{mosimage}At last, the food crisis now afflicting millions of the Earth’s poorest people has caught the attention of the well-off nations of Europe and North America. One has to wonder whether we would have ever woken up had not riots and protests broken out earlier this year in a dozen countries across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America.
Internet may spell end of newspaper
By John Bentley MaysThe North American newspaper is a wonderful thing. Since its rise some 300 years ago, this medium has helped build civil society and advance democracy. It has linked people together over the vast distances of the continent, and it has provided these people with the facts about what is happening in the world, and why.
Conversion is good news
By John Bentley MaysPaying the price of faith
By John Bentley Mays{mosimage}For many Catholics around the world, including this one, the joy of this Easter season has been shadowed by the sadness and rage we feel at the kidnapping and death of Paulos Faraj Rahho, Chaldean Catholic archbishop of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
Resist the culture of death
By John Bentley MaysThe culture of death hates the Catholic Church, with good reason. We stand for life in all its fullness, beauty and possibility, perhaps never before more actively and consistently than we do right now.
ROM exhibit light on Christianity
By John Bentley Mays{mosimage}In the spiritual and intellectual adventure that has brought humankind to the present moment, no place has played a more influential role than the Middle East.
Follow Christ's sacrificial example
By John Bentley MaysI have a friend, a fellow writer, whom I’m here calling Peter. That’s not his real name, but I can assure you he’s real.
The Pope should have taken on the rabble rousers
By John Bentley MaysSince his election as bishop of Rome in 2005, Joseph Ratzinger has cut a considerably less controversial figure than he did in the old days, when he was the uncompromising head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. But at least in Italy, a public appearance by our Pope outside the Vatican can still cause quite a ruckus.
Community for all in housing developments
By John Bentley Mays{mosimage}For many people in the earthly city, the first of January marked the end of the gift-giving season. The exchange of holiday presents was over, and the last chance to make a charitable donation for 2007 had passed.
Come out against death penalty
By John Bentley MaysFor Catholics and other Christians concerned with the advancement of justice, human rights and peace, 2007 has hardly been a year of encouragement. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan dragged on. The agony of Africa, afflicted by disease, war and famine, continued. And despite the pronouncements issued by the much-ballyhooed Bali conference, the world’s worst industrial polluters seemed as willing as ever to inflict long-term environmental damage in the interests of short-term economic gain.
Catholic, Orthodox show signs of reconciliation
By John Bentley Mays{mosimage}Advent invites us to cast aside our pessimism about the present age, and boldly imagine the great new beginnings that God has promised to His people.