National Catholic Reporter back issues from October 2007:
Countering the postal hike.(EDITOR'S NOTE)
Oct 05, 2007; ... 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 ...
Pause to wonder.(IN THE BEGINNING)(Jesuit Service Cambodia's storytelling program )(Brief article)
Oct 05, 2007 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Kol Seab of Jesuit Service Cambodia reads a story to students in a classroom in Kompong Speu, Cambodia. Jesuit Service Cambodia runs a storytelling program for children in 21 villages in several Cambodian provinces. The program, which started in 2005, grew ...
Bishop disinvites speaker.(U.S. BRIEFS)(Emmanuel Kolini prevents Paul Rusesabagina's planned speech)(Brief article)
Oct 05, 2007 ... WHEATON, Ill. -- All Souls Church in Wheaton, Ill., which withdrew from Episcopal oversight in 2004 and took refuge in the more conservative Anglican diocese of Rwanda, followed an order from its bishop to disinvite a scheduled speaker: Paul Rusesabagina, the hero portrayed by actor Don ...
Church wants IRS apology.(U.S. BRIEFS)(Internal Revenue Service)(Brief article)
Oct 05, 2007 ... LOS ANGELES -- A prominent liberal Episcopal church wants an apology and clarification after a two-year Internal Revenue Service probe that threatened the church's tax-exempt status because of an antiwar sermon just before the 2004 elections. The IRS told All Saints Episcopal ...
Quotable & notable.(IN THE BEGINNING)
Oct 05, 2007 ... "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 ...
Insurer rejects church policy application because of gay stance.(IN THE BEGINNING)(Brotherhood Mutual disapproves West Adrian United Church of Christ's insurance application)
Oct 05, 2007 ... 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. Brotherhood Mutual, an insurance company based in Fort Wayne, Ind., ...
Judge won't order clinic open.(U.S. BRIEFS)(Charles Norgle prevents Planned Parenthood's clinic from opening)(Brief article)
Oct 05, 2007 ... AURORA, Ill. -- Pro-life groups have called "a victory for life" a federal judge's ruling keeping a Planned Parenthood clinic in Aurora shuttered pending an investigation into how the organization obtained building permits. The city ordered the review to see if fraud was ...
Priest suspects military stalkers.(WORLD BRIEFS)(John Djonga )(Brief article)
Oct 05, 2007 ... JAYAPURA, Indonesia -- A priest serving in this far eastern province, Papua, says he is being stalked by members of Kopassus, Indonesia's elite commando troops. Fr. John Djonga is a pastor serving villages in Keerom district along the border with Papua New Guinea. He says the ...
Electronic media fight reforms.(WORLD BRIEFS)(Brief article)
Oct 05, 2007 ... MEXICO CITY -- The Mexican Senate Sept. 12 approved a reform that will prevent electronic media from receiving millions of dollars that they formerly received from electoral campaigns. The proposed laws, which are now in the lower chamber, would prevent political parties that receive ...
Church to open in Qatar.(WORLD BRIEFS)(Brief article)
Oct 05, 2007 ... DOHA, Qatar -- The country's first Catholic church is to open in February. Dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosaries, the church will serve the 140,000 Catholics who live in the Muslim nation of almost 800,000 inhabitants. The complex includes a conference center, a residence for temporary ...
Musicians aim to convert musically traditionalist pope.(IN THE BEGINNING)(Pope Benedict XVI )(Brief article)
Oct 05, 2007 ... LONDON -- 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. Pope Benedict might like it, or he might become the first pontiff in history to throw an iPod into the trash. ...
Claire and Scott Schaeffer-Duffy.(PEOPLE)(Brief article)
Oct 05, 2007 ... The Paulist Center Community of Boston presented the 2007 Isaac Hecker Award for Social Justice to Claire and Scott Schaeffer-Duffy, founders of the Sts. Francis & Therese Catholic Worker House in Worcester, Mass. The award citation says, "The Schaeffer-Duffys' lives ...
