National Catholic Reporter back issues from November 2008:
Catholics split on vote's meaning.(ELECTION '08: SPECIAL REPORT)
Nov 14, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Obama presidency will provoke "a church in resistance"--with the U.S. bishops and priests in the pulpit battling the new administration's pro-abortion rights agenda at every turn. Or, alternatively, "the Obama moment will force all Catholics to ask ...
Fr. Gutierrez: 'hope emerges from ground up'.(NATION)
Nov 14, 2008; ... CHICAGO -- Liberation theology and its "preferential option for the poor" represent an essential, but incomplete, cornerstone for Catholic social teaching and political activism in the 21st century, according to a summit of theological heavyweights from North and South America held in ...
Joan Chittister speaks of wisdom, graceful aging.(BOOKS)(Interview)
Nov 14, 2008; ... Just knowing there's a Joan Chittister offers much comfort to many. And, of course, discomfort to some. Through four decades, some 30 books, hundreds of NCR columns and countless public appearances, this Benedictine monastic from Erie, Pa., lets no one get away with cheap ...
Election: hope--now hard work.(EDITOR'S NOTE)(Editorial)
Nov 14, 2008; ... In the end, the election of Barack Obama was an act of faith in hope with love. Spirit-filled, yes it was. It will take time and some reflection to grasp the full meaning of this historic moment, the nation's choice of its first African-American president. We have, at last, turned the ...
Corrections.(INSIDE NCR)(Correction notice)
Nov 14, 2008 ... David Hollenbach is a professor of theology at Boston College. He was quoted in an article headlined "Revisiting the 1986 economic pastoral" published in the Oct. 17 issue. The wrong college was named. In the article "Will Obama be a Smith or a Kennedy?" in the Oct. 17 issue, ...
Church counts wins, losses.(IN THE BEGINNING)(Brief article)
Nov 14, 2008 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Knights of Columbus rally Nov. 1 in support of Proposition 8 at a football stadium in San Diego ahead of Election Day. On Nov 4, Californians approved Proposition 8, defining marriage as between a man and a woman, overturning a recent California court ...
Retired bishop abused minors.(U.S. BRIEFS)(retired Bishop Lawrence D. Soens)(Brief article)
Nov 14, 2008 ... DAVENPORT, Iowa -- Davenport's diocesan review board has found credible accusations that retired Bishop Lawrence D. Soens of Sioux City, Iowa, sexually abused minors when he served here as a priest from 1950 to 1983. Deacon David Montgomery, diocesan director of communication, ...
Parishioners occupy churches.(U.S. BRIEFS)(Brief article)
Nov 14, 2008 ... NEW ORLEANS -- Early this month parishioners continued to occupy two Catholic churches in defiance of closure orders from the archdiocese. Parishioners from St. Henry, Our Lady of Good Counsel and St. Francis de Sales celebrated Masses in their churches Oct 26, the last as ...
Quotable & notable.(IN THE BEGINNING)(Brief article)
Nov 14, 2008 ... "This victory is not the change we seek. It only gives us a chance to make the change." --President-elect Barack Obama, Nov. 4 "It's time for the church to rise up. Catholics need to come back to their core values." --Kimberly Scoggin, a supporter of ...
Vatican says seminaries should screen for aggression, gay tendencies.(IN THE BEGINNING)
Nov 14, 2008 ... VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican has recommended that seminaries test applicants for psychological traits--including "deep-seated homosexual tendencies"--that could render them unsuitable for the priesthood. The statement appears in a new document, "Guidelines for the Use of ...
Would Calvin have approved?(WORLD BRIEFS)(John Calvin)(Brief article)
Nov 14, 2008 ... GENEVA -- To mark the 500th birthday of Protestant reformer John Calvin, a Swiss chocolatier has created special chocolate pralines that he says capture the essence of the religious figure who made his mark on European history. "It's not easy to represent theological ideas by ...
'New vision' for sexuality needed.(WORLD BRIEFS)(Brief article)
Nov 14, 2008 ... ROME -- Italian Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini said the 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae ("Of Human Life") has cut off the church from many of the people who most need its advice about human sexuality and suggested it may be time for a "new vision" for sexuality and birth control. ...
The Roman Catholic Womenpriests movement added four to its membership with the priesthood ordination of Barbara Zeman and the ordination as deacons of Alta Jacko, Linda Wilcox and Mary Styne.(PEOPLE)(Brief article)
Nov 14, 2008 ... The Roman Catholic Womenpriests movement added four to its membership with the priesthood ordination of Barbara Zeman ...
