Wanted from Congress: Serious Debate, Not Sound Bites
BY AUGUST 1950, Secretary of State Dean Acheson had taken all he could stand from those congressional critics whom he privately dismissed as “the primitives.” So when Nebraska Sen. Kenneth
Misreporting the Pope
Despite its op-ed page — which often sounds like a transcript from an asylum for victims of Bush Derangement Syndrome — the New York Times remains the nation’s newspaper-of-record. If
300,000,000, on the way to 400,000,000
The 300,000,000th American was born (or naturalized) last month, and the usual suspects marked the occasion with the usual hand-wringing about America’s allegedly heavy “ecological footprint;” somewhere, I’m sure, Paul
An Electoral Battle of the Booklets?
As the 2006 midterm elections approach, a battle of the booklets is likely in many U.S. Catholic venues. First into the lists was “Voting for the Common Good: A Practical
9/11, Five Years Later
Five years ago, confronted by the rubble in lower Manhattan, the smoldering wreckage at the Pentagon, and the debris of United 93, most Americans instinctively, and correctly, understood that the
Marriage, the Courts, and the Amendment
Ironically, I got into my first protracted discussion about the Federal Marriage Amendment [FMA] at a wedding reception, a few years back. My interlocutors were two prominent political philosophers of
A Shining Symbol of Religious Freedom
I first became aware of Baltimore’s “Old Cathedral” in September 1957, when I began first grade at the Cathedral School, then at 7 W. Mulberry St. Months later, the entire
Catholic Democrats and Abortion: Same Old Same Old
A thought exercise: It’s 1964, and Congress is debating the Civil Rights Act. For years, the Catholic bishops of the United States have taught that segregation is an offense against
Reclaiming America’s Cathedral
St. Patrick’s is, arguably, the most famous Catholic cathedral in the United States. The Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis is, arguably, the most beautiful. But Baltimore’s Old Cathedral, now the
The Alito Apologies
With Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., safely and, I trust, happily, seated on the United States Supreme Court, apologies are in order — as they frequently are after these judicial
A Catholic Renaissance at Princeton
Having taught James Madison at the College of New Jersey (as Princeton was then known), the Rev. John Witherspoon has a claim to the honorable title, “Grandfather of the U.S.
Dancing Around the Issue
As the Roberts hearings vividly demonstrated, and as any confirmation hearing between now and January 2009 will similarly demonstrate, Roe v. Wade did not settle the abortion debate. Neither did
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