Commonweal articles from October 2005

Commonweal archives from October 2005

Voices of the Faithful.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
October 7, 2005... John C. Cort brings a perceptive eye to the plight of the laity in the Catholic Church ("Organizing the Faithful," September 9). Organizing people accustomed to passivity and deference is no easy task. But people can change. I was one of those...

Truth in advertising?(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
October 7, 2005... You are properly liberal in your advertising policy, but Bishop John Shelby Spong, in whose Anglican Communion I am a communicant, has got it wrong when he writes that the Bible isn't "the word of God" (advertisement, back cover, September 9)....

Countercultural & courageous.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
October 7, 2005... Franz Klein and his "John Paul II" cohorts are on a jet headed for the Promised Land in their flight from the fleshpots of Egypt ("John Paul II Priests," August 12). Yet, if Aquinas's dictum that "there is nothing in the mind that hasn't been...

Greeley is right.(Letter to the Editor)
October 7, 2005... Throughout twelve years of parochial school, my teachers exhorted me to be on my best behavior at all times. If ever I were to drop my guard, they warned, a non-Catholic would surely catch me in flagrante and say, "She's a Catholic and she did...

Catholics & evolution.(Letter to the Editor)
October 7, 2005... Thanks to John Haught ("The Cardinal & Darwin," August 12) for responding to Cardinal Christoph Schonborn's "fearful and defensive" op-ed piece in the July 7 New York Times. Catholics should know that there is a positive way of viewing...

Please explain.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
October 7, 2005... I've read John Haught and I've read John Garvey ("Intelligent Design?" August 12) and I still don't understand how I can stand up every Sunday and say, "We believe in one God / the Father Almighty, / maker of heaven and earth, / of all that is...

The church in China.(Letter to the Editor)
October 7, 2005... Congratulations and thank you for Adam Minter's article on the Presentation of Mary Sisters in Shanghai ("The Sisters of Shanghai," August 12). Having had the privilege of working with dedicated women religious in other major Chinese cities...

Rome & Beijing.(Letter to the Editor)
October 7, 2005... In his article on Chinese nuns, Adam Minter writes, "Today, the Vatican recognizes both churches..." Presumably, he means the underground church in China and the Catholic Patriotic Association (CPA), commonly referred to as China's "official...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
October 7, 2005... David O'Brien's "Public Catholicism" (September 23) stated that, if confirmed, John Roberts would be the first Catholic chief justice of the Supreme Court since the Civil War. In fact, Edward Douglas White, a Catholic from Louisiana, served as...

Umpires.(John G. Roberts Jr. appointment)(Editorial)
October 7, 2005... With a firm Republican majority in the Senate, the confirmation of Judge John Roberts as chief justice of the Supreme Court is a fait accompli. Roberts's performance before the Senate Judiciary Committee was lauded as brilliant by his...

Who's in & who's out: a church of demands or acceptance?(Column)
October 7, 2005... What are churches for? The answer may seem obvious: to preach and try to live the word of God and to celebrate the sacraments. But what does this mean? A recent First Things article argues that two distinct and irreconcilable visions of the...

Taking stock: the quandary of quandary ethics.
October 7, 2005... My wife and I have been in the process of moving from Houston to North Carolina. I've taken a newly created chair in religion and science at Davidson College, after having worked for many years in various positions at Rice University and Texas...

The politics we need: balancing public goods & private interests.(Short Take)
October 7, 2005... Across America candidates are lining up for the next round of House and Senate elections in 2006. Republicans are trying to maintain the momentum built up over years of civic action, but their party struggles with the costs of victory. There is...

'This is my body': how to understand transubstantiation.
October 7, 2005... This month, as the culmination of the "Year of the Eucharist" designated by the late John Paul II, Catholic bishops from around the world will gather for a synod in Rome to explore and deepen the church's understanding of this sacrament. ...

A mutual presence: 'What good is it if the bread is changed & we are not?'.
October 7, 2005... As Roman Catholics, we believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The bread and wine do not merely symbolize Christ, nor is their consecration a commemorative act. The Eucharist becomes the whole Christ, truly, really, and...

Bread & wine: what's essential to the Eucharist?
October 7, 2005... Last year, Haley Waldman, an eight-year-old New Jersey girl, made headlines when her first Communion was declared invalid because the wafer had been made of soy flour (New York Times, October 4, 2004). The child suffers from celiac disease, a...

