Commonweal articles from July 2005

Commonweal archives from July 2005

Cardinal George responds.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
July 15, 2005... Commonweal's piece by William D. Wood misrepresents what I said at the University of Chicago on April 30 ("Back to Christendom," June 17). Mr. Wood places my words in a political context that isn't mine and wasn't referenced in what I said. A...

Misreading history.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
July 15, 2005... It is disturbing that Cardinal Francis George apparently failed to understand the crucial part the Yalta conference played in ending World War II. Yes, Stalin gained an enormous concession when Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill accepted...

Christianity & secularism.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
July 15, 2005... William D. Wood claims that Cardinal Francis George's remarks at a Chicago conference on "What Can Philosophers Learn from the Tradition?" show that George thinks the political order should be made less secular, and that this amounts to a plea...

Benedict, then & now.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
July 15, 2005... I too was at the Lumen Christi colloquium starring (in more than one sense of the word) that Orion-like constellation of Alasdair MacIntyre, Jean-Luc Marion, and Charles Taylor, with a response by Cardinal George. My memory of the event differs...

A compelling narrative.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
July 15, 2005... I read with interest William D. Wood's report on the remarks made by Cardinal George at the University of Chicago because I was also present at the talk and had a similar "take" on it. As Wood's piece accurately reports, Cardinal George...

Like old times.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
July 15, 2005... I have been reading Commonweal since the 1950s, when it, along with CrossCurrents, helped me to remain a Catholic. The June 3 issue was like a fresh breeze from the past. To name just two contributions: Rev. Joseph Komonchak's article is the...

Understanding benedict.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
July 15, 2005... Hearty thanks to Rev. Joseph Komonchak for his nuanced article on the new pope's theological modus recipiendi et agendi (to borrow from a medieval scholastic axiom). Komonchak has provided respectful and insightful commentary on the new leader...

Truth claims.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
July 15, 2005... Rev. Joseph Komonchack convincingly makes the case that Benedict XVI perceives the world from an Augustinian perspective. Now, this is just one perspective, and in that sense it is relative. We cannot deny the historical and cultural forces...

His Bonaventuran vision.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
July 15, 2005... I found Fr. Joseph Komonchak's article interesting and helpful. I wonder, however, how Pope Benedict's "Bonaventuran" vision can concretely take up the challenge of "integral salvation," as outlined in the Instruction on Christian Freedom and...

The saving gospel.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
July 15, 2005... I am among those who have long profited from Rev. Joseph Komonchak's writings, with their signature blend of clarity and balance. However, in his sketch of Pope Benedict's "Bonaventuran theological vision," I wonder whether he has...

'Dolce babbo mio'.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
July 15, 2005... I am grateful to Robert Proctor for illuminating an essential, endearing aspect of the legacy of the late Pope John Paul II: his intense and visible spirituality ("A Farewell to Remember," June 3). I learned much about John Paul from Proctor's...

On this rock.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
July 15, 2005... John Garvey's column on "The New Pope" (May 20) was, as usual, informative, especially regarding the specific reservations the Orthodox Churches would have regarding the Petrine ministry as currently exercised and codified in the Roman Church....

Haggis's fable.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
July 15, 2005... In his review, Richard Alleva characterizes Paul Haggis's Crash as a "realistic" film and then proceeds to critique it on this basis ("Skin Deep," June 3). Alleva's harsh analysis is understandable given his misapprehension of the film. An...

Unintended consequences.(supreme court justice appointment, casualties in Iraq)(Editorial)
July 15, 2005... The last week in June began with President George W. Bush delivering a rare prime-time televised speech to reassure an increasingly skeptical nation that the ongoing U.S. occupation of Iraq is succeeding, and ended with the unexpected...

Change on the high court.(ET CETERA)
July 15, 2005... By the time readers receive this issue of Commonweal, they may know who President George W. Bush has nominated to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the U.S. Supreme Court. As we write, there is much fervid speculation about whether the...

Either/Or? Catholicism is more complex.(dualistic view towards religion)(Column)
July 15, 2005... We Americans are attracted to dualistic views of the world. Our most popular entertainment features White Hats and Black Hats, the Star Wars saga pits Jedi knights, the Light Side of the Force, against the Sith warriors, who represent the Dark...

