Commonweal articles from January 2005

Commonweal archives from January 2005

Iraq & just war.(Dula vs. 'First Things'; the real Che)
January 14, 2005... Peter Dula is right to call on Catholic conservatives like George Weigel to explain their "moral muteness in a time of war" ("The War in Iraq," December 3, 2004). The Catechism deals with just war only in terms of defensive war. It is...

'Jus in bello'.(Dula vs. 'First Things'; the real Che)(Letter to the Editor)
January 14, 2005... I agree with Peter Dula that it is a peculiarly lopsided version of the just-war tradition that claims that the moral judgment whether to wage war (jus ad bellum) is a more salient judgment--because it is a clearer judgment--than judgments...

The pacifist option.(Dula vs. 'First Things'; the real Che)(Letter to the Editor)
January 14, 2005... Peter Dula's article is most welcome and timely. That he writes from personal experience, having lived and taught in Baghdad, makes his essay all the more poignant and compelling. The bad news from Iraq is constant and unrelenting: every day...

Court prophets.(Dula vs. 'First Things'; the real Che)(Letter to the Editor)
January 14, 2005... Peter Dula is too much of a gentleman in dealing with George Weigel and Rev. Richard John Neuhaus. I think these two are comparable to the "court prophets" in ancient Israel, giving us comforting and fatuous messages, assuring us that our...

Past is prologue.(Dula vs. 'First Things'; the real Che)(Letter to the Editor)
January 14, 2005... President George W. Bush's nomination of Alberto Gonzales as attorney general ("The President's Lawyer," December 3, 2004) brings to mind the famous historical events involving Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell. Cromwell toadied up to Henry by...

Defending Che.(Dula vs. 'First Things'; the real Che)(Letter to the Editor)
January 14, 2005... Richard Alleva brings a considerable amount of his own "political baggage" to his review of The Motorcycle Diaries, ("Easy Riders," November 5, 2004). Of course, with Ernesto "Che" Guevara, it's difficult, if not impossible, not to get...

Teilhard redux.(Dula vs. 'First Things'; the real Che)(Letter to the Editor)
January 14, 2005... Unlike Martha McNeill Protomastro (Correspondence, December 3, 2004), I was not "puzzled" by Eugene McCarraher's comment about Teilhard de Chardin: "a charlatan who can't be ridiculed too often, I think" ("Passion & Obedience," November 5,...

Democrats in the GOP?(Dula vs. 'First Things'; the real Che)(Letter to the Editor)
January 14, 2005... John Baca-Saavedra proposes an interesting way to respond to the outcome of the presidential election (Correspondence, November 19, 2004). He argues that prolife Democrats should join the GOP so that "a moderate Republican no longer means...

Cigars for 'Commonweal'.(Dula vs. 'First Things'; the real Che)(Letter to the Editor)
January 14, 2005... In order to subscribe to Commonweal, I first had to drop subscriptions to three other magazines: you see, my spouse and I have an agreement about how much money we can spend on periodicals and cigars. The trade has been worth it for the years I...

A convert's story.(Dula vs. 'First Things'; the real Che)(Letter to the Editor)
January 14, 2005... I recently discovered your publication and Web site. I am a college student who comes from a very strong Catholic, pro-Bush family. When I realized I would have to go through another four years of Bush, I did not know where to turn. You have...

Notice & correction.(Correction Notice)
January 14, 2005... Notice & Correction: Leo O'Donovan's Christmas wish ("What Child Is This?", December 17, 2004) that Duccio's Madonna and Child soon be on view at the Metroplitan Museum of Art in New York has been granted. The painting can be seen at the Met...

Unnatural disasters.(war in Iraq)(Editorial)
January 14, 2005... Much of the world's attention has rightly been focused on the catastrophic loss of life caused by the tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean last month, reminding us in the most horrific way that nature's capriciousness can be as deadly as...

Our new look.(ET CETERA)
January 14, 2005... There is nothing wrong with your magazine. Do not at tempt to adjust your reading glasses! As promised in our Eightieth Anniversary issue (November 5, 2004), you now hold in your hands the result of our efforts to graphically redesign the...

In other news.(ET CETERA)
January 14, 2005... This issue also marks another momentous occasion in the magazine's history. On page 26 you will find Lawrence S. Cunningham's 100th Religion Booknotes column. Don't ask us how he reads all those books, or all those indexes--that is one of the...