Maryanna Coyle.(PEOPLE)(Obituary)(Brief article)
Oct 05, 2007 ... Mercy Sr. Maryanna Coyle, former president of the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati and of the Catholic Health Association, as well as director of the SC Ministry Foundation, died Sept. 15 of cancer. She was 73. Coyle was ...
Jacqueline Grennan Wexler.(PEOPLE)(Brief article)
Oct 05, 2007 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Webster University in St. Louis honored Jacqueline Grennan Wexler, the former president of the university, with an honorary degree for having the vision 40 years ago to implement the "great turning of Webster College." In 1967, Wexler--then known as Sister ...
Tony Blair.(PEOPLE)(Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation )(Brief article)
Oct 05, 2007 ... Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is scheduled to be the guest speaker at the 62nd Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner Oct. 18 at the Astoria-Astoria Hotel in New York City. The annual $1,000-a-ticket ...
A matter of life and death: ethicists ponder practicality, rightness of Vatican rules on artificial feeding.(COVER STORY: ETHICS OF FEEDING TUBES)
Oct 05, 2007; ... Complex cases, jurists say, make bad law. Maybe that's why so much Catholic debate about end-of-life care, especially the morality of delivering food and water through a tube to keep someone alive who would otherwise die, revolves around patients in a persistent vegetative state, despite ...
Nancy Mairs: the spirituality of a body in trouble.(NATION)(Interview)(Excerpt)
Oct 05, 2007; ... 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 ...
Mass celebrated on Chicago streets where people were gunned down.(NATION)
Oct 05, 2007; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 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 ...
Jena uncovers America's parallel realities.(NATION)
Oct 05, 2007; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 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 ...
Ministers must now be Communion cops, archbishop says.(NATION)(Raymond Burke )
Oct 05, 2007; ... 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." Burke, a veteran of clashes between Catholic bishops and politicians, has attempted ...
Legionaries sue Web site critic.(NATION)
Oct 05, 2007; ... 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. At the same time, the head of the order ...
An urgent call to protect biodiversity.(NATION/WORLD)
Oct 05, 2007 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 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. The Red List has been compiled annually since 1996 ...
Episcopalians make bid to stay in Anglican Communion.(NATION/WORLD)
Oct 05, 2007; ... 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. The bishops, facing a ...
Buddhist clergy give moral force to showdown with junta.(WORLD)
Oct 05, 2007; ... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] 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 ...
West Bank village scores partial victory against wall.(WORLD)
Oct 05, 2007; ... 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 ....
Jena 6 case highlights injustice: Louisiana investigation found a juvenile justice system in trouble.(VIEWPOINT)
Oct 05, 2007; ... Four years before an indifferent, drowsy press and public finally fumed at the news that a prosecutor and judge tossed the book at six black teens in a small Louisiana town for beating up a white teen following a racially charged incident, a Louisiana legislative investigating team sternly ...
Changing the laws of war: conference seeks to legitimize civilian casualties.(ESSAY)(Conference news)
Oct 05, 2007; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism In the United States and the Institute for Counter Terrorism in Israel are sponsoring a conference Oct. 8 in Washington to argue for changes in international humanitarian law--also called the "laws ...
Signs along the way: roadside faith expressions are especially American.
Oct 05, 2007; ... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] Sam Fentress has spent the past 25 years crisscrossing the nation, traveling America's highways and byways, stopping along the way to snap shots of religious signs in every state except Hawaii. He found everything from John 3:3 on a farm silo in Ohio to ...
I dreamed Iran tortured Bush.(MEDIA)(George W. Bush)
Oct 05, 2007; ... 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 ...
In the country of the bland.(EARTH & SPIRIT)
Oct 05, 2007; ... 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 ...
