Soon after the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the Economist published an editorial examining "the roots of hatred" underlying it. Many reasons for why people might hate the United States were considered.
The contemporary crisis of freedom is at root a crisis of truth. In our own day, John Paul II has clearly demonstrated the inseparable connection between freedom and truth. In the course of his long career, he has eloquently and forcefully proclaimed the principles that must underlie every free society, including the American experiment in ordered liberty.
The parts of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that speak to economic and social justice are almost completely ignored today; even by the major human rights organizations. It seems to me that the most pressing task for friends of human rights today is to re-unite the two halves of the divided soul of the human rights project its commitment to personal freedom and its sense of one human family for which we all bear a common responsibility.
In my favorite movie, George Bailey falls under the terrible illusion that everyone around him would be better off if he had never even been born. To show him how tragically misguided he is, his guardian angel Clarence shows him what the world would be like without him, and I dont think Im ruining the ending for anyone George realizes that his really has been a wonderful life. In 2002, a plaintiffs attorney might get to George quicker than an angel.
The poor people are very great people. They can teach us so many beautiful things.
All indications are that the newly established ICC poses a serious threat to both American sovereignty and religious liberty. Written originally for Crisis magazine, this article includes an addendum - written by the author especially for CERC - which makes note of a number of important developments that have occurred since the original date of publication.
In the midst of Valentines Day sentiment, its refreshing to hear someone who speaks plainly about love. At a White House briefing on February 6, Jim Towey, the new Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based & Community Initiatives, said something that ought to be heard government cannot love.
After providing a survey of the complex question of capital punishment Cardinal Dulles writes that: "The Pope and the bishops, using their prudential judgment, have concluded that in contemporary society, at least in countries like our own, the death penalty ought not to be invoked, because, on balance, it does more harm than good."
When I gingerly introduced the subject of Hell, those who had spontaneously rejected capital punishment and then had some second thoughts about life imprisonment when looked at in itself and not as an alternative to the death penalty seemed inclined toward a creative interpretation of eternal punishment.
