Commonweal articles from June 2007

Commonweal archives from June 2007

A long wait.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2007... In her column "Regulating Abortion" (May 4), Cathleen Kaveny asks, "Are we in for another thirty years of abortion wars?" The abortion wars will continue for the next several centuries and even beyond. Why? Prochoicers have been unable to...

Kennedy's goal.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2007... Cathleen Kaveny points out that Justice Anthony Kennedy left the door open for a challenge to the law "as applied" in a particular case. However, there seems to be a broader import to the opinion. Kennedy's detailed statutory analysis provides...

Labeling novels.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2007... I do not think that a novelist who is a Catholic automatically writes Catholic novels, and perhaps more to the point neither does Mark Bosco; so I am grateful to Bernard Bergonzi ("The Catholic Novel" May 4) for pointing out that possible...

He died at home.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2007... In "The Catholic Novel," Bernard Bergonzi refers to "the worldly aristocrat and apostate Catholic, Lord Marchmain... dying in a Venetian palazzo." But in Brideshead Revisited, Lord Marchmain dies a Catholic at his family estate,...

Another story.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2007... Bernard Bergonzi's article on whether a "Catholic" novel or novelist really exists struck a very familiar note for this Jewish reader. Recently, the critic Vivian Gornick raised precisely the same problem with regard to the "Jewish" novel and...

A bigger 'big brother'.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2007... Robert K. Vischer ("All in the Family," March 23) creates the false impression of a dichotomy between the sacred role of the family in rearing children and the intervention of the state on the basis of individual rights. This dichotomy then...

Overruled.(Letters)
June 1, 2007... In Mark A. Sargent's article, "Vengeance Time" (April 20), he refers to a "questionable" decision of the E. D. Wash. Bankruptcy Court holding on summary judgment that the parish properties were subject to the claims of the victims. In fact, I...

Benedict in Brazil.(From the Editor)(Pope Benedict XVI)
June 1, 2007... Pope Benedict's five-day trip to Brazil in May--his first to Latin America as pope--inaugurated the fifth general conference of Latin American and Caribbean bishops (CELAM). The nineteen-day assembly got to work after the pope returned to Rome,...

When fear rules: why the United Sates won't leave Iraq.(Columnist)
June 1, 2007... The Iraq war has caused a deep shift in American thinking and popular fears, and has produced structural and doctrinal changes in American foreign policy and the American conception of global strategy. This has been true in most American expert...

The Royal road to defeat: gender in the French election.(Short Take)
June 1, 2007... Compared to the interminable process that is the 2008 U.S. elections, France's presidential election was on fast-forward. The twelve party candidates selected in November saw the first-round vote in April, which settled on Segolene Royal and...

Daniel Callahan & bioethics: where the best arguments take him.(Articles)
June 1, 2007... In the summer of 2003, the renowned bioethicist Daniel Callahan testified before President George W. Bush's Council on Bioethics, which was gathering material for a report on stem-cell research. Stem-cell research holds a therapeutic promise so...

Stage Four: Chemo and Radiation.(Poem)
June 1, 2007... In all the streams we have fly-fished chest-high we have felt the water's apathy in being a stream as if it would be just as at-home in a mountain mist or a glacier or an elephant. Being seventy-five percent water you now have that same...

You converted to what? One Mennonite's journey.
June 1, 2007... At Pentecost 2004, I made a small yet formidable step in my life of Christian discipleship. Having considered myself a "Catholic Mennonite" for years, I entered into full communion with the Roman Church and became what I think of as a...

Four Sonnets.(Poem)
June 1, 2007... Burn, or speak your mind. For the oak to untruss its passion it must explode as fire or leaves. The delicious tongue we speak with speaks us. A liquor of sweetness where its root cleaves ripens fluent, as it runs for the desirous...

Family business 'The Riches'.(Media)(Television program review)
June 1, 2007... Jay Gatsby would invite them to a party. Holly Golightly of Breakfast at Tiffany's fame would see them as kindred souls. They are the Malloys, the family of con artists at the center of The Riches, a cinematic new series that is wrapping up its...

A necessary evil?(Books)(The Fire: The Bombing of Germany, 1940-1945)(Book review)
June 1, 2007... The Fire The Bombing of Germany, 1940-1945 Jorg Friedrich translated by Allison Brown Columbia University Press, $34.95, 532 pp. When the Greek captain Menelaus was tempted to spare the life of an incapacitated opponent...

A Victorian for grownups.(Books)(Arthur Hugh Clough: A Poet's Life)(Book review)
June 1, 2007... Arthur Hugh Clough A Poet's Life Anthony Kenny Continuum, $60, 288 pp. An adult poet in the nineteenth century. There weren't so many of them." Graham Greene's jaded protagonist in The Quiet American, Thomas Fowler, offered...

Corrective vision.(Books)(The Sight of Death: An Experiment in Art Writing)(Book review)
June 1, 2007... The Sight of Death An Experiment in Art Writing T. J. Clark Yale University Press, $30, 192 pp. I have admired T J. Clark ever since I was an art-history graduate student and read The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Age...

Religion booknotes.(Books)(Book review)
June 1, 2007... I have been reading Alessandro Scafi's book Mapping Paradise in small doses over the past few months. It is one of those works one hates to see come to a conclusion, rich as it is in content and lavish in illustration. I consider it a tour de...

A gentle whisper.(The Last Word)(Into Great Silence)(Video recording review)
June 1, 2007... Into Great Silence, Philip Groning's three-hour film about a Carthusian monastery in the French Alps, arrived in New York to a great noise of general approval. All the critics liked it, which was a small surprise, and final proof, if any were...

