America articles from November 2000

America archives from November 2000

Of Many Things.(orthodox priest Alexander Men)(Brief Article)(Obituary)
November 4, 2000... On Friday evening, Sept. 29, poets, musicians, theologians and friends gathered in the James Chapel at Union Theological Seminary in New York City to celebrate the life and work of the Orthodox priest Alexander Men. Among other delights, we...

Lessons From Charter Schools.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
November 4, 2000... Do Americans think their public schools are in what Gov. George W. Bush has been calling an "education recession"? It depends. Which Americans and which schools? Parents in Scarsdale, Grosse Pointe, New Trier Township and Beverly Hills do...

Laity May Fill Communion Cups; Indult Proposed.(revised General Instruction of the Roman Missal)(Brief Article)
November 4, 2000... Clearing up some of the confusion surrounding the revised General Instruction of the Roman Missal, the U.S. bishops have received a Vatican ruling permitting extraordinary eucharistic ministers to pour consecrated wine into chalices for...

Vatican Official: Denial of Rights at Root of Mideast Conflict.(Archbishop Giuseppe Bertello)(Brief Article)
November 4, 2000... The ongoing conflicts in Israel and the Palestinian lands demonstrate how the violation of human rights unleashes violence, a Vatican official told the U.N. Human Rights Commission. Archbishop Giuseppe Bertello, the Vatican's permanent observer...

Pope Condemns Move Toward Gay Marriages in Netherlands.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2000... Healthy societies are founded on healthy marriages and families, relationships that cannot be replaced by legally recognized gay unions, Pope John Paul II said. Speaking on Oct. 23 to the Netherlands' new ambassador to the Vatican, the pope...

In China, Jailed Protestant Dies; Two Catholic Bishops Detained.(Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy; Hong Kong)(Brief Article)
November 4, 2000... A Protestant in China who had been detained since early September died in mid-October after being beaten in jail, a human rights group reported. Meanwhile, a Catholic bishop, Raymond Wang Chonglin of Zhaoxian, and Bishop Jiang Mingyuan, his...

Vatican Official Calls for Reciprocity From Other Faiths.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2000... Stressing the Catholic Church's commitment to religious liberty for people of all faiths, a Vatican official insisted on reciprocal guarantees from other religions. "Everyone has the right to places of worship throughout the world," Cardinal...

Immigrants, Prisons, Church Architecture on Bishops' Agenda.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2000... Immigrants, immigration reform, crime and criminal justice, and the relation of church buildings and art to liturgy are among major topics the U.S. Catholic bishops will take up when they meet in Washington on Nov. 13-16. They will also vote on...

Dulles: Death Penalty Stand 'Prudential' But Not Binding.(Avery Dulles, S.J.)(Brief Article)
November 4, 2000... Avery Dulles, S.J., said the teaching of Pope John Paul II and other bishops against the death penalty is a "prudential conclusion" and does not change the principle that the state has the right to impose the penalty. In a lecture at Fordham...

Survey Finds Polish Priests Quit Because of Celibacy, Lifestyle.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
November 4, 2000... A survey published in a Polish Jesuit journal shows most former priests in Poland left the priesthood after becoming demoralized by lack of wealth and disillusionment with celibacy. The editor said the findings indicated an impending crisis in...

Catholics Need Oversight Agency for Charities.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2000... The financial and sexual scandals that have hit Food for the Poor underscore the need for an oversight agency within the Catholic Church that would be similar to the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, according to Frank Butler,...

Bowling Alone, Praying Together : Social capital is most successfully developed through caring and service.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2000... The jacket of Robert Putnam's new book, Bowling Alone (2000) has an illustration on the front cover that depicts a solitary bowler. On the back flap is a photograph of the bowling team the author belonged to in about 1955. Putnam takes his...

Are there enough bishops and priests who listen well? Facing the Crisis in the Priesthood.
November 4, 2000... A generation has elapsed since the close of the Second Vatican Council, and the church has underscored the council's extraordinary ecclesial and historical significance by beatifying, this Sept. 3, Pope John XXIII. At the same time, however,...

The Church and the Homosexual Priest : Facing the challenges and accepting the gifts offered by homosexual priests in the Catholic Church.
November 4, 2000... The recent book by the Rev. Donald B. Cozzens, The Changing Face of the Priesthood, has brought to the fore a number of important issues facing the church in the United States. Among them is a topic that has bedeviled many discussions about the...