Mapquest: Egypt to Canaan.(POETRY)(Poem)
Oct 05, 2007; ... <Pre> Mapquest: Egypt to Canaan Walls like warm shawlsenclosed us there--suchsecure slavery! Regular mealsand knowing our place.Last rung on the ladder,but sure as cage--no wandering. After the walls of watermisted our skin andcooled the ...
Woman on the CB.(POETRY)(Poem)
Oct 05, 2007; ... <Pre> Woman on the CB Caught in this traffic behindAn accident that will take allNight to clear, I hear A woman's voice suddenlyNudge the air. Hounddog?yapping truckers on the NarrowsBridge, their words coded and blueOver the churning water ....
Displaced.(POETRY)(Poem)
Oct 05, 2007; ... <Pre> Displaced They sleep in our parish schoolin the all-purpose room.The children dance to an old pianoplayed by a volunteer.Mama wraps a tiny newborn ...
Hispanic youth.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Oct 05, 2007; ... I was pleased by the article by Fr. Ken Davis regarding Hispanic youth and young adults (NCR, Sept. 7). I believe that Hispanic/Latino youth are stewards of a future already present in the U.S. Catholic church. If the church does not seize this opportunity, many of our young people will be ...
Saving small farms.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Oct 05, 2007; ... * It was encouraging to read "Local Food" (NCR, Sept. 14). The Oklahoma Food Co-op is a shining example of what can be done on a local level. The people involved and all small farmers and those interested in securing local food for all should be aware of the provision for a National Animal ...
Women clergy.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Oct 05, 2007; ... * There will be no feminization of the church until we have female priests and bishops (NCR, Aug. 17). The American church will not wait for Rome to recognize that women are as capable to serve as clergy as men. I suggest ...
Pope's book.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Oct 05, 2007; ... * Both reviews of the pope's new book Jesus of Nazareth were written in arrogance and intellectual ignorance (NCR, Sept. 21). They accuse readers who accept and enjoy the pope's new book of being simple-minded and out of touch with the intelligent truths of theologians, exegetes and those ...
Spain's Catholics.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Oct 05, 2007; ... * Regarding Mary Ann Cejka's article "Defending the faith" (NCR, Sept 14), the question needs to be asked: Why in a traditionally solidly Catholic country like Spain did most Spaniards side with the secular-trending, elected Republican government and feel animosity toward the church, while ...
Future church.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Oct 05, 2007; ... * I think Pope Benedict XVI is on the wrong side of the issue of relativism. I'm sure he can silence Fr. Peter Phan (NCR, Sept. 21), as he has others before him. There seems to be an increasing number of people he will need to silence: for example, Rosemary Radford Ruether (NCR, Sept. 7) ...
Mother Teresa's darkness.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Oct 05, 2007; ... * Regarding your editorial and Eileen Markey's article (NCR, Sept. 14) on Mother Teresa: Her darkness is a warning in more than one way. Her statement that she was "willing to suffer for all eternity if this [is] possible" isn't theologically sound but an indication her spiritual advisers ...
Miter should go.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Oct 05, 2007; ... * It was refreshing to read "Bishop's book calls for 'a better church' "by Penny Edman (NCR, Sept. 14). Among Bishop Geoffrey Robinson's ideas is doing away with the bishop's miter. I see the miter not as a symbol of Service to Christ but as a representation of absolute power from the ...
Anglican unity.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Oct 05, 2007; ... * The juxtaposition of the cover story on the Anglican communion and the report on Australian Bishop Geoffrey Robinson's book about power and sex in the Catholic church caught my eye (NCR, Sept. 14). As an Episcopal priest and Jungian analyst, I've dealt firsthand with the pastoral and ...
Media frenzy buries U.N. goals.(EDITORIALS)
Oct 05, 2007 ... 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 ...
The politics of AIDS: doctor examines the role of 'concurrency' in the epidemic in Africa.(The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West, and the Fight Against AIDS )(Book review)
Oct 05, 2007; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE INVISIBLE CURE: AFRICA, THE WEST, AND THE FIGHT AGAINST AIDS By Helen Epstein Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 326 pages, $26 As we go about our day-to-day business, reading the bean-spilling headlines about the antics of Paris Hilton and Lindsay ...
