archives

By John Thavis, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY -- A Vatican official said the recent agreement on a treaty to ban cluster bombs showed solidarity to victims of such weapons and opened an important new chapter in international humanitarian law.

The accord also demonstrated a "spirit of partnership" in making the world a safer and more cooperative place, said Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican representative to a cluster-bomb conference in Dublin, Ireland.

'Weapons that never stop killing'
Listen to a podcast interview with Sister of Mercy Denise Coghlan who attended the cluster bomb conference. Listen.

As you've noticed, I'm sure, by the fact that I'm wearing green vestments today, not the white or the red that we've seen over the past 10 or 12 weeks, we have returned to what we call "ordinary time." We finished the celebration of Lent and Easter, Pentecost and then Trinity Sunday and Corpus Christi. So now we begin once more to take up the gospel of Matthew, which we will follow throughout this year.

DETENTION MINISTRY AND RESTORATIVE JUSTICE
HI, EVERYBODY!
THE PURPOSE OF SETTING UP FORUM TOPIC IS TO BRING TOGETHER AND SHARE OUR EXPERIENCES AS WE HAVE SHARED TIME IN JAIL, IN PRISON OR EVEN JUVENILE HALL. WHEREEVER YOU MAY BE, WHAT HAVE YOU TO SAY ABOUT WORKING WORKING WITH PEOPLE WHE ARE INCARCERATED OR HAVE BEEN INCARCERATED.
IT HAS ALSO BEEN MY EXPERIENCE THAT WHEN WE GET TOGETHER AND TALK ABOUT THIS THINGS AS PEOPLE OF FAITH, THERE IS SUCH A WIDE SPECTRUM OF CIRCUMSTANCES. MAYBE WE CAN PRAY FOR EACH OTHER, MAYBE WE CAN HELP EACH OTHER.

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Miami

Catholic theologians just coming of age today, one of them says, find themselves between a rock and a hard place in a way that older colleagues never experienced, and may struggle to understand fully.

Maureen O’Connell, who earned a Ph.D at Boston College and is now an assistant professor of theology at Fordham University, said she and her peers face pressures to meet secular standards of academic excellence, especially publishing and research, in an increasingly competitive market of American higher education. In some cases, she said, this evaluation is carried out by scholars outside the field of theology, many of whom aren’t Catholic.

This perplexes me. Someone needs to outline for me the job description of a bishop. It could be done by maybe describing the style of a few great bishops of the past. Is the bishop appointed to ensure the 'proper' enforcement of the authority? Did He do such a great job in a less Catholic area that now he needs a larger territory? Is this the only way to the ultimate goal which may be the red hat?

On listening to Tom Fox's interview with Brother Rodemman the thought occurred to me that many suburban parishes could benefit from having a small vegetable or flower garden on the parish grounds. Would it be a great way for people to play in the dirt? understand growth and the gift of the environent? People could appreciate the weather [and the farmer]. The food would be organic and could enhance both the food pantry and the gift to the poor might be real instead of canned [no pun].