Another modest proposal: why be squeamish about stem cells?(Columnists)(Column)
July 15, 2005... I am crazy about stem cells. They have such investment potential that I had been trying to convince my husband, who loves playing the market, to look into getting some before the price skyrocketed. He said he had to do more research first, but...

The scandal that wasn't: why haven't we confronted torture?(Short Takes)(Panel Discussion)
July 15, 2005... Mark Danner called it "the frozen scandal." He was talking about torture. "We're doing it; we know about it; we do not have legal or moral ways to confront it," he said. "We are stuck at revelation." The editor of Torture and Truth (New...

Ecumenism's future: what to look for under Benedict XVI.(Short Takes)
July 15, 2005... Pope John Paul II often said that the commitment of the Roman Catholic Church to ecumenical dialogue is "irreversible." How Pope Benedict XVI will carry out this irreversible commitment is a complicated question. On one hand, the new pope...

Who's bearing the burden? Iraq & the demise of the all-volunteer army.
July 15, 2005... The All-Volunteer Force (AVF), arguably the most successful and widely hailed federal program of the past thirty years, is failing. The conditions that enabled the AVF to thrive through the 1980s and 1990s no longer pertain. The erosion of...

Caring for the earth: why environmentalism needs theology.
July 15, 2005... The impending environmental crisis is, like all important realities, a theological problem. It is my contention that if we get the theology right, clean air and clean rivers will follow, and the lion may even lie down with the lamb. But much...

Speaking to animals.(Brief Article)(Poem)
July 15, 2005... They might have told us, that first day: For one forenoon, we were the guardians Here of this Garden, unafraid of each Other or any bifurcate coming to set Our teeth on edge by rank incivilities, Proclaiming to rule. Equals, none...

The shape of our despair: the fiction of Joyce Carol Oates.(Critical Essay)
July 15, 2005... Is Joyce Carol Oates the Great American Novelist? Critics in the United States and Europe have called her a genius. The literary honors keep piling up (including a National Book Award and two nominations for the Nobel Prize), and she enjoys...

Phantom pain.(Brief Article)(Poem)
July 15, 2005... The neighbor who farmed in earlier life Knows it, and now his son, back home Maimed from the latest war, half-cheerfully Relating the ambush that left him one-handed. His father's loss was two fingers and thumb Pulped when the post-hole...

What the doctor orders: 'House' on Fox.(Media)(Television Program Review)
July 15, 2005... Can P. G. Wodehouse teach us anything about Fox TV? Maybe, if we're talking about House, the hit medical drama that--for the benefit of you who missed it the first time 'round--is in reruns all summer. Set in a New Jersey hospital, the series...

Interesting, if true.(Books)(Shadowplay: The Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of William Shakespeare)(Book Review)
July 15, 2005... Shadowplay The Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of William Shakespeare Clare Asquith Public Affairs, $26, 349 pp. According to Northrop Frye, "All commentary is allegorical interpretation, the attaching of ideas to the...

Spare parts.(Books)(Never Let Me Go)(Book Review)
July 15, 2005... Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro Alfred A. Knopf, $24, 288 pp. Kazuo Ishiguro's new novel opens in mysterious territory. We're in England in the late 1990s, not in some futuristic fantasy world, yet the way in which characters in...

Seeing red--& blue & white.(Books)(The Films of Krzysztof Kieslowski: The Liminal Image)(Book Review)
July 15, 2005... The Films of Krzysztof Kieslowski The Liminal Image Joseph G. Kickasola Continuum, $19.95, 332 pp. There is a scene in Blue, the first movie in Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski's much-praised Three Colors Trilogy, that has...

Intelligent design.(Books)(Understanding Dante)(Book Review)
July 15, 2005... Understanding Dante John A. Scott University of Notre Dame Press, $35, 504 pp. In the Divine Comedy, Dante--greatest of Christian poets--attempts something most recent theology and literary theory would tell him he cannot and,...

Is that a Moor's head?(The Last Word)
July 15, 2005... There is a curious image on Pope Benedict XVI's coat of arms. It is not the scallop shell--a symbol associated with baptism and pilgrimage--or the bishop's miter, which occupies the place traditionally reserved for the papal tiara. It's not...