National Catholic Reporter back issues from February 2008:
New knowledge, changing ways.(EDITOR'S NOTE)
Feb 08, 2008; ... This week's lead editorial promotes intellectual imagination, pastoral experimentation and creative thought as ways in which Catholic identity must evolve to meet the challenges of a changing world. Whether discussing new leadership among the Jesuits (see Page 5) or the mystery of ...
Correction.(Correction notice)
Feb 08, 2008 ... "Reading at Risk," a report cited in Fr. Raymond Schroth's media column in NCR's Jan. 25 issue, was published by the National Endowment for the Arts. Dana Gioia is chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. The organization was ...
The pope on science.(IN THE BEGINNING)(Brief article)
Feb 08, 2008 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Sapienza University students greet Pope Benedict XVI at the end of his weekly general audience at the Vatican Jan. 16. Students from the Rome university poured into Vatican City to show support for the pope after protests over his views on science forced ...
14th Amendment defended.(U.S. BRIEFS)(Brief article)
Feb 08, 2008 ... WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Catholic church's umbrella organization for immigration services is decrying delays in the naturalization process and rallying support against efforts to repeal or sidestep the 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal protection under the law to all persons. ...
Gandhi forced to resign.(U.S. BRIEFS)(Arun Gandhi)(Brief article)
Feb 08, 2008 ... ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Arun Gandhi, the grandson of pacifist Mahatma Gandhi, was forced to resign as president of the institute he founded in 1991, the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence at the University of Rochester, for saying that Israel and Jews are "the biggest players" in a global ...
Exhibit offends archbishop.(U.S. BRIEFS)(Brief article)
Feb 08, 2008 ... CINCINNATI -- Cincinnati's Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk has barred Catholic schools from visiting a controversial science exhibit on the human body, saying that it "fails to respect the persons involved." "Bodies ... The Exhibition," which displays preserved human cadavers and ...
Quotable & notable.(IN THE BEGINNING)(Quotation)(Brief article)
Feb 08, 2008 ... "What Bush has succeeded in doing is entangling the next administration in a $1 trillion war." --The Mercury News of San Jose, Calif., assessing President Bush's last State of the Union address and legacy "It is all so superficial, so artificial! These are but crumbs ...
Catholics turn 'magical' Friday into 'mystical' commemoration.(IN THE BEGINNING)(Jumat Kliwon)
Feb 08, 2008 ... SUBANG, Indonesia -- On a night when Javanese traditionally go to the graveyard to appease the spirits and communicate with ancestors, local Catholics meet in parishes or shrines to remember Jesus' passion and pray for special intentions. This night happens every 35 days when ...
Carbon tax on babies panned.(WORLD BRIEFS)(Brief article)
Feb 08, 2008 ... PERTH, Australia -- Australian Cardinal George Pell of Sydney has criticized the Australian Medical Association for publishing a letter by a professor of obstetrics advocating a tax on children for their carbon footprints. "I am not sure what is more extraordinary--that an ...
Planned polls endangered.(WORLD BRIEFS)(Brief article)
Feb 08, 2008 ... BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe -- A leading South African bishop has added his voice to growing concerns that Zimbabwe elections due in a few weeks time will not be free and fair. Bishop Kevin Dowling, a staunch Mugabe critic--who last year was barred by immigration officials from entering ...
Young Christians study Islam.(WORLD BRIEFS)(Brief article)
Feb 08, 2008 ... JAKARTA -- The Wahid Institute, founded by former president Abdurrahman Wahid, and the Crisis Center of the Christian Church of Indonesia have developed a course to teach Christian youths about Islam and pluralism. The course runs over four Friday evenings. The inaugural class ...
Hanoi Catholics protest on despite ultimatum.(IN THE BEGINNING)
Feb 08, 2008 ... HANOI, Vietnam -- As many as 3,000 Catholics defied local government orders to disperse and continued a protest outside the compound of the Vatican's embassy, which was confiscated by the communist government in 1959. Catholics began the protests in mid-December after they learned of plans ...
Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado.(PEOPLE)(Obituary)(Brief article)
Feb 08, 2008 ... Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, died Jan. 30 at the age of 87 in the United States. Maciel was notified by the Vatican in 2006 that he could ...
Bobby Fischer.(PEOPLE)(Obituary)(Brief article)
Feb 08, 2008 ... Chess legend Bobby Fischer, who died Jan. 17, was buried as a Catholic, according to reports from Agence France-Presse. Presiding at the funeral was Fr. Jakob Rolland of the diocese of Reykjavik, the capital of Fischer's ...
Dorothy Marie Hennessey.(PEOPLE)(Brief article)
Feb 08, 2008 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In 2000, after decades of teaching social justice to Catholic school students in Iowa and Oregon, Franciscan Sr. Dorothy Marie Hennessey at age 87 committed civil disobedience during the annual protests at the Army's training school for Latin American ...
Christodoulos.(PEOPLE)(Obituary)(Brief article)
Feb 08, 2008 ... Archbishop Christodoulos, the 69-year-old primate of the Greek Orthodox church, died Jan. 28 in Athens after a long struggle with intestinal and liver cancer. Pope Benedict XVI called Christodoulos a "distinguished pastor" who ...
Pacesetting Jesuits elect new global leader.(WORLD)(Adolfo Nicolas)
Feb 08, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As the largest and most influential religious order in the Catholic church, the Society of Jesus has always been a pacesetter. When Jesuits from around the world gather for a General Congregation, as they are currently doing in Rome, their decisions are ...
Elvis or not, this superior general is his own man.(WORLD)(Adolfo Nicolas)
Feb 08, 2008; ... A Spanish-born academic who has spent most of his career in Asia, and who is seen as sympathetic to the broadly progressive theological views associated with the Asian bishops, is the new superior general of the 19,000-strong Jesuit order. A native of Palencia, Spain, Fr. Adolfo ...
Consciousness: science's biggest mystery: the quest to understand consciousness has captured the imaginations of cognitive neuroscientists, psychologists and philosophers, who tend to line up on either side of a classic matter-spirit divide.(MYSTERY OF THE MIND)
Feb 08, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A baffling and profound mystery lies at the heart of one of the fastest-growing research areas in science today. The mystery is human consciousness and how--or even whether--it arises out of our fleshy brains. How does it happen that billions of ...
Suu Kyi sees no change soon in Burma.(WORLD)(Aung San Suu Kyi on Burmese political change)
Feb 08, 2008; ... Burma's pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, used a rare moment of freedom in the military-ruled country to urge Asian governments not to be lulled into believing the junta's promises of political change. Suu Kyi was allowed to meet with members of the National League for ...
Bishops agree to truth hearings.(WORLD BRIEFS)(Brief article)
Feb 08, 2008 ... TORONTO -- Catholic bishops in Canada have agreed to take part in a commission on abuse that occurred in church-run Indian schools. The bishops, whose participation was in doubt until now, said the hearings will provide "balance" to a decades-old controversy that pitted ...
Lost bird helps raise funds.(WORLD BRIEFS)(Brief article)
Feb 08, 2008 ... LONDON -- A white-crowned North American sparrow blown across the Atlantic Ocean on winter winds is helping raise funds to repair the roof of an ancient church in the tiny English village where it landed. "Twitchers"--bird spotters--are turning up by the ...
In Kenya, religious orders model peace.(WORLD)
Feb 08, 2008; ... The post-election, intertribal turmoil in Kenya had not reached the Dominican compound, set on a hillside near Kisumu, when a man approached in early January posing an ominous question. What tribes did the people inside belong to, he wanted to know? The man left ...
Senate told to brace for more mortage turmoil.(NATION)
Feb 08, 2008 ... By WIRE SERVICES As a basket of regulations, industry agreements and legislation is being set in motion to address the subprime lending crisis, a federal official told the Senate Banking Committee to brace for more turmoil. At a hearing on U.S. home foreclosures Jan ....