The Shrinking Supply of Priests : The number of ordinations is not keeping up.
November 4, 2000... American bishops discussed research describing changing parish staffing patterns at their national convocation in Milwaukee on June 15-17. The three-hour deliberation considered data showing that the number of priests continues to decline,...

A Revolution in American Fathering.
November 4, 2000... Although you would never know it from coverage of the Elian Gonzalez custody battle, a quiet but thoroughly monumental revolution is taking place in the American family. The number of fathers solely responsible for the care of their children is...

Finding God's Grace in Kosovo.
November 4, 2000... Kosovo is a land in need of a voice. And the only one I can hear, or even imagine, is Sylvia Poggioli of National Public Radio. As I ride along on the bus I hear her describing the shattered houses and ruined streets. I wait for her to tell me...

The Savior in Word and Image.(Review)
November 4, 2000... The Poets' Jesus Representations at the End of a Millennium By Peggy Rosenthal Oxford Univ. Press. 189p $29.95 Last spring I ran a seminar on the contemporary Catholic imagination in America, and at the end I asked my students to...

Holy Enchantment!(Review)
November 4, 2000... The Owl, the Raven, and the Dove The Religious Meaning of the Grimms' Magic Fairy Tales By G. Ronald Murphy, S.J. Oxford Univ. Press 189p $25 In 1976 Bruno Bettelheim caused a stir with The Uses of Enchantment, arguing that Grimms'...

An Affirming Theological Synthesis.(Review)
November 4, 2000... The New World of Faith By Avery Dulles, S.J. Our Sunday Visitor. 176p $14.95 paperback original Avery Dulles's first article for America appeared in the issue of May 5, 1951. It was already five years since he had published his...

'You'll Never Walk Alone'--We Hope.(Psalm 146)(Brief Article)
November 4, 2000... Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), November 12, 2000 Readings: 1 Kgs. 17:10-16; Ps. 146; Heb. 9:24-28; Mk. 12:38-44 The fatherless and the widow he sustains (Ps. 146:9) As Mark's Jesus walks toward Jerusalem and his death, he...

letters.(Letter to the Editor)
November 4, 2000... Offended by Drawing I sincerely hope that I am not the only one offended by the cartoon of the ugly prelate accompanying the commentary on the liturgical readings for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (The Word, 10/14). It is not worthy of...

Of Many Things.(Catholic Book Club services)(Brief Article)
November 11, 2000... If you are like me, you resent having your name on everyone's mailing list, receiving direct mail of all sorts, mostly junk, and sometimes having your dinner hour interrupted with telephone solicitations. The scrupulous among us, however, not...

Criminal Justice.(new approach needed)(Brief Article)
November 11, 2000... Criminal justice is on the agenda of the U.S. bishops at their annual fall gathering in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 13-16. They will be discussing the draft of a pastoral statement entitled "Responsibility, Rehabilitation and Restoration: A...

Scholars Say Vatican's Published Material on Holocaust Inadequate.(Pope Pius XII's wartime policy)(Brief Article)
November 11, 2000... After a yearlong study, a commission of three Catholic and three Jewish scholars said that published Vatican material on World War II leaves unanswered many important questions about Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust. In a report made public on...

Sri Lankan Bishops Condemn Massacre of Young Former Rebels.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2000... Sri Lanka's Catholic bishops condemned the massacre of 26 youths who once belonged to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The youths were undergoing rehabilitation at a camp in central Sri Lanka Oct. 25 when the massacre occurred. "We condemn...

New Rules Show Growing Control of Ideologies in China.(foreigners' religious activities monitored)(Brief Article)
November 11, 2000... New rules on the religious activities of foreigners in mainland China must be viewed as part of an attempt by the Chinese authorities to control religions and ideologies, say China church watchers. The State Administration of Religious Affairs...

Gallup Pollsters Report Bible Reading in Decline.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2000... According to a recent Gallup Poll, American readership of the Bible has declined since 1990, from 73 percent to 59 percent. About 6 in 10 Americans say they read the Bible at least on occasion, with the most likely readers being women,...

Congress Passes Debt Relief, Abortion Compromise.(foreign aid funding)(Brief Article)
November 11, 2000... Congress passed and the president signed a $14.9 billion foreign aid bill that included the full U.S. share of $435 million for third world debt relief and left it up to the next president to decide on abortion-related family planning funding...