Wild things: "The Constant Gardener" & "Grizzly Man".(Screen)(Movie Review)
October 7, 2005... Based on the novel by John le Carre, Fernando Meirelles's film The Constant Gardener takes us to an Africa over-whelmed by poverty, disease, and crime--a place so desperate, the dead are buried in concrete graves to keep thieves from stealing...

Quantum Leaps.(A Different Universe: Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down)(The Artful Universe Expanded)(Book Review)
October 7, 2005... A Different Universe Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down Robert B. Laughlin Basic Books, $26,254 pp. The Artful Universe Expanded John D. Barrow Oxford University Press, $30, 321 pp. The goal of...

Custody of the Eyes.(Many Are Called)(Book Review)
October 7, 2005... Many Are Called Walker Evans Yale University Press/Metropolitan Museum of Art, $40, 208 pp. Duke Ellington's "Take the 'A' Train" immortalized New York City's subways at the speed of jazz. Walker Evans's 35-mm photographs in Many...

His left foot.(The Last Word)(buying an artificial foot)
October 7, 2005... A friend of mine went to buy a foot the other day. Left foot. He lost the original in a war, and he didn't replace it for a while, being distracted by other things, as he says, but eventually he did replace it, first with a bamboo foot, which...

Award worthy.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
October 21, 2005... When the Catholic Press Association awards are given out for this year's writings, I hope that Dr. Lynn-Beth Satterly's article is among the winners ("A Doctor's Dilemma," September 23). As a committed Catholic, Satterly knows what it is to...

Prescribing contraception.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
October 21, 2005... As a new subscriber to Commonweal, I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed the September 23 issue. The articles were smart, well written, and provocative. I especially enjoyed Lynn-Beth Satterly's piece dealing with conscience and prescribing the...

A married church.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
October 21, 2005... To Adam A. J. DeVille's reservations about the married priesthood ("Married Priests: Not So Fast," September 9), I could add several more. Entering into the present pattern of parish life, any married priests will be treated as second-class,...

Priest-husband wanted.(Letter to the Editor)
October 21, 2005... Adam A. J. DeVille writes of the obstacles that the church would encounter if celibacy were to become optional. His points are valid and realistic. I say bring on the "struggles" of change! I am a single, lay Catholic woman who wants to be a...

Defining prejudice.(Letter to the Editor)
October 21, 2005... While Rev. Andrew Greeley's statistics are indisputable, he does not adequately define anti-Catholic prejudice ("Can Catholics Think for Themselves?" September 9). Disagreement, distaste for a practice, or misunderstanding are not prejudice....

Life is not fair.(Letter to the Editor)
October 21, 2005... In your editorial "Fours Years After" (September 9) you seem to affirm Kenneth R. Feinberg's effort to "narrow the gap" between high and low settlements of the 9/11 victims. However, that is not what Congress intended when it created the...

Remembering the dead.(Letter to the Editor)
October 21, 2005... In his description of his grief following his wife's death ("The Dead Need Us," September 9), John J. Savant has polished a gem of the Catholic tradition which, because of teaching that bordered on the ghoulish, many Catholics have considered a...

A few good men.(Letter to the Editor)
October 21, 2005... I agree with John C. Cort that we need many more men involved in church affairs ("Organizing the Faithful," September 9). For this to happen, however, in this little old gray-haired lady's opinion, some men need to work on their mindset. I...

Wrong date.(Letter to the Editor)
October 21, 2005... I doubt very much that Hitler was born in 1907 ("A Tale of Two Cities," September 23)--he was born in 1889--but I did appreciate learning two new words in the same issue, thanks to Richard Alleva: Parthian and condign ("No Easy Gait"). Now if I...

Celibacy & the Eucharist.(Letter to the Editor)
October 21, 2005... Your August 12 issue on "Priests, Celibacy & the Future of the Clergy" was timely, and the divergent views were expressed thoughtfully, but, I suggest you had the title all wrong. The real issue is not that of celibacy and the Catholic clergy,...

A flagrant inconsistency.(Letter to the Editor)
October 21, 2005... Regarding Franz Klein's response to Michon Matthiesen's letter (Correspondence, September 23): I wonder whether Klein thinks that the married priests in the Catholic Church in England & Wales (refugees from the decision to ordain women in the...