Remember the Mormons: thinking about the nature of Marriage.(Columnist)
January 14, 2005... Few activists on either side of the gay-marriage debate have paid much attention to the nineteenth-century campaign to suppress Mormon polygamy. Why? In my view, that campaign--our first great battle over the nature of marriage--is full of...

Law schools & the military: don't ask, don't tell, don't recruit.(Short Takes)
January 14, 2005... The First Amendment's protection of "freedom of speech" is about more than just speech. Courts and commentators agree, for example, that the freedom to speak includes a freedom not to speak, and that just as the government may not punish us for...

Respecting our ancestors: Christianity & the Confucian tradition.(Short Takes)
January 14, 2005... In the spring of 2002, I attended my first Passover Seder, sponsored by Emory University's Hillel Foundation. As a Christian, I learned much about the roots of the Last Supper. As a Chinese woman, I was particularly impressed by the arrangement...

Promises, promises: is embryonic stem-cell research sound public policy?
January 14, 2005... The American love of science goes back to the very beginning of the nation, and so does the hyperbole. The day will come, Benjamin Franklin wrote, when "all diseases may be prevented or cured, not excepting even that of old age, and our lives...

The bumpy path to Rome: scenes from the life of a struggling convert.(Ecumenical Issue)
January 14, 2005... What does it mean to "turn Catholic," as they say here in my tiny Midwest parish? What happens when someone in her late forties tries to "be Catholic," having been reared a Unitarian and spent most of her adulthood as an Episcopalian? These are...

Among friends: my life as a Jew & a Quaker.(Ecumenical Issue)
January 14, 2005... Praised be the Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe who... gives light to the earth and all who dwell there. --Gates of Prayer: The New Union Prayerbook The principle of the Inward Light... illumines for us every corner of religion,...

Sex, drugs & R & B: 'Ray' & 'Kinsey'.(Screen)(Ray, Kinsey)(Movie Review)
January 14, 2005... Call an entertainer's work "conventional" nowadays and you might receive a gob of spit in your eye. Yet here comes Ray, a biopic about the great soul singer, Ray Charles, and it is as respectful of the conventions of the show-biz screen...

A polka fan.(Books)(Chronicles: Volume One)(Book Review)
January 14, 2005... Chronicles Volume One Bob Dylan Simon and Schuster, $24, 304 pp. So vividly written and deeply engaging is Bob Dylan's memoir that it would be memorable and valuable even if it were by someone less famous and fascinating....

Religion Booknotes.(Books)(Letters to a Young Catholic, The Church's Bible, The Song of Songs, Behind Closed Doors: A History of Papal Elections, Dorothy Day: Portraits by Those Who Knew Her )(Book Review)
January 14, 2005... Papal biographer George Weigel writes to the young in his latest book, though he is only a sometime teacher who conducts annual classes in Krakow for something called the Tertio Millenio Seminar on the Free Society. His main energies are...

She's a natural.(The Last Word)
January 14, 2005... The pilot announced our descent into Minneapolis and added that the current temperature was five below. Most passengers on our flight from the balmy Pacific Northwest gasped. Not I. I had finished my doctorate in the Twin Cities a few months...

Style & substance.(More Dula on Iraq; Democrats & 'Roe')(Letter to the Editor)
January 28, 2005... Great job on Commonweal's new look! You are the best thing going in the U.S. church for fostering intelligent, sound debate about critical issues. And you do it with style! JIM WAYNE Louisville, Ky. The writer is a state...

Easy on the eyes.(More Dula on Iraq; Democrats & 'Roe')(Letter to the Editor)
January 28, 2005... Although Commonweal is not liberal enough for me, I have been reading it for over forty years; along with the National Catholic Reporter, it has saved me from abandoning organized religion altogether. I want to congratulate you on the new...

Ratzinger in 2008?(More Dula on Iraq; Democrats & 'Roe')(Letter to the Editor)
January 28, 2005... Regarding "Ratzinger for Pope?" (December 17, 2004): Heaven help us. I would almost rather Dick Cheney succeed George Bush as president in 2008. J. M. ZATLUKAL Fern Park, Fla.