Julie Schonfeld.(PEOPLE)(Brief article)
Nov 14, 2008 ... Twenty-three years after the Conservative Jewish movement began ordaining female rabbis, a woman has been tapped to lead its Rabbinical Assembly. Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, 43, will become executive vice president of the 1,600-member global body in July. The Conservative movement becomes the ...
Sr. Cathleen Real, of the Congregation of the Humility of Mary, Davenport, Iowa, was among the 135 "faith leaders" to undergo environmental training from Nobel Laureate Al Gore as part of The Climate Project.(PEOPLE)(Brief article)
Nov 14, 2008 ... Sr. Cathleen Real, of the Congregation of the Humility of Mary, Davenport, Iowa, was among the 135 "faith leaders" to undergo environmental training from Nobel Laureate Al Gore as part of The Climate Project. The Oct. 8-10 training was the first that The Climate Project ...
Bishop Andrew Smith.(PEOPLE)(Brief article)
Nov 14, 2008 ... Despite widespread opposition in the worldwide Anglican Communion to gay and lesbian relationships, delegates at the annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut last month voted 174 to 123 to ask Bishop Andrew Smith to allow clergy to officiate at same-sex marriages. ...
John McNamee.(PEOPLE)(Brief article)
Nov 14, 2008 ... Fr. John McNamee, author of the widely-read Diary of a City Priest, has received a lifetime achievement award from the Philadelphia-based Bread & Roses Community Fund. McNamee was cited for his 24 years leading the north Philadelphia St. Malachy Church and School and for his community ...
Church of the Holy Sepulchre.(PEOPLE)(Israeli Tour Guide Association )(Brief article)
Nov 14, 2008 ... The Israeli Tour Guide Association has declared the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem a safety ...
Refugee admissions up, but below pre-9/11 numbers.(IN THE BEGINNING)
Nov 14, 2008 ... WASHINGTON -- The number of refugees admitted to the United States in the fiscal year ending in September increased substantially over the previous two years, though it still falls far short of resettlements before the 2001 terrorist attacks brought changes to admissions requirements. ...
Obama Catholics will influence new administration.(ELECTION '08: SPECIAL REPORT)(Barack Obama)
Nov 14, 2008; ... Catholics, who gave 54 percent of their vote to the Democratic presidential nominee, were an essential element in the Obama victory. His campaign strategists knew it would be the case: Obama's was the first-ever Democratic presidential campaign to mount an outreach effort directed ...
The great inertia.(NATION)
Nov 14, 2008; ... ESSAY Despite Pope Benedict XVI's repeated statements of regret for the clergy sex abuse scandals during his trips to the United States and Australia earlier this year, despite the expectations raised by Benedict's being "ashamed" of sex abuse by priests and his seeming concern ...
Indian Christians plead for government protection.(WORLD)
Nov 14, 2008; ... Hindu extremist attacks on Christians in India have entered their third month amid pleas to Indian authorities to end the violence. Pope Benedict XVI added his voice Oct. 26 to those calling for new efforts at religious harmony. He also called on Indian government and religious ...
Apprehending an angel of glee: the defiant cancer cartoons of Miriam Engelberg offer a bright glimpse of transcendence.(Opinion & ARTS)
Nov 14, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Cartoonist Miriam Engelberg was preparing to undergo a CT scan. Three years before, she had been treated--successfully, so it seemed--for breast cancer. But a recent, routine exam had revealed a lumpy lymph node. Now, her doctors wanted a new round of ...
Migration theology tackles the plight of immigrants.(Opinion & ARTS)
Nov 14, 2008; ... "Christians owe their salvation to a refugee," the Rev. Joan Maruskin said in a recent interview. Warned that Herod was killing children under the age of 2, Mary and Joseph fled with their newborn to Egypt, seeking asylum. This story is fundamental to a growing area of ...
Comedies that defy expectations: 'Happy-Go-Lucky' tests viewer reactions; 'Zack and Miri Make a Porno' is a romance at heart.(MOVIES)(Movie review)
Nov 14, 2008; ... Two comedies have arrived recently that test the expectation of audiences as to what is funny and what is not. Both deliver laughs, but one evolves into a character study that asks viewers to judge its main lead, while the other starts as an obscene farce but turns romantic and fuzzy by ...
Cornered.(COLUMN)(Interview)(Column)
Nov 14, 2008; ... Fr. Terrence E. Dempsey Jesuit Fr. Terrence E. Dempsey is the founding director and curator of the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art, St. Louis University, the first--and only--interfaith contemporary art museum in the world. This year the museum celebrates 15 years of ...
