Commentaries
Rest is essential in a busy teen’s life
Some days, I bet you’re absolutely exhausted — can’t-get-out-of-bed, just-five-more-minutes, drowsing-off-in-class exhausted. No, scratch that. I bet it’s more accurate to say “most days.” Teens have a lot on their schedules. A long day of school starts early, and there’s a mountain of homework to complete every night. Sports schedules are particularly demanding and extracurricular […]
Brutality does not have the last word
The serenity of the setting, the graceful branches of old trees beneath a dazzling blue sky belied its reality. We were amid the mass graves of countless Cambodians, children, men and women. The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Cambodia is part of the “The Killing Fields,” the title of the 1984 Academy Award-winning movie about […]
Get over the fear of exercising in public
My car’s water pump will soon need to be replaced, and between now and when I take it to the mechanic, I have been walking much more: to the store, to meet a friend for lunch, to the pharmacy. One of the reasons I live where I do is that I have the luxury of […]
Ending a war that has no victors
Symbolic events have often been precursors of change in foreign policies. Some have even ended wars. The self-immolation of a Buddhist monk in the streets of Saigon in 1963 caused the Kennedy administration to rethink its support of the Vietnamese government. Five years later, the sharp criticism of the Vietnam War effort by television’s Walter […]
Do Catholic values dominate the lives of young Catholics?
We tend to forget that all of our thoughts, actions and feelings are culturally conditioned. The values that predominate our secular culture influence all thinking, acting and feeling within that culture. So a very practical question all Catholics, especially young ones, should be considering these days is: Whose values or which values dominate my thoughts, […]
Assisted suicide and Mary’s Assumption
On Aug. 15, Catholics honored the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven, body and soul. The Assumption is a doctrine proclaimed officially in relatively recent times, but it has been celebrated and believed since the Church’s earliest days. The Assumption has a special meaning for my family and myself. It […]
More news on TV, but viewers less satisfied watching it
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Are you watching television news more and enjoying it less? Join the club. Stations are expanding the amount of local news programming they carry. It’s especially evident at two times of the day: the morning news and the afternoon rush-hour news. In the morning, what passed for local news might have been […]
Career-searching daughter gets it: ‘I just want to help people’
Labor Day: A time to reflect, not celebrate
Things a priest never buys
Once you are ordained a Catholic priest in the U.S., there are some things that you will never have to buy. They are not enough of a benefit to bring people into the seminary, but they are a side benefit nevertheless. Most obvious, priests never have to buy a necktie. That is a distinct advantage over other men. When I was practicing law, I had dozens of neckties. I hated wearing them, especially on hot summer days in Washington, D.C. I never liked having to figure out which tie to wear. Red tie or blue tie?