A devastating picture of the CIA's record.(Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA )(Book review)
Oct 05, 2007; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] LEGACY Of ASHES: THE HISTORY OF THE CIA By Tim Weiner Doubleday, 700 pages, $27.95 Tim Weiner won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting for The New York Times on secret national security programs. His new book, Legacy of Ashes: The History of the ...
China Galland's pilgrim path.(book reviews)(Book review)
Oct 05, 2007; ... 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 China Galland is probably best known for her book Longing for Darkness: ...
Lighting the darkness in Sudan.(Voices of Sudan)(Book review)
Oct 05, 2007; ... VOICES OF SUDAN By David Johnson Elevate Publishing, 105 pages, $19.99 I write a weekly column, distributed in parish bulletins throughout the United States and Canada by Liguori. I've written over 200 of them and some times I get lazy. In one of those sad examples, I was ...
'Hints at the marvelous'.(book reviews)(Book review)
Oct 05, 2007; ... THE BEST AMERICAN SPIRITUAL WRITING, 2007 Edited by Philip Zaleski Houghton Mifflin, 336 pages, $28 THE BEST CATHOLIC WRITING, 2001 Edited by Jim Manney Loyola Press, 241 pages, $14.95 Editor Philip Zaleski begins his yearly anthology of the country's best spiritual ...
The undoing of Haiti: author documents the great power's enmity against Aristide.(An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President )(Book review)
Oct 05, 2007; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] AN UNBROKEN AGONY: HAITI, FROM REVOLUTION TO THE KIDNAPPING OF A PRESIDENT By Randall Robinson Basic Civitas Books, 288 pages, $26 For all the justifiable vilification the Bush administration has received for invading Iraq and advancing the ...
A quest for a new foreign policy.(Ethical Realism: A Vision for America's Role in the World)(Book review)
Oct 05, 2007; ... ETHICAL REALISM: A VISION FOR AMERICA'S ROLE IN THE WORLD By Anatol Lieven and John Hulsman Pantheon Books, 199 pages, $22 A new president will be in office by 2009 and perhaps a new party as well, but what will take the place of the big ideas that shaped the eight years of the ...
A personal look at Chavez's revolution.(Cowboy in Caracas: A North American's Memoir of Venezuela's Democratic Revolution )(Book review)
Oct 05, 2007; ... COWBOY IN CARACAS: A NORTH AMERICAN'S MEMOIR OF VENEZUELA'S DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION By Charles Hardy Curbstone Press, 170 pages, $15 In 1985 then-Maryknoll priest Charles Hardy arrived in Nueva Tacagua, the Caracas, Venezuela, barrio that was to be his home for the next eight ...
Pacifism and power.(Gandhi and Beyond: Nonviolence for an Age of Terrorism)(Book review)
Oct 05, 2007; ... GANDHI AND BEYOND: NONVIOLENCE FOR AN AGE OF TERRORISM By David Cortright Paradigm Publishers, 265 pages, $24.95 It is often said that the terrorist attacks on 9/11 six years ago "changed everything." One of the things that did not change, however, was the way in which the ...
A call to the laity to find its role.(Catholicism at the Crossroads: How the Laity Can Save the Church )(Book review)
Oct 05, 2007; ... CATHOLICISM AT THE CROSSROADS: HOW THE LAITY CAN SAVE THE CHURCH By Paul Lakeland Continuum, 164 pages, $79.95 Paul Lakeland's previous book, The Liberation of the Laity, won first place for theology in the Catholic Press Association's 2005 awards. Now he returns with a gift for ...
