U.S. Catholic

ONE MINUTE, YOU'RE LIVING YOUR LIFE, CIRCLING the round of your routines with their rich familiarity. The next minute you're walking away from everything, just pitching it all for a brisk stroll into the unknown. Who does such things with frank abandon?...

I had nothing to say during the personal sharing time at a meeting of a Christian group I belong to. I listened as others talked about their prayer and faith-based actions, but I couldn't participate. I told the group that I was sorry, but was "in...

I RECALL BEING OF AN AGE WHEN I WAS STILL REQUIRED to hold my mother's hand as we walked the streets of my native Manhattan. Once, when the church bells rang at noon, my mother stopped me and the gaggle of siblings surrounding us and closed her eyes....

THE WORLD STOOD STILL IN NOVEMBER AS POPE Benedict XVI participated in a highly-anticipated meeting--though one unrelated to his high-stakes trip to Turkey. No, this was about a volatile intra-religious issue: celibacy. Though hyped by the media, the...

I FIRELAND IS A BELLWETHER OF ANYTHING TODAY, IT is surely of the Catholic consciousness. The Angelus still plays on public TV and radio at noon and 6 p.m. everyday. "Stations"--house Masses that developed during penal times when the practice of Catholicism...

How do both Islam and Catholicism approach interreligious dialogue? FUNK: From the Catholic perspective, the purpose of dialogue is harmony and unity among human beings, as well as a shared responsibility for the next generation and for quality...

THE HISTORY BOYS Directed by Nicholas Hytner (Fox Searchlight, 2006) Following the chalky and romantic trail of Goodbye Mr. Chips, To Sir With Love, and Dead Poets Society, Alan Bennett's sparkling coming-of-age comedy about eight working- and middle-class...

U.S. President Calvin Coolidge once said, "Little progress can be made by merely attempting to repress what is evil; our great hope lies in developing what is good." As creatures of the modern age, most of us take great consolation in the idea that,...

A couple of Muslim children--fourth- or fifth-graders probably--squirmed and whispered to each other in the middle of midday prayer at the Muslim-American Youth Academy (MAYA) in Dearborn, Michigan. Teachers from St. Paul Catholic School in Grosse...