Parishes Active in Helping Oregon Cities Help Homeless.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2000... A project based at a Catholic parish figures prominently in a new strategy for dealing with homelessness unveiled by the city of Portland, Ore. An organization at St. Francis of Assisi Parish called Join: A Center for Involvement sends more...

Pope to Visit Ukraine.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2000... A papal visit to Ukraine is expected in June, according to Auxiliary Bishop Julian Gbur of Stryj, secretary-general of the Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. He said that the pope's priority would be to "address the conscience...

Making It.(meritocracy)(Brief Article)
November 11, 2000... `Athletes, not politicians, are the real meritocrats. They've made it on talent, not connections.' When, in early August, I had to back out of a social engagement on Long Island because I was heading to Philadelphia to cover the Republican...

'Altogether Adverse' : The story of Graham Greene and the Holy Office.
November 11, 2000... On Nov. 17, 1953, the secretary of the Holy Office, Cardinal Giuseppe Pizzardo, sent a letter to the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Bernard Griffin. "Graham Greene's book THE POWER AND THE GLORY," it began, "published in London in 1940 and...

The Bishops, Your Mind and the Media.
November 11, 2000... The bishops stress moral psychology over public activism. One of the first words my 20-month-old son learned was show, as in his favorite, eternally recurring program "Barney." That most of what he watches is similarly innocuous doesn't...

The Promising Shows...We Think.
November 11, 2000... This year's fall TV roundup was surprisingly simple to, well, round up, since there have been relatively few good shows introduced this season. And after all, does it take a media savant to predict that one is probably not going to enjoy a show...

Come to the Table : A Fall Book Roundup.(Review)(Brief Article)
November 11, 2000... Autumn is the most ambiguous of seasons. Throughout the centuries poets have used it as a symbol for either maturity or decay, much like a good news-bad news joke. But rather than wear oneself out trying to resolve this ambiguity, it seems...

Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
November 11, 2000... Maine Modesty I read with interest Of Many Things (10/21), which mentions my native city and tells the story of a "golden boy" by the name of Ian Crocker. I recently heard another amazing story about this ordinary Olympian. It seems he was...

When the End Is Not the End.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2000... Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), November 19, 2000 Readings: Dan. 12:1-3; Ps. 16; Heb. 10:11-14, 18; Mk. 13:24-32 You will show me the path to life; fullness of joys in your presence (Ps. 16:11) As the days grow shorter and...

Of Many Things.(former home of Henry James' uncle is now a retreat center run by the Sisters of St. Ursula)(Brief Article)
November 18, 2000... To walk where the young Henry James once walked--that is what you can do if you are lucky enough to visit Linwood, a spiritual center near Rhinebeck, N.Y. The mid-19th-century owner of the property was Augustus James, Henry's uncle. During his...

The Presidential Election.(analysis of a close election, the Catholic vote)(Brief Article)
November 18, 2000... Election night proved to be the most exciting moment of the 2000 presidential campaign as American voters split almost perfectly over the candidacies of George W. Bush and Al Gore. The closeness of the race had been anticipated, but the...

Pope Says Politicians Must Conform Civil Laws to God's Law.(Pope John Paul II addresses participants at Jubilee for Politicians and Government Officials)(Brief Article)
November 18, 2000... Pope John Paul II said political leaders must conform civil laws and policies to God's objective moral law and to principles of solidarity and justice. An estimated 15,000 public officials from 92 countries attended the Jubilee for Politicians...

Philippines Church Rally Calls for President's Resignation.(Philippine president Joseph Estrada accused of corruption)(Brief Article)
November 18, 2000... More than 70,000 people gathered to invoke Mary's intercession for peace in the country and for Philippine President Joseph Estrada's resignation amid allegations of corruption. The people said the rosary at the rally on Nov. 4 and prayed,...

Vietnam's Communist Party Praises Catholics' Help to Nation.(Brief Article)
November 18, 2000... The head of Vietnam's Communist Party lauded Catholics for their "significant contributions" to nation-building since the country began opening to the outside world more than a decade ago. "The party and the state wish to warmly express...