The beauty in the silence.(Portraits of Grace: Images and Words from the Monastery of the Holy Spirit)(Brief article)(Book review)
Oct 05, 2007; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] James Stephen Behrens is familiar to many NCR readers because of the frequent graceful meditations he has written in our pages. Now, in Portraits of Grace: Images and Words from the Monastery of the Holy Spirit, a new book published by ACTA Publications, ...
Young adults' search for God.(book reviews)(Book review)
Oct 05, 2007; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] GOOGLING GOD: THE RELIGIOUS LANDSCAPE OF PEOPLE IN THEIR 20s AND 30s By Hike 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 ...
The Catholic Best-Sellers List.(Brief article)(List)
Oct 05, 2007 ... The Catholic Best-Sellers List for October 2007, according to the Catholic Book Publishers Association. Hardcover 1. Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI (Doubleday) 2. A Jesuit Off-Broadway by James Martin (Loyola) 3. Celebration of ...
The essential Catholic 'stuff'.(EDITOR'S NOTE)
Oct 12, 2007; ... One of the attractions Catholicism holds for those teetering on leaving or maybe investigating joining the community, I'm convinced, is what I like to call Catholic "stuff." Sacramental theologians and liturgists would have more elegant ways of talking about it. I'm not ...
Kids health plan vetoed.(IN THE BEGINNING)(State Children's Health Insurance Program)(Brief article)
Oct 12, 2007 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Dr. Kenia Mansilla examines a child's eyes as the mother looks on at St. Francis Center of Hope in Newark, Del., earlier this year. President George Bush vetoed a $35 billion reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, Oct ....
Contraceptive coverage to stay.(U.S. BRIEFS)
Oct 12, 2007 ... WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Catholic Charities of Albany, N.Y., Oct. 1, letting stand a state court ruling that said church agencies cannot be exempt from a law requiring coverage for contraceptives in drug benefits for employees. The New York ...
Hospitals agree to Plan B law.(U.S. BRIEFS)(Brief article)
Oct 12, 2007 ... HARTFORD, Conn. -- Connecticut's four Catholic hospitals will provide emergency contraception to rape victims without requiring an ovulation test, in compliance with a new state law that took effect Oct. 1. In a joint statement Sept. 27, the Catholic bishops and leaders of ...
Quotable & notable.(IN THE BEGINNING)(Quotation)(Brief article)
Oct 12, 2007 ... "We can't flog him. We can't incarcerate him. That's up to the Justice Department." --Erik Prince of the Blackwater security firm telling a congressional committee that as a private company Blackwater was limited in how it could deal with an employee who killed a bodyguard for ...
Churches urged to skip Sunday service, worship through action.(IN THE BEGINNING)(Faith in Action)
Oct 12, 2007 ... Jim Yelvington decided he would do something different with the launch of his new church in San Juan Capistrano, Calif.--cancel Sunday worship services. As part of a new "Faith in Action" program, Yelvington traded traditional Sabbath singing and praying for a Sunday dedicated ...
Veteran principal fired.(U.S. BRIEFS)(Patricia Hensley)(Brief article)
Oct 12, 2007 ... OAKLAND, Mo. -- After 12 years as principal of Ursuline Academy in this St. Louis suburb, Patricia Hensley was fired for forwarding e-mail containing raunchy jokes from her office computer. Now Hensley is suing the school for improperly firing her and damaging her reputation, according to ...
Natural law document studied.(WORLD BRIEFS)(Brief article)
Oct 12, 2007 ... VATICAN CITY -- The International Theological Commission met in plenary session Oct. 1-5 under the presidency of Cardinal William Joseph Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The annual meeting examined plans for a document on natural moral law that ...
Allegations against late bishop.(WORLD BRIEFS)(Reginald J. Orsmond)(Brief article)
Oct 12, 2007 ... PRETORIA, South Africa -- The late South African Catholic bishop who was inspired by the Spencer Tracy-Mickey Rooney film "Boys Town" to start a similar project for troubled youth has been accused of sexual abuse of a minor. Mario D'Offisi, a former resident of Boys Town in ...