Blind SOA activist chooses jail time.(NATION)(Edwin Lewiston )
Feb 08, 2008; ... U.S. Magistrate Mallon Faircloth asked 78-year-old Edwin Lewiston if he wanted a sentence of 90 days under house arrest or 90 days in prison. "Do I have a choice?" asked Lewiston, who has been legally blind since birth. "Yes," Faircloth replied. "I'll ...
Blackwater protesters sentenced.(U.S. BRIEFS)
Feb 08, 2008; ... CURRITUCK COUNTY, N.C. -- After admonishing them for not respecting the law or his authority, a North Carolina Superior Court judge had mercy on seven men and women who protested outside the headquarters of private security contractor Blackwater Worldwide. He opted not to sentence them to ...
Antiwar Jesuit given probation.(U.S. BRIEFS)(Brief article)
Feb 08, 2008; ... ALBUQUERQUE -- Jesuit Fr. John Dear was sentenced Jan. 24 to six months of probation, 40 hours of community service and $510 in times and fees for actions during an antiwar protest at the Santa Fe office of U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., in September 2006. Dear said in a ...
Catholic book editor recounts lifelong moral journey.(NATION)(interview with Robert Ellsberg)(Interview)
Feb 08, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The year was 1969 and the nation was being torn apart by the Vietnam War. Some 500,000 U.S. troops were in Vietnam; 33,000 Americans had died, along with hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese. President Johnson had fallen victim to the war's unpopularity, ...
Archbishop calls foul on Catholic basketball coach.(NATION)(St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke, Rick Majerus)
Feb 08, 2008; ... St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke, who has called Catholic presidential candidates on the carpet for supporting abortion rights, now wants a Catholic university to discipline its basketball coach for making pro-abortion statements. Rick Majerus, coach of the St. Louis ...
Repeated attempts to petition U.S. bishops fail.(NATION)(Fabian Bruskewitz's program on child abuse protection)
Feb 08, 2008; ... The American Catholic reform group Call to Action is continuing its drive to pressure Lincoln, Neb., Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz to comply with the U.S. bishops' program for protecting children from sexual abuse. Last year, the group circulated a petition calling for Bruskewitz to ...
Bishop apologizes for misuse of funds.(NATION)(Edward K. Braxton )
Feb 08, 2008 ... By NCR STAFF Bishop Edward K. Braxton of Belleville, Ill., accused of misusing money from two special' funds, apologized Jan. 22 and said the questionable expenditures will be covered by an anonymous donor. At issue were the bishop's purchases last year of a ...
The 'girl' in power: a woman in the White House may be just more 'politics as usual'.(Opinion & Art: OPINION BOOKS LETTERS ARTS)
Feb 08, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Former president Bill Clinton is standing by his woman. "The girl's doing pretty good, isn't she?" he asked at a campaign stop with the crowd baying its consent. The girl is--and with no doubt on what the meaning of "is" is. But Hillary Clinton ...
The iron wall in Gaza: Israel seeks to overthrow Hamas by sealing the borders.(Opinion & Art: OPINION BOOKS LETTERS ARTS)
Feb 08, 2008; ... The experiment in famine began on Jan. 18. Israel hermetically closed all of Gaza's borders, preventing even food, medicine and fuel from entering the Strip. Power cuts, which had been frequent for many months, were extended to 12 hours per day. Because of the electricity shortage, for ...
A bridge between religion and the arts: image editor Gregory Wolfe talks about the mission of his magazine.(PROFILE)(Biography)
Feb 08, 2008; ... The year 1989 was an important one for cultural change, said Gregory Wolfe, editor of Image: A Journal of the Arts and Religion--and not just because that's the year when Image began. That was the year the Berlin Wall came down, the year when "a lot of people made comments about Marxism ...