Palestinian Christian, Muslim Leaders Condemn Israeli Actions.(Brief Article)
November 18, 2000... Christian and Muslim religious leaders in the northern Palestinian district of Janin issued a joint statement condemning Israel's actions during recent Palestinian-Israeli clashes. "The dangerous procedures and orders taken by Israel are really...

Kansas City Star Follow-Up on Priests with AIDS Criticized.(Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph criticizes Kansas City Star coverage of priests with AIDS)(Brief Article)
November 18, 2000... Spokesmen for the U.S. bishops and the Diocese of Kansas City have again criticized The Kansas City Star for its coverage of priests with AIDS--this time for a follow-up the newspaper did in response to the earlier criticisms. The Star said it...

Return of 'the Exorcist' : After 27 years, the film provokes an entirely different set of reactions.
November 18, 2000... `The Exorcist' is back. A fresh review of a 27-year-old movie would surely tax the patience of even the most generous reader, but the reappearance of this now-classic horror film in its newly printed version with its enhanced sound and added 12...

Prisons for Profit : Some ethical and practical problems.(CCA Prison Realty Trust)(Wackenhut Corporation)
November 18, 2000... A relatively new phenomenon in this century--they began to appear only in the early 1980's--privately operated prisons have rapidly proliferated throughout much of the United States, especially in the South and West. Their upward surge is one...

Can One Forgive a Child Molester?(the Christian doctrine of forgiveness and its importance in secular life)
November 18, 2000... Forgiveness is not a tactic; it is a moral act based on a religious vision. Last May the people of Boston were stunned, angered and depressed upon being informed about yet another case of alleged child sexual abuse by someone working for...

Arm in Arm.(the importance of connectivity in American society)
November 18, 2000... Don and his three colleagues were strolling the aisles of the department store, singing holiday carols as they'd been hired to do. Wrapped in colorful scarves, jaunty caps on their heads, they gave a wondrously festive feel to the bustle of the...

Naming the Good : `Those who are not against us are with us.(Catholic institutions)(Brief Article)
November 18, 2000... It is a strange happenstance that many people, whether justified or not, see foreboding clouds looming over Catholic health care, Catholic higher education, and Catholic ecumenism. While some may contend that the problem is within these...

They Call It Home.(Review)
November 18, 2000... Flophouse Life on the Bowery By David Isay and Stacy Abramson Photographs by Harvey Wang Random House. 154p $24.95 Flophouse is greater than the sum of its parts. That is, it is far more than a book of striking photographs of...

Dark Data.(Review)
November 18, 2000... The Black Image in the White Mind Media and Race in America By Robert M. Entman and Andrew Rojecki Univ.of Chicago Press. 305p $26 "What may even be worse than racism," an African-American friend said not long ago, "is white guilt...

A Cultural Force.(Review)
November 18, 2000... Modernity Christianity's Estranged Child Reconstructed By John Thornhill William B. Eerdmans 240p $24 (paper) Anyone who believes that modernity has quietly "packed its bags" and faded away under the weight of postmodernism needs...

Letters.
November 18, 2000... Contraceptive Mentality I am writing to offer a criticism of your editorial on RU-486 (10/14). I find one of the suggestions in your last paragraph most curious--namely, your claim that there are people who accept the church's teaching on...

A King in Disguise.(Brief Article)
November 18, 2000... Christ the King (B), Nov. 26, 2000 Readings: Dan. 7:13-14; Ps. 93; Rev. 1:5-8; Jn. 18:33b-37 "My kingdom does not belong to this world" (Jn. 18:36) The liturgical year concludes with this relatively new feast, instituted by Pope Pius...

Of Many Things.(Jesuit priests)(Brief Article)(Column)
November 25, 2000... As I write this column, my Jesuit community is preparing to celebrate a number of jubilees, or anniversaries, for three Jesuit priests. The evening's celebration will consist of what some wags refer to as an "L.S.D.," that is, liturgy, social...

Election Day Shocks.(future of the electoral college)(Brief Article)
November 25, 2000... Nearly a half century ago, an anthropologist named Cora Du Bois analyzed the values of U.S. society and concluded that Americans are optimistic activists. They expect that they and their institutions will succeed and succeed quickly. When they...

Historian Says Pius XII Should Be Portrayed in 'Shades Of Gray'.(Gerald P. Fogarty)(Brief Article)
November 25, 2000... An accurate portrayal of Pope Pius XII in World War II should be done in "shades of gray," said Gerald P. Fogarty, S.J. The pope was shaped by his training and experience as a diplomat, and what he said or did not say during the war must be...