Dubious claims.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
June 15, 2007... I was disappointed by Commonweal's decision to run Jonathan Luxmoore's article "The Dawkins Delusion" (April 20). I have not read much by or about Richard Dawkins, but the general tone of the article and the statement that Dawkins has...

Great physcians.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
June 15, 2007... Dr. Abraham Nussbaum's "The Faith of a Doctor" (April 6) is one of those literary jewels that can utterly transform the heart and mind of a reader. I have already begun to use it for my meditation and prayer, and will continue to do so. Though...

Unexpected treasures.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
June 15, 2007... I always find Commonweal worth reading, but sometimes there are treasures beyond the unexpected. One was "The Faith of a Doctor." Dr. Abraham Nussbaum's categories forced me to apply his paradigm to myself as a pastor: How do I see people?...

The Sobrino case.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
June 15, 2007... The William P. Loewe/J. Matthew Ashley comments on the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's treatment of Jon Sobrino ("The Sobrino File," May 18) were extremely clear and instructive, not only in reference to one esteemed theologian,...

Who needs unions?(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
June 15, 2007... Eduardo Penalver's article about the right of workers to organize by a simple card check ("The Right to Unionize," April 20) misses the point of why unions support the card-check bill pending in Congress. Contrary to what Penalver claims,...

Prolife?(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
June 15, 2007... Cathleen Kaveny's May 4 column addressing the abortion debate ("Regulating Abortion") was enlightening. If only Congress and the Supreme Court would heed her advice, act with reason rather than emotion, and pass a law to protect both the unborn...

The wrong grass.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
June 15, 2007... When Rita Ferrone criticized Nathan D. Mitchell's use of crabgrass as a metaphor in his Meeting Mystery ("Real Absence," May 18), she could also have questioned his choice of grass. According to a University of Minnesota Extension Web site,...

Rationed care?(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
June 15, 2007... The April 6 editorial ("What Ails Us"), though well intentioned, lacked substance and credibility. Commercial plans do not consume half of the premium for administrative costs. Most medical coverage is through employer-sponsored group plans and...

What is a just peace?(From the Editors)(Editorial)
June 15, 2007... The war in Iraq threatens to entangle the United States in that country's bitter internecine rivalries for years to come, while undermining the fragile stability of the entire region. Yet although the case for war made by the Bush...

Admitting ignorance: a cardinal Christian virtue.(Columnists)(Column)
June 15, 2007... Believers are often challenged with this question: How can you believe that God cares more for human beings than for other creatures, or any other part of creation? We have answered too confidently sometimes, almost as if we could know the mind...

Thank you.(Brief article)
June 15, 2007... We are pleased to announce that Commonweal is the recipient of a $20,000 gift from The Catholic Commission on Intellectual and Cultural Affairs (CCICA). The commission, which was founded in 1946, officially ceased operation several years ago....

Double vision: two parties, two Americas.(Columnists)
June 15, 2007... When Democratic presidential candidates get together, they argue about who has the best health-care plan. When Republicans have a big discussion, it's about torture and who'll use it when. OK, OK, Republicans had their chat about torture in...

Unintended consequences: the danger of a globalized economy.(Columnists)(Column)
June 15, 2007... A truth only now, and reluctantly, acknowledged in the international economic debate is that globalization has done a great deal of damage since that fateful day Bill Clinton, lacking a dramatic economic proposal in his first presidential...

More like the Anglo-Saxons: Sarkozy's plans for France.(Short Take)(Nicolas Sarkozy )
June 15, 2007... To his detractors, Nicolas Sarkozy resembles a panda-faced dwarf who rolls when he walks and stands uncomfortably at ceremonies, as if his shirt still had the hanger in it. They mock his tassled loafers ("so American") and the way he...

Scripture & experience.(Homosexuality & the Church: Two Views)
June 15, 2007... Is the present crisis in Christian denominations over homosexuality really about sex? I don't think so. If it were, there would be no particular reason why homosexuals should be singled out for attention; there is more than enough sexual...

Mississippi Owl.(Poem)
June 15, 2007... An owl in a shedding tree its rimmed eye to the moon cold haze inside the white its shoulderless head heaved through its tight wings taloned to a branch it stands full face to the winds knowing the dark counter streams where the...

Experience & tradition.(Homosexuality & the Church: Two Views)
June 15, 2007... One of the frightening aspects of loving somebody is the way that love can seem to offer unique access not only to pleasure but to truth. Love of another person--not only romantic love, but familial love and deep friendship as well--promises or...

Angelic Messengers.(Poem)
June 15, 2007... To the ranks, add Jenny Lee, who disagrees, always strongly, and her father I don't want to tell you your business but and John I thought we agreed about the lasagna also Irma I've been trying to put my finger on what's wrong (with...

Cheating to be Faithful: 'Away from Her'.(Screen)(Movie review)
June 15, 2007... Above the entrance of every theater showing Away from Her, there should be a sign that reads, "Abandon all certainties, ye that enter here." And the very first certainty to be abandoned is the preconception that this movie is all about...

This book is not good.(Books)
June 15, 2007... God Is Not Great How Religion Poisons Everything Christopher Hitchens Twelve, $24.99, 294 pp. Christopher Hitchens used to be a courageous and electrifying writer. An heir to the mantle worn by Thomas Paine, William Hazlitt,...

Summer reading.(Recommended readings)
June 15, 2007... Thomas Mallon I've reached a point in life where I need my glasses in order to find my glasses, which I never seem to leave in the same place twice. During the morning hunt for them, my unaided eyes pass over a haze of colors and oblongs...

Baby on board.(The Last Word)
June 15, 2007... It has now been almost a year and a half since I embarked on what I think of as "late-onset fatherhood." Becoming a first-time parent this late--I'm forty-eight, and my wife Molly is nine years younger--can be daunting. I've got a bad knee,...