A negligent president.(George W. Bush)(Editorial)
October 21, 2005... Two recent developments in the "war on terror" give hope that the nation, and especially Congress, may be coming to its senses about the failure of President George W. Bush's misconceived campaign to defeat Islamic terrorism by invading Iraq....

Online porn: how do we keep it from our kids?(protect kids)
October 21, 2005... In the age of the Internet, it is laughingly easy for kids to view pornography online. A mere 3 percent of the more than 450 million individual porn Web sites ask for proof of age, according to a recent report by the Washington-based Third Way,...

Learning curve: what it's like to be disabled.(learning disabilities)
October 21, 2005... "This film changes people's lives," Dr. Martha Rose, a professor of special education at Salve Regina University, told me. "I've seen teachers transformed by it." The film, How Difficult Can This Be? is a PBS documentary about Rick Lavoie,...

The war on terror: the prescience of Joseph Conrad.(Short Take)(The Secret Agent)
October 21, 2005... Tom Reiss's article on Joseph Conrad's Under Western Eyes (1911) in the New York Times Book Review ("The True Classic of Terrorism," September 11) criticizes the stock figures and cartoon characters of Conrad's earlier novel, The Secret Agent...

Dialogue not monologue: Benedict XVI & religious pluralism.
October 21, 2005... How is Benedict XVI, long a defender of orthodoxy and famous critic of the "dictatorship of relativism," likely to approach interreligious dialogue? Does he see religious pluralism and tolerance as little more than an enticement to...

This writer's life: irony & faith in the work of Tobias Wolff.
October 21, 2005... I can't live without it." Tobias Wolff was talking to me about irony. He paused, his eyes scanning the book-lined walls of his Stanford University office, and repeated: "I can't live without it. But I do think it has its temptations, and one of...

Public enemy: "A History of Violence".(Screen)(Movie Review)
October 21, 2005... Just my luck. I'm trying to come to grips with the most unsettling American film produced in several years, while circumstances dictate a deadline that nearly keeps me from thinking about the movie--much less writing about it. So please regard...

What's the Fuss?(Opus Dei: An Objective Look Behind the Myths and Theology of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church)(Book Review)
October 21, 2005... Opus Dei An Objective Look behind the Myths and Theology of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church John Allen Doubleday, $24.95, 375 pp. The morning I sat down to write this review the weekly magazine of our...

Capital Gains.(The Tycoons )(Book Review)
October 21, 2005... The Tycoons Charles R. Morris Times Books, $28, 384 pp. You know," a fellow graduate student in history whispered to me in 1989, "the D. stands for DuPont." The remark came as we prepared for our general examinations by plowing...

What If ...(Border Lines: The Partition of Judaeo-Christianity)(Book Review)
October 21, 2005... Border Lines The Partition of Judaeo-Christianity Daniel Boyarin University of Pennsylvania Press, $38.50, 392 pp. The fascination of counterfactual narrative--writing that deals in alternative historical outcomes--lies in its...

Rhymes & Reason.(Auden and Christianity)(Book Review)
October 21, 2005... Auden and Christianity Arthur Kirsch Yale University Press, $30, 200 pp. W.H. Auden's currency as a popular poet returned briefly after September 11, 2001, when "September 1939" found its way into many commentaries on the events...

The Last Just War?(1945: The War That Never Ended)(Book Review)
October 21, 2005... 1945 The War That Never Ended Gregor Dallas Yale University Press, $40, 739 pp. Many Europeans did not feel the full fury of the Second World War until its final year: Italians caught in the bitter partisan battles in the...

You Can Look It Up.(Modern Catholic Social Teaching: Commentaries and Interpretations)(Book Review)
October 21, 2005... Modern Catholic Social Teaching Commentaries and Interpretations Edited by Kenneth R. Himes; Lisa Sowle Cahill, Charles E. Curran, David Hollenbach, SJ, and Thomas Shannon, associate editors Georgetown University Press, $39.95, 464...

Religion Booknotes.(Book Review)
October 21, 2005... Published shortly before Pope John Paul II's death, Universal Father is one of a raft of biographies of Karol Wojtyla. The most notable of the bunch is George Weigel's Witness to Hope (HarperCollins), which had the advantage of both papal...

A well in Togo.(The Last Word)
October 21, 2005... I spent two weeks this past summer in Togo, a country that most Americans (this one included) would have to look up in an atlas before they could be sure where it is. Togo is a narrow strip of land between Ghana and Benin in West Africa,...