The Gift.(POETRY)(Poem)
Nov 14, 2008; ... <Pre> The Gift on my birthday,my friend,a girl of sixty,shinnied up the dead mapleto cut the crown of grapesthat hung like a young girl's curlsfrom leafless limbsin ironic grace their runaway vineshad escaped their stakes,gone ...
Chaput's influence.(Letter to the editor)
Nov 14, 2008; ... * In your article "Catholic view on faith and politics" (NCR, Oct. 17), Archbishop Charles Chaput's book Render Unto Caesar is presented as being a thought-provoking albeit somewhat narrow rendering of the "correct" position one should have assumed in the election. It's amazing what ...
Exiting Catholics.(Letter to the editor)
Nov 14, 2008; ... * Stafford Betty's "Why Catholics are heading for the exits" to join Protestant fundamentalist communities (NCR, Oct. 17) bears witness to my own experience as a priest, especially as a Catholic chaplain at various secular universities. I recall several University of California, Berkeley, ...
Proposition 8.(Letter to the editor)
Nov 14, 2008; ... * While Stafford Betty's agonizing in print in "Debating gay marriage and Proposition 8" (NCR, Oct. 31) appears reasonable to him, I would like to remind him and your readers that "separate but equal" no longer is an acceptable position under U.S. law. Proposition 8 would remove a civil ...
The word scripted for life.(REFLECTION)
Nov 14, 2008; ... Roman Catholics and millions of other Christians worldwide will hear these same Bible passages read and preached in the coming weeks. The challenge to live holy and just lives brings us all together on the same sacred page. The following Sunday commentaries by Patricia Datchuck ...
Triumph of hope challenges Catholics.(Editorial)
Nov 14, 2008 ... Readers of a certain age might remember the story, circa 1967, in which a disillusioned conservative voter recalls the previous presidential election. "They told me if I voted for Goldwater, we'd have haft a million troops in Vietnam. Well, I did--and they were right." ...
Tom Perriello: better than Goode.(Virgil Goode )(Column)
Nov 14, 2008; ... Thirty-four-year-old Tom Perriello--Congressional candidate and Catholic activist extraordinaire--is a winner. And that's regardless of whether or not he squeaks out a victory in Virginia's 5th Congressional District. The vote for the seat first held by James Madison keeps ...
Navigating the future of theology: ethnic diversity, religious illiteracy, rise of laity among challenges.
Nov 14, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Maybe it was never easy to teach Catholic theology in America, but today a gaggle of new challenges are making it an increasingly complicated enterprise. Across the country, leaders in theology and religious studies departments are struggling to navigate ...
Catholic identity: more than a mandatum.
Nov 14, 2008; ... Almost two decades after Pope John Paul II demanded that Catholic colleges stand "at the heart of the church," observers say that despite causing some heartburn, the late pope's call also generated a healthy ferment around how colleges and universities relate to the wider Catholic ...
Financial crisis as a learning opportunity.
Nov 14, 2008; ... Heads of leading master's programs in business at a number of U.S. Catholic universities say they see the current market meltdown as a valuable occasion to teach their students the consequences of imprudent business decisions. Christopher Puto, dean of the University of St ....
Students are candid on sex, marriage, church teaching: although young Catholics increasingly postpone marriage, they usually do not postpone committed relationships and sexual intimacy.(VIEWPOINT)
Nov 14, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Typical young Catholic university students have plenty to say about marriage and Catholic teachings related to marriage. They think critically as they are taught to do and speak candidly when given the opportunity. The reality of what they say ...
Time for accountability in sports: corrupt collegiate athletics overshadow faltering academic mission.(VIEWPOINT)
Nov 14, 2008; ... As evidenced by the plethora of scholarly articles and books on college sports reform, there can be little doubt as to the disingenuous, tax-avoiding nature of bigtime collegiate athletics--especially in the football and men's basketball programs franchised by the National Collegiate ...
Art exhibit gives glimpse into history and faith.
Nov 14, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Sarah Schroth, curator at Duke University's art museum, has become a local celebrity in the college town of Durham, N.C. People stop her wherever she is to thank her for bringing a collection of 400-year-old Spanish paintings and sculptures to ...
Professors urge passage of bill opposed by church.
Nov 14, 2008 ... A group of teachers at a Jesuit-run university here have issued a call for "immediate passage" of a proposed law on reproductive health that the national Catholic bishops' conference opposes. Fourteen of nearly 700 faculty members of Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University in ...