Women in dangerous places: 'Persepolis' tells of a girl growing up in turbulent Iran; 'Atonement' depicts a tragic misunderstanding; '4 Months' looks at women's lives in communist Romania.(MOVIES)(Movie review)
Feb 08, 2008; ... An adult animated feature is hard to find, but Persepolis (in French, with English subtitles) gives viewers a chance to see a fine adult alternative to this mostly child-driven format. Based on her graphic novel of the same name, director Marjane Satrapi (assisted by Vincent ...
Trailhead.(POETRY)(Poem)
Feb 08, 2008; ... <Pre> Trailhead I came to the trailheadintending only to snowshoe. All night snow had fallenand wind had blown around and between the oldspruce and ash that line the trail, as if an aisle upto the altar of a chapel you open a heavy ...
Untitled.(POETRY)
Feb 08, 2008; ... <Pre> Untitled Sandhill cranes squawkingbold sunrise salutations...
In My Garden.(POETRY)(Poem)
Feb 08, 2008; ... <Pre> In My Garden I sit in the sunlight--Itis too bright for me to sleepin its warmth.The chair gently holds meand the street noise is far away.Even so, I would sleep ...a poem comes--one ...
Did Hitler think he was doing good? Actor Will Smith's comment highlights the paradox of evil.(VIEWPOINT)(Adolf Hitler)(Viewpoint essay)
Feb 08, 2008; ... I usually take little interest in American pop culture but was unable to resist when a news item mentioned the uproar actor Will Smith caused when speaking about Adolf Hitler. The Daily Record, a Scottish newspaper, quoted Mr. Smith as saying: "Even Hitler didn't wake up going, 'Let me do ...
Teachers.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Feb 08, 2008; ... * Regarding Andrew Lam's Viewpoint piece, "When teaching becomes scutwork" (NCR, Jan. 11): In my experience over the years, our collective zeitgeist never accorded teachers the respect the task we entrust to them deserves. Low pay and lack of resources are only two expressions of that ...
Bernard Law.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Feb 08, 2008; ... * In John Allen's article on Cardinal Bernard Law, "After the fall" (NCR, Jan. 25), he writes, "Catholics from cultures lacking Anglo-Saxon concepts of corporate liability, which includes Italy, sometimes struggle to understand why bishops should be held accountable for the misdeeds of ...
Slow food.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Feb 08, 2008; ... I appreciated the article about Slow Food and its many aspects (NCR, Jan. 11). We should never underestimate the power of food. Not only do people need food to live but we also enjoy food as part of nearly every social interaction. And although many people in the world are content with ...
Opportunities for millennials.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Feb 08, 2008; ... * Regarding "Odyssey years: A challenge to today's church" (NCR, Dec. 28). We read with interest a description of the millennials living their odyssey years in society and in the church of today. We know any number of young adults who have delayed the traditional choices of a long-term ...
Greens as spoilers.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Feb 08, 2008; ... * Regarding "Greens connect ecology with democracy" (NCR, Jan. 11): I certainly applaud the Green Party for its particular concern for our environment, but if it runs a candidate in the presidential race again it will only help the anti-environmental Republicans. flit were not for the ...
Ron Paul.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Feb 08, 2008; ... * Colman McCarthy eloquently writes about Ron Paul (NCR, Jan. 25) and gives a perspective from an association he has had with Mr. Paul for many years. It confirms ...
Mental illness treatments.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Feb 08, 2008; ... * The "Viewpoint" by Stafford Betty (NCR, Dec. 28) has raised some concerns among the members of the Council on Mental Illness of the National Catholic Partnership on Disability. We believe the article presented an imbalanced interpretation of mental illness. The author's suggestion that ...
John Dear's pacifism.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Feb 08, 2008; ... * Jesuit Fr. John Dear's Viewpoint piece (NCR, Jan. 25) was rife with many ironies, but the principal one is Fr. Dear's embrace of a fundamentalism that the Jesus to whom he is so passionately committed clearly rejected. In Fr. Dear's world, the military is evil and pacifism is the only ...
