitude. But right beneath this white on green street sign, there was another sign in yellow. With an arrow pointing to the right, the sign read: "Dead End." That's how some in our noisy, busy, active ...
Private contract security personnel.(PEOPLE)(Brief article)
Mar 09, 2007 ... About 1,000 Peruvians have worked as private contract security personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last five years. But the recruiting of contract soldiers ...
Catherine T. McNamee.(PEOPLE)(Jesus the Teacher Award)(Brief article)
Mar 09, 2007 ... St. Joseph Sr. Catherine T. McNamee has received the Jesus the Teacher Award from the Inter-American Confederation of Catholic Education for her lifelong contributions to Catholic education. McNamee is distinguished visiting professor in multicultural perspectives at the ...
Gustavo Gutierrez.(PEOPLE)(Brief article)
Mar 09, 2007 ... Among those receiving ashes from Pope Benedict XVI this year on Ash Wednesday was Fr. Gustavo Gutierrez, the Dominican from Peru considered the father of liberation theology. He was in Rome to teach a brief course at the Angelicum. As prefect of the Congregation for the ...
Rigoberta Menchu.(PEOPLE)(Brief article)
Mar 09, 2007 ... Indigenous leader and 1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu announced last month that she will run for Guatemala's presidency ...
Thich Nhat Hanh.(PEOPLE)(Brief article)
Mar 09, 2007 ... One of the world's most famous Buddhists has returned to his homeland, Vietnam, to lead mass prayers promoting reconciliation. Forced into exile four decades ago, Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh ...
The 'bookend' generations: two studies show important differences between youngest and oldest Catholics.(NATION)(Clinical report)
Mar 09, 2007; ... Despite proclamations insisting on the unchanging nature of religious truth, the beliefs and practices of Catholic laity continue to evolve. Two recent sociological studies focus on important generational differences among Catholics. They indicate that younger Catholics are more ...
Texans question coal plants.(U.S. BRIEFS)
Mar 09, 2007 ... AUSTIN, Texas -- As Texans engaged in a statewide debate over building new coal-fired electricity generating plants to meet their expanding energy needs, the state's Catholic bishops said that concern for the poor and the common good should help frame the discussion. In a ...
Bishops for death penalty ban.(U.S. BRIEFS)(Brief article)
Mar 09, 2007 ... ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- In an unusual move that highlights the priority Maryland's bishops have placed on abolishing the death penalty, Auxiliary Bishop Denis J. Madden of Baltimore testified in person at a Feb. 21 committee hearing in Annapolis on a bill that would replace the death penalty ...
San Diego diocese files for bankruptcy.(NATION)(Brief article)
Mar 09, 2007 ... SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego diocese has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to handle more than 140 clergy sexual abuse claims equitably. It is the fifth and largest U.S. diocese to do so since 2004. San Diego Bishop Robert H. Brom announced the decision Feb. 27, the day ...
Kissling leaves, with barbs for the left.(NATION)
Mar 09, 2007; ... During her 25 years as president of Catholics for a Free Choice, Frances Kissling has engaged in countless political battles with the religious right, especially Catholic conservatives. "The Catholic right is uglier and meaner than anyone on the religious right, worse than the ...