A gifted young writer.(More Dula on Iraq; Democrats & 'Roe')(Letter to the Editor)
January 28, 2005... I'm very grateful to Commonweal for publishing the work of Anna Nussbaum. Since she won Commonweal's Young Writer's Contest ("Axioms of Faith," September 14, 2001), I have enjoyed reading her articles detailing her journey into adulthood. As we...

Forgetting Saddam.(More Dula on Iraq; Democrats & 'Roe')(Letter to the Editor)
January 28, 2005... I read with surprise Peter Dula's selective critique of the war in Iraq ("The War in Iraq," December 3, 2004). Dula notes that H. Richard Niebuhr's ethical slogan was "What is going on?" Yet nowhere in his article does Dula mention "what went...

True confession.(More Dula on Iraq; Democrats & 'Roe')(Letter to the Editor)
January 28, 2005... I confess to an immoral joy in reading Peter Dula's skewering of Richard John Neuhaus and George Weigel. I am sure that both these gentlemen are much more educated and well read than I am, but their insufferable certainty about matters that are...

40 years on.(More Dula on Iraq; Democrats & 'Roe')(Letter to the Editor)
January 28, 2005... In "A Roman Education" (December 17, 2004), James Weiss writes that he hopes the coming anniversary of the conclusion of Vatican II "will be an occasion to revisit and, where necessary, revive" its spirit. A group of British people inspired by...

Sin of omission.(More Dula on Iraq; Democrats & 'Roe')(Letter to the Editor)
January 28, 2005... James Davidson and Dean Hoge's survey of Catholic beliefs and attitudes in the wake of the sexual-abuse scandal ("Catholics after the Scandal," November 19, 2004) contained some fine insights, but there was one glaring omission. In their list...

The coming revolution.(More Dula on Iraq; Democrats & 'Roe')(Letter to the Editor)
January 28, 2005... In his analysis of James Davidson and Dean Hoge's survey, Scott Appleby cites "the absence of evidence that a significant percentage of the laity see themselves as having (wanting?) real agency in reforming the church" ("Righting the Ship,"...

Revisiting 'Roe'.(More Dula on Iraq; Democrats & 'Roe')(Letter to the Editor)
January 28, 2005... I applaud Margaret O'Brien Steinfels's vote for John Kerry ("Time to Choose," October 22, 2004), but not her dismissal of the abortion issue as irrelevant because Justice David Souter has written that Roe v. Wade is stare decisis (settled law)....

Must-reading.(More Dula on Iraq; Democrats & 'Roe')(Letter to the Editor)
January 28, 2005... I received my subscription to Commonweal as a gift fom the campus ministry office at the University of Notre Dame upon my graduation in May 2003. I now consider myself (and my Catholicism) in debt to the good people in that office. Commonweal...

Citizens of the world?(From the Editors)
January 28, 2005... President George W. Bush has been criticized for his slow response to the tsunami disaster and for the "stingy" amount of U.S. government aid ($15 million) he was initially willing to offer the victims. The president has since raised that...

Scare tactics.(ET CETERA)(Column)
January 28, 2005... President George W. Bush wants you to believe that Social Security will "line into red" in 2018, and that if it isn't "reformed"--that is, partially privatized--ASAP, it will collapse. Or, as a recently leaked internal White House strategy memo...

Re-covered.(ET CETERA)
January 28, 2005... You may have noticed a different look to this issue's cover. That's because it marks the end of an era in Commonweal cover-design history. After three years at the helm, and the last several months working on the redesign of the magazine, Liska...

Parents need help: restricting access to video games.(Columnists)
January 28, 2005... A century ago, Jane Addams and other progressive reformers in Chicago responded to the dangers of the industrial age by creating laws and institutions that would protect children from the unwholesome lures of the city streets. Her work is...

Is God responsible? The tsunami & other evils.(Columnists)(Column)
January 28, 2005... The real horrors usually elude us. Most of our life is spent in a kind of daze. We are distracted by the nice taste of the sandwich we had for lunch, the pleasant conversation, the thriller we relax with in the evening; and then something...

Do Jews & Christians worship the same God?(Continuing the Conversation)
January 28, 2005... As one of many who have benefited from Jon Levenson's brilliant readings of biblical texts (and as one who sympathizes with his opposition to religious dilution in the ongoing Jewish-Christian dialogue), I am baffled as to why he completely...