A pox on drinking: college presidents should hold firm against alcohol on campus.
Nov 14, 2008; ... Toasted. Wasted. Plastered. Loaded. Looped. Sloshed. Sauced. Soused. Smashed. Stoned. Tipsy. Pickled. Blotto. Bombed. Fried. Hammered. Juiced. Pie-eyed. Among those who are familiar with this far-from-complete list of words for drunkenness are the nation's college presidents. ...
Putting 'college' into all students' vocabularies.
Nov 14, 2008; ... Christian Galeno, 14, would be a pioneer of sorts if he graduates from high school and goes on to higher education. "My parents emigrated from Mexico. In my family, I would be the first one to go to college," said Galeno, who is a ninth-grader at the Student Empowerment Academy, a public ...
Nonprofit recycles U.S. books for overseas schools in need.
Nov 14, 2008; ... Talking amid shelves of books in a warehouse littered with huge boxes of even more books, Kurt Berends jokingly describes the nonprofit organization he started four years ago as "waste removal." That, of course, is only half the story. The real magic of Theological Book Network ...
Program aids post-volunteer transition.
Nov 14, 2008; ... In a typical year at the University of Notre Dame, 10 percent of the graduating class leaves to pursue a year or two of volunteer service, and during commencement week, these graduates' plans are honored with a sending-off ceremony. Now the Indiana university has launched a program to lend ...
The American University in a Postsecular Age.(Book review)
Nov 14, 2008; ... THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY IN A POSTSECULAR AGE Edited by Douglas Jacobsen and Rhonda Hustedt Jacobsen Oxford University Press, 67 pages, $35 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In describing his experience as a Catholic undergraduate at the University of ...
Reading the Signs: Using Case Studies to Discuss Student Life Issues at Catholic Colleges and Universities in the United States.(Book review)
Nov 14, 2008; ... READING THE SIGNS: USING CASE STUDIES TO DISCUSS STUDENT LIFE ISSUES AT CATHOLIC COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES IN THE UNITED STATES Edited by Sandra M. Estanek, Robert S. Meyer, Laura A. Wankel and Edward P. Wright Information Age Publishing, 128 pages, $39.99 ...
'If the youth are online, the church must go there'.(Interview)
Nov 14, 2008 ... Jesuit Fr. Jessel Gerard Gonzales--or "Father Jboy" to students--spends hours online each day as part of his ministry to students, because most of them belong to Internet social networks. The 39-year-old Filipino maintains various accounts on the Friendster, Facebook and Multiply sites ....
'Poped out' Wills seeks broader horizons.(Garry Wills)
Nov 28, 2008; ... EVANSTON, ILL. -- Popes don't visit America often, so when they do, the country's Catholic stars come out to shine. Airwaves and opinion pages brim with punditry from what Commonweal editor Paul Bauman mockingly calls the "Catholic commentariat," meaning the galaxy of prominent Catholics ...
Bourgeois awaits word on excommunication.
Nov 28, 2008; ... Maryknoll Fr. Roy Bourgeois, a longtime pacifist who is known widely for his opposition to U.S. military policy, faces near-certain excommunication from the Catholic church for his outspoken advocacy of women's ordination. Bourgeois was notified Oct. 21 by the Vatican's ...
Myth-busting Scranton bucks the election spin.
Nov 28, 2008; ... SCRANTON, PA. -- To put it bluntly, this is not, as some have recently called it, a coalmining town. Not any longer. Not since the Knox disaster in the late 1950s when the Susquehanna River poured through the roof of a mine, leaving all the mines in the region flooded. So it's tough to ...
Plenty to lift the human spirit.(EDITOR'S NOTE)
Nov 28, 2008; ... The late Earl Warren, chief justice of the Supreme Court, once remarked he had the habit of opening his morning newspaper by turning to the sports section so he could enjoy some human victories before going to the front page where he was certain to find the defeats. Well, I'm not proposing ...
Correction.(INSIDE NCR)(Correction notice)
Nov 28, 2008 ... The publishers of two books by Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister were reversed in the information under the photo of the book covers in the Nov. 14 issue on the page headlined ...
Postville attracts world attention.(IN THE BEGINNING)(Brief article)
Nov 28, 2008 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Nobel Peace Prize-winner Rigoberto Menchu, center, leads a candlelight walk to Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, Nov. 8. The walk followed a gathering of about 300 people at St. Bridget Catholic Church in Postville who heard ...