Pope Names U.S. Environmental Scientist to Pontifical Academy.(Mario Jose Molina)(Brief Article)
November 25, 2000... Pope John Paul II named a Nobel prize-winning U.S. chemist known for ground-breaking studies on air pollution and the ozone layer to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Mario Jose Molina, professor of atmospheric chemistry at the Department of...

Chicago Black Catholics Examine Parishes, Schools.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
November 25, 2000... Faced with infrastructure nightmares, high maintenance costs and a lack of resources, both personnel and financial, delegates from the Archdiocese of Chicago's 43 predominantly black Catholic parishes met to vote on structural changes in those...

Exit Polls Suggest How Catholics Voted in 2000.(Voters News Service)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
November 25, 2000... According to exit polls, Catholics nationally voted by a 50-to-47 margin for Democratic Vice President Al Gore over Republican Gov. George Bush of Texas. Catholic voters gave 2 percent of their votes to the Green Party candidate Ralph Nader and...

S.O.A. Foes Look for Formal Support From U.S. Bishops.(calls for School of the Americas to be closed)(Brief Article)
November 25, 2000... With nearly 300 U.S. and Latin American bishops urging that the School of the Americas be closed, the founder of the movement against the Army school called it "a scandal" that the U.S. bishops' conference has not formally joined the effort....

The Walker.(Brief Article)
November 25, 2000... He travels on, and in his face, his step, His gait, is one expression; every limb, His look and bending figure, all bespeak A man who does not move with pain, but moves With thought... --William Wordsworth, "Old Man...

Genetic Disorders and Pastoral Care : Where is the right balance between moral conviction and pastoral realism?
November 25, 2000... Imagine a couple in their mid-30's. These people have a beautiful 20-month-old baby girl. But now, at 18 weeks of gestation, their second pregnancy goes awry. Prenatal diagnosis reveals that the developing baby has a spina bifida and...

In Dialogue : Avery Dulles and Ladislas Orsy continue their conversation about the papacy.
November 25, 2000... When I discovered that Ladislas Orsy, S.J., had written such a lengthy response (10/21) to my article on the papacy for a global church (7/15), I wondered how I could reply with reasonable brevity. But when I read his piece, I came to realize...

Cloned Child.(Poem)
November 25, 2000... However she comes to us, glass-engendered, slipping from her temporary womb like a tenement dweller into arms kindly or clinical, she will be ours, bone of our bone, blood of our blood, and our...

Toward Ethical Economic Sanctions : Sanctions work best as instruments of persuasion, not punishment.(Statistical Data Included)
November 25, 2000... Aug. 6 marked the 10th anniversary of United Nations sanctions against Iraq. Established by Security Council Resolution 661 immediately after the invasion of Kuwait and solidified in Resolution 687 as terms of the Gulf War cease-fire on April...

The Buck Stops Here.
November 25, 2000... Greenspan The Man Behind Money By Justin Martin Perseus Books. 288p $28 I once had a close encounter with Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, in a ritzy restaurant in Washington named Galileo. I was being taken...

Chernobyl's Faces.(Review)
November 25, 2000... The Sky Unwashed A Novel By Irene Zabytko Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. 263p $22.95 Before you begin to read The Sky Unwashed, you think you know what you are in for. Both jacket copy and preface explain that the novel deals with...

The Big Green Book.(Review)
November 25, 2000... New Commentary on the Code of Canon Law Edited by John P. Beal, James A. Coriden, and Thomas J. Green Paulist. 1,952p $89.95 The United States has but one graduate program in canon law, and many seminaries and theologates do not have a...

Letters.
November 25, 2000... Hard Choices It is times like this that I most regret allowing myself to fall behind in my reading of America. On the eve of the elections, I am about one and a half months behind, and have just read "The Faces Behind Us" by Robert Heaney...

The Beginning of the End.(Biblicial interpretation of end of history)(Review)
November 25, 2000... First Sunday of Advent (C), December 3, 2000 Jer. 33:14-16; Ps. 25; 1 Thess. 3:12-4:2; Lk. 21:25-28; 34-36 For you are God, my savior, and for you I wait all the day (Ps. 25:4) In a recent issue of Natural History, the astrophysicist...