Catholic Exchange - The Edge

I Love My German Shepherd

Mickey Addison — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Can you name the largest megachurch in the world? Is it in San Antonio or Colorado Springs? Maybe Los Angeles or Orlando? Nope....it's in Rome. The world's largest megachurch is the Catholic Church.

Reason is Paying a Visit

James Maldonado-Berry — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500

All eyes will be focused on the White House come April 16 when the successor to Peter touches down for his tête-à-tête with the successor to Washington. What will Pope Benedict XVI say to President Bush in private and what will he have to say to the rest of us on April 19 when he addresses the U.N. General Assembly?

An Open Letter to Henrietta Fore, USAID Administrator

Steven W. Mosher — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Last November, you were confirmed to head our multi-billion dollar foreign aid agency. You are committed, you tell us, to "serv[ing] the people who have the least hope, opportunity and prosperity, and who want to build their lives, their nations and their futures." These are laudable goals, but ones which are undermined by certain practices of the fertility reduction programs that USAID continues to have in place.

I AM

Fr. Thomas Euteneuer — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500

The Gospel of John records various key statements that Jesus uttered about Himself which begin with the words "I am..." These statements reveal basic aspects of who He is and what He does for the world. They also reveal basic foundations of the pro-life movement.

Dueling Anglican Pulpits

Terry Mattingly — Wed, 9 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500

There is nothing new about Anglicans worrying about the environment. One of the Church of England's most famous hymns, after all, offers this somber vision of industrialization from poet William Blake: "And did the countenance divine shine forth upon our clouded hills? And was Jerusalem builded here among those dark satanic mills?"

Building Understanding, One E-Mail at a Time

Laura Sheahen — Tue, 8 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500

"I was full of fear about participating in a project with Americans," says Raya Khadish, a Palestinian teen living in one of the world's political hot spots: the West Bank. Thinking that people in the United States disliked Arabs, the 16-year-old girl worried about how she would be perceived.

Race and Morality

Russell Shaw — Mon, 7 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500

As a child during World War II (I was ten when the fighting ended in 1945), I took a simplified, not to say simplistic, view of that conflict: our side was right and the other side was wrong, and that being so, whatever we did to them in waging the war was ipso facto justified. That was particularly true of the Japanese, whom the comic books and wartime propaganda movies taught me to call "Japs." After all, hadn't they picked a fight with us at some place called Pearl Harbor and so come to deserve whatever we dished out in return?

Rethinking our Social Fabric

Fr. John Rausch — Sat, 5 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Not since the Gilded Age of the 1890s has the wealth gap between the rich and poor in the United States been wider. With 469 American billionaires, the richest 1 percent of Americans own 33.4 percent of all U.S. wealth measured as stocks, bonds, cash, real estate and personal possessions. The bottom 90 percent of all Americans divide only 30.4 percent of the wealth among them. While 37 million Americans live in poverty, most breadwinners among them have jobs and some have two or more. The numbers seemingly measure only the economic gap, but on deeper reflection they indicate a disturbing trend: the diminishing of America's middle class.

Faith and Politics? Nothing New

Terry Mattingly — Fri, 4 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500

When it comes to religion and politics, it's hard to talk about the contests without naming the players and their teams. Consider Hillary Rodham Clinton, who insists that her political convictions are rooted in her United Methodist faith. Then there is Barack Obama and the Rev. Jeremy Wright of Trinity United Church of Christ. Enough said.

Old School Values

Tom Purcell — Thu, 3 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500

My old Catholic elementary school has been struggling, and that's not good for anybody. St. Germaine School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, will merge with another Catholic school because of declining enrollment at both schools. St. Germaine's enrollment dropped from 172 students just six years ago to 86 this year.