A gay priest speaks out: the Vatican, homosexuals & holy orders.(Short Takes)
January 28, 2005... Sometime in the next few months, the Vatican will issue a much-anticipated document addressing the issue of whether gay men can be ordained priests. The policy is being written by the Congregation for Catholic Education in preparation for the...

Stock options: holding corporations accountable.(Short Takes)
January 28, 2005... When a federal judge granted class-action status to a sex-discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart last June, few could have been less surprised than Sr. Barbara Aires. Treasurer of the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth in Convent Station, New...

How the nuns are blessed by genius.(Poem)
January 28, 2005... For the disciples of San Judas Tadeo, Donatello carved a miraculous table cloth from the butt-end of a Roman column. Thrifty and mature from a life of lost causes, those beautiful nuns rarely bothered to unfurl his marvelous work ...

The violence of the cross: a mystery, not a punishment.(Contemporary Theology)
January 28, 2005... On the evening of March 8, 1877, Fr. Augustus Langcake, SJ, was preaching the women's mission in the church of St. Francis Xavier in lower Manhattan. The theme for the evening was "Hell and the Horrors of the Damned." As he vividly described...

Is Rahner obsolete? What his critics get wrong.(Contemporary Theology)
January 28, 2005... It was 1974. Karl Rahner, SJ, sat across from me in his small, book-lined room in the Jesuit residence near Munich. As part of a wide-ranging conversation, I asked the renowned Vatican II theologian what his most profound religious experience...

Catholicism in Europe: hopeless or hopeful?(Contemporary Theology)
January 28, 2005... There was a time when American Catholic intellectuals took their lead from Europe, turning to the writers Bernanos, Mauriac, Greene, Waugh, and the theologians Congar, de Lubac, Rahner, Schillebeeckx, and Teilhard--to name just a few--to see...

Underdogs: 'Hotel Rwanda' & 'Million Dollar Baby'.(Screen)(Movie Review)
January 28, 2005... In the summer of 1982, as a recent college graduate hitchhiking through central Africa, I spent two weeks in Rwanda, a gorgeous country of a thousand hills, all crowded with terraced farms and houses and huts. The capital, Kigali, was a...

Germans & their spies: Michael Frayn's 'Democracy'.(Stage)(Theater Review)
January 28, 2005... If you could set a play inside George Stephanopoulos's mind, and send in a German John Le Carre to do a little reupholstering, you might end up with a script like Michael Frayn's Democracy, one of the most highly praised plays to hit Broadway...

Theology from below?(Books)(Christian Community in History: Historical Ecclesiology, Vol. 1)(Book Review)
January 28, 2005... Christian Community in History Historical Ecclesiology, Vol. 1 Roger Haight Continuum, $34.95, 423 pp. Roger Haight is a Jesuit now teaching at Union Theological Seminary. This is the first of two volumes on the church that...

A Catholic boyhood.(Books)(American Ghosts)(Book Review)
January 28, 2005... American Ghosts David Plante Beacon Press, $24, 288 pp. David Plante's fourteen novels include the Francoeur trilogy, the intense and compelling story of a working-class French-Canadian family in Rhode Island. The very titles of...

Crime & punishment.(Books)(Violence, Hospitality, and the Cross: Reappropriating the Atonement Tradition)(Book Review)
January 28, 2005... Violence, Hospitality, and the Cross Reappropriating the Atonement Tradition Hans Boersma Baker Academic, $29.99, 320 pp. The Crucifixion of Jesus, surely one of the major dividing points in human history, has become of late...

Common sense.(Books)(The Roads to Modernity: The British, French, and American Enlightenments)(Book Review)
January 28, 2005... The Roads to Modernity The British, French, and American Enlightenments Gertrude Himmelfarb Alfred A. Knopf, $25, 272 pp. Having watched uneasily as the United States reelected a president unashamed to proclaim his faith...

Identity crisis.(Books)(Who Do You Say that I Am? Confessing the Mystery of Christ)(Book Review)
January 28, 2005... Who Do You Say that I Am? Confessing the Mystery of Christ Edited by John C. Cavadini and Laura Holt University of Notre Dame Press, $30, 272 pp. Essay collections can be notoriously uneven. Not only does the present volume...

The persecuted.(The Last Word)
January 28, 2005... On my way out of church recently, a fellow churchgoer struck up a conversation with me. After some bellyaching about "the modern world," he intoned, "Christians are still being persecuted today." At first I thought the elderly gentleman was...