Who really cares? People who mistrust big government give more of their money and time as volunteers to take care of the poor themselves. Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism America’s Charity Divide, by Arthur C. Brooks (250 pages, Basic Books, 2007) We live in two Americas: “America the Selfish” and “America [...]
Street saints are people who have heard the call and obeyed. They are very different kinds of people in very different places, but they have one thing in common: They have heard the call to go, and they have said “here I am Lord, send me.” Why should anyone embark on the way of compassion? [...]
American culture has an opportunity now for renewal through its people of faith. We are being called to care for one another with love. We are being called to live out our virtue in service. The American soul has withered, and awaits an infusion of the lifeblood of love. Whether or not we respond may [...]
What is at the heart of the success story of the World Villages for Children? Not just a school, not just vocational training, but the Catholic faith. The joy, hope, and faith of the young Sisters of Mary is infectious. The Catholic faith teaches that, with God’s help, we can change—change ourselves, change our families, [...]
Intellectual life provides an escape in that it is beyond “straitened circumstances,” but the escape is again a flight into realities beyond oneself: animal behavior, astronomy, and the mechanics of the inner life. The intellect has no limit to its subject matter: It reaches greedily for the whole of everything. In 2001 I was a [...]
A single American priest, Fr. Dan Leary, has worked seventeen-hour days the past several weeks in Chalco, Mexico, to spiritually and mentally prepare teenage girls for what might await them in some of the most dangerous towns in the world. In Chalco, Mexico, on the other side of the high walls that guard this valley [...]
As a majority of states have rejected the application of capital punishment in certain cases, United States law has moved toward mercy, away from cruelty. Consensus about human dignity and the inception of human life now calls for a similar move at the beginning of life. Just Mercy In his book Just Mercy, attorney Bryan [...]
Twenty-four centuries after his death, the words of Socrates can still unsettle an attentive listener. However, before we can understand his most famous dictum, we must clear away who we are not to grasp who we are—something only done when we are grounded in the fundamental relationships that are universal to humankind. Probably, the most [...]
Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II defeated their enemies at every turn. But they also sat down and talked, prayed for them and prayed with them. They studied them thoroughly, reaching out lovingly to win them over. They acted in the example of Jesus Christ, defeating mass murderers without bullets. In doing so, they [...]
I have read A Tale of Two Cities at least eight times now. Each time, I cry. Yes, each time. Why, I wonder, does Charles Dickens’ writing have this effect on me? I surprised myself today. As I was discussing the end of A Tale of Two Cities with my high-school juniors, we reviewed how Sydney [...]
Oh, love to some is like a cloud, To some as strong as steel, For some a way of living, For some a way to feel, And some say love is holding on And some say letting go, And some say love is everything And some say they don’t know. John Denver (Perhaps Love) [...]
St. John the Baptist came to prepare the way of the Lord by proclaiming the Good News of the coming of the Redeemer, and by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just. According to Abba Apollo, a desert father who lived about 1,700 years ago, the devil has no knees. He had them [...]
"Technique has penetrated the deepest recesses of the human being. The machine tends not only to create a new human environment, but also to modify man's very essence…. He must adapt himself, as though the world were new, to a universe for which he was not created. He was made to go six kilometers an [...]
How is it possible to feel happy and sad at the same time? Recently I tasted that bittersweetness as I walked the campus of a college I attended almost 30 years ago. The landmarks of warm memories were still there: majestic buildings, the elegant gym, the cozy dining hall. Then I came to a place [...]