Obedience, Jesuit-style.(Editorials)(Adolfo Nicolas as new father general of Society of Jesus)
Feb 08, 2008 ... If the core danger of the immediate period after the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) was that legitimate reform might shade off into anything-goes chaos, today's equal and opposite risk is a narrow traditionalism that, in practice, holds that nothing should ever be done for the first ...
'The war is not over'.(Editorials)(Iraqi war)
Feb 08, 2008 ... A couple of days after he had been sentenced to probation and a relatively small fine for a protest against the war in Iraq, Jesuit Fr. John Dear called the NCR offices. He had decided not to pay the fine and not to cooperate with the probation. He had been told he would likely be arrested ...
Mother nature in today's brave new world.(Everything Conceivable: How Assisted Reproduction is Changing Men, Women and the World)(Book review)
Feb 08, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] EVERYTHING CONCEIVABLE: HOW ASSISTED REPRODUCTION IS CHANGING MEN, WOMEN AND THE WORLD By Liza Mundy Alfred A. Knopf, 476 pages, $24.95 A newspaper in late 2007 featured a photo of 12 women in saris wearing surgical masks. They are surrogate ...
Protestantism's big idea.(Christianity's Dangerous Idea: The Protestant Revolution - A History from the Sixteenth Century to the Twenty-First)(Book review)
Feb 08, 2008; ... CHRISTIANITY'S DANGEROUS IDEA: THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION--A HISTORY FROM THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO THE TWENTY-FIRST By Alister McGrath HarperCollins, 560 pages, $29.95 Noted Oxford professor of historical theology Alister McGrath has undertaken the daunting task of telling the ...
Judas and the priest: an actor and playwright go in search of a theological adviser.(A Jesuit Off-Broadway: Center Stage with Jesus, Judas, and Life's Big Questions )(Book review)
Feb 08, 2008; ... A JESUIT OFF-BROADWAY: CENTER STAGE WITH JESUS, JUDAS, AND LIFE'S BIG QUESTIONS By James Martin Loyola Press, 272 pages, $22.95 Jesuit Ft. James Martin, an associate editor at America magazine, is a popular spiritual writer, the author of the award-winning My Life with the ...
The story of communism: two books provide a fascinating look back at an ideology and an era.(Comrades: A History of World Communism)(Lenin's Private War: The Voyage of the Philosophy Steamer and the Exile of the Intelligensia)(Book review)
Feb 08, 2008; ... COMRADES: A HISTORY OF WORLD COMMUNISM By Robert Service Harvard University Press, 592 pages, $35 LENIN'S PRIVATE WAR: THE VOYAGE OF THE PHILOSOPHY STEAMER AND THE EXILE OF THE INTELLIGENTSIA By Lesley Chamberlain St. Martin's Press, 432 pages, $27.95 Less than 20 ...
Bishop's novel reprises classic sci-fi themes.(Space Vulture)(Brief article)(Book review)
Feb 08, 2008; ... SPACE VULTURE By Gary K. Wolf and Archbishop John J. Myers Tor Books, published by Tom Doherty Associates, 333 pages, $24.95 Gene Wolf, the Hugo award-winning creator of Roger Rabbit, and John Myers, the Catholic archbishop of Newark, N.J., were childhood friends in Earlville, ...
How artists intellectuals view God.(Do You Believe?, Conversations on God and Religion)(Book review)
Feb 08, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] DO YOU BELIEVE?, CONVERSATIONS ON GOD AND RELIGION By Antonio Monda; translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein Vintage Books, 178 pages, $72.95 Born from a survey conducted in 2003 for La Repubblica newspaper, Do You Believe? Conversations ...
We are how we eat: author urges people to reject nutritionism for the food of their forebears.(In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto)(Book review)
Feb 08, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] IN DEFENSE OF FOOD: AN EATER'S MANIFESTO By Michael Pollan Penguin Press, 243 pages, $21.95 Truth about what we eat is hard to find. The government is influenced by the industrial agriculture giants that produce most food. We can't trust labels ...