Greeley condition 'serious'.(U.S. BRIEFS)(Andrew Greeley )(Brief article)
Nov 28, 2008 ... CHICAGO -- Noted sociologist and best-selling novelist Fr. Andrew Greeley was in "serious condition" and still in intensive care, a spokeswoman for the Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Ill., told NCR Nov. 20. The Chicago priest suffered head injuries from a fall ...
Priest's Obama rant refuted.(U.S. BRIEFS)(Martin T. Laughlin, Barack Obama )(Brief article)
Nov 28, 2008 ... CHARLESTON, S.C. -- A South Carolina Catholic priest was wrong to warn parishioners who voted for President-elect Barack Obama to confess their sin before receiving Communion, according to the head of the diocese. Msgr. Martin T. Laughlin, administrator of the Charleston ...
Quotable & notable.(IN THE BEGINNING)
Nov 28, 2008 ... "Deuteronomy says if your kid doesn't follow your God, kill 'em. That's what we do, but not physically." --Star R, Scott, pastor of Calvary Temple in Loudoun County, Va., which has encouraged some members to shun children who resist its teachings A bankruptcy "would ...
Film chronicles Liberian women's faith-based peace movement.(IN THE BEGINNING)(Pray the Devil Back to Hell)
Nov 28, 2008 ... For 13 years, Leymah Gbowee watched as her native Liberia devolved into an earthly hell. Violence, rape and murder had become part of daffy life as violent warlords battled the country's equally depraved president for control of the nation. Then one night, Gbowee had a dream ...
Lesbian mom loses school post.(U.S. BRIEFS)(Brief article)
Nov 28, 2008 ... FRESNO, Calif. -- A lesbian mother in Fresno said she was forced to resign from her position as president of the parent-teacher organization at her son's Catholic school after she spoke out against banning gay marriage, according to an Associated Press report. Robin McGehee, ...
Bishop: 'celibacy not for all'.(WORLD BRIEFS)(Malcolm McMahon )(Brief article)
Nov 28, 2008 ... LONDON -- A leading candidate to become the next head of the Catholic church in England and Wales believes priests should be allowed to marry. "It is a question of justice for those men who want to be priests and to have a wife," Bishop Malcolm McMahon of Nottingham said in an ...
Camps for displaced 'hell-like'.(WORLD BRIEFS)(Brief article)
Nov 28, 2008 ... COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- "The condition of the people caught up in the [civil] war is awful. I have never seen such a terrible situation in our country," Sri Lankan Bishop Rayappu Joseph said Nov. 17. He had just spent five days in the war zone in the northern Vanni region. ...
Cardinal criticizes Obama agenda as 'apocalyptic'.(IN THE BEGINNING)(J. Francis Stafford, Barack Obama )
Nov 28, 2008 ... WASHINGTON -- A U.S. cardinal who has worked at the Vatican for 12 years harshly criticized President-elect Barack Obama Nov. 13, saying he has "an agenda and vision that are aggressive, disruptive and apocalyptic." Cardinal J. Francis Stafford, head of the Apostolic ...
Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper.(PEOPLE)(Brief biography)
Nov 28, 2008 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, 45, who is the lead spacewalker on the space shuttle Endeavour, is a 1980 graduate of Derham Hall, the high school in St. Paul, Minn., then sponsored by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. (The school is now ...
Mother of God Church.(PEOPLE)(conflict at which language to use for liturgies)(Brief article)
Nov 28, 2008 ... Police had to break up a melee at Mother of God Church in Jakkalli, southern India, that broke out between two groups of worshipers over which language to use for liturgies. Kanadiga Catholics, who speak Kannada, disrupted a ...
A link at the top of the parish Web site for St. Joseph Church in Lake Orion, Mich., www.stjosephlakeorion. org, reads: "Struggling with unemployment?(PEOPLE)(Brief article)
Nov 28, 2008 ... A link at the top of the parish Web site for St. Joseph Church in Lake Orion, Mich., www.stjosephlakeorion. org, reads: "Struggling with unemployment? St. Joseph Church can help." The link goes to three audio files with speakers offering spiritual and practical advice and discussing the ...
State politician squares off against bishop in labor fight.(NATION)(Eddie Day Pashinski )
Nov 28, 2008; ... WILKES-BARRE, PA. -- State Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski doesn't like the position he's in as a faithful Catholic and member of St. Mary of the Maternity Parish. Pashinski is leading the battle in the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives against his own bishop. As sponsor of ...