Jimmy Carter's life in progress.('Beyond the White House: Waging Peace, Fighting Disease, Building Hope' and 'Prophet from Plains: Jimmy Carter and His Legacy')(Book review)
Feb 08, 2008; ... BEYOND THE WHITE HOUSE: WAGING PEACE, FIGHTING DISEASE, BUILDING HOPE By Jimmy Carter Simon and Schuster, 272 pages, $29.99 PROPHET FROM PLAINS: JIMMY CARTER AND HIS LEGACY By Frye Gaillard University of Georgia Press, 128 pages, $19.95 Historian Douglas Brinkley ...
The myth of America as a Christian nation.(Head and Heart: American Christianities)(Book review)
Feb 08, 2008; ... HEAD AND HEART: AMERICAN CHRISTIANITIES By Garry Wills The Penguin Press, 626 pages, $29.95 In his gargantuan new book, Head and Heart, Garry Wills chronicles four centuries of Christian influence on American public life from the Puritans to the presidency of George W. Bush. ...
A fantasy novel for liberal Catholics.(Cardinal Mahony: A Novel)(Book review)
Feb 08, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] CARDINAL MAHONY: A NOVEL By Robert Blair Kaiser Humble-bee Press, 257 pages, $19.95 Robert Blair Kaiser's Cardinal Mahony: A Novel is more a polemic wrapped in a tale of intrigue than it is a novel. Surprisingly, the book works pretty well as ...
Ecclesial fiction.('The Red Hat', 'Papabile: The Man Who Would Be Pope', 'White Smoke', 'Hadrian the Seventh' and 'Project Pope')(Brief article)(Book review)
Feb 08, 2008; ... Robert Kaiser's novel joins a genre of what might be called "wishful ecclesial fiction," in which authors shake up the structures of the Catholic church. Host well known are Morris West's works The Shoes of the Fisherman, published in 1963, and Clowns of God, published in 1981, but he is ...
The pallid wages of sin.(A History of Sin)(Book review)
Feb 08, 2008; ... A HISTORY OF SIN By John Portmann Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 240 pages, $24.95 John Portmann's latest book is curious for what it does and does not emphasize. A History of Sin reflects the University of Virginia religious studies professor's continuing interest ...
When a calling became a choice: how the loss of a sense of vocation affects society.(The Listening Heart: Vocation and the Crisis of Modern Culture)(Book review)
Feb 08, 2008; ... THE LISTENING HEART: VOCATION AND THE CRISIS OF MODERN CULTURE By A.J. Conyers Spence Publishing Company, 234 pages, $27.95 Reviewed by DAVE DeCHRISTOPHER History, sociology, literature, theology and even etymology converge in A.J. Conyers' persuasive The Listening ...
The power of one.(EDITOR'S NOTE)
Feb 22, 2008; ... Judge for yourself whether Fr. Marek Bozek (Page 5) is worthy of praise or criticism in his head-on collision with St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke in a case of obedience versus conscience. Fr. Bozek's decision to serve an interdicted Catholic parish trying to retain control of its own ...
Bishops favor stiffer penalties.(U.S. BRIEFS)(Brief article)
Feb 22, 2008 ... FRANKFORT, Ky. -- Kentucky's four Catholic bishops expressed support for a bill in the state Legislature that would stiffen penalties for people in a position of trust who sexually abuse minors and for people who fail to report such abuse. The bill "will effectively protect ...
Davenport files bankruptcy plan.(U.S. BRIEFS)(dioceses)(Brief article)
Feb 22, 2008 ... DAVENPORT, Iowa -- Fifteen months after the Davenport diocese filed for bankruptcy, it submitted a reorganization plan with the committee that represents most of its creditors--156 survivors of clergy sexual abuse. The plan outlines the process for distributing a $37 million settlement ...