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The Dormition of Mary
FR. WILLIAM SAUNDERS
I tuned to a television station for the Rosary. When the priest reached the 4th decade, "the Assumption," they showed scenes of a Church in Israel named, "The Sleep of Mary." The Church includes a statue of Mary asleep and an empty tomb. Ive never heard of the sleep of Mary only that she went to heaven "in toto." What is this "sleep of Mary"?

Can the Pope Retire?
FR. WILLIAM SAUNDERS
Since Pope John Paul II has been ill, the media have mentioned his possible retirement. Can a pope retire? Has a pope ever retired in history?

Catechesis of fasting
ADAM A. J. DEVILLE
Pope John Paul has called on us to build a holier Church, and in his 1995 letter Orientale Lumen, exhorted Latin Catholics in particular to learn from their Eastern brethren so that the Church can again breathe with both lungs. From the East, then, source of the rising Son, may we receive the gift of fasting as just such a practice that unites, purifies, and strengthens us as the one Body of Christ.

The Crusades
PAUL CRAWFORD
This article presents an overview of the Crusades.

The Papacy: The Petrine Ministry in the Early Church (3 of 3)
ROBERT STACKPOLE
Students will understand that after Jesus created a special Petrine ministry to lead and unify His Church (demonstrated in lesson two) He then used that ministry to secure the unity-in-truth of the early Christian Church, through its many struggles and difficulties.

The Priest Who Died Three Times
LOUISE PERROTTA
In the Gulag, Fr. Walter Ciszek learned some simple truths.

Tolerance must flow two ways
REX MURPHY
It is not often that lectures on the finer points of theology and philosophy, delivered from so retired a venue as the University of Regensburg, turn the world, or at least a good part of it, on its ear. But it must be said as well that not every lecturer is the Bishop of Rome.

Taking on Turkey's Secular State
FATHER RAYMOND DE SOUZA
Pope Benedict XVI planned his visit to Turkey as an ecumenical Christian encounter with Patriarch Bartholomew I, the titular head of Orthodoxy.

Teddy Bear Tyranny
ANNE APPLEBAUM
What do a British novel, a papal speech, some Danish cartoons and a Dutch movie have in common with . . . a teddy bear?

Christian Martyrs to Islam, Past and Present
CHARLOTTE ALLEN
As in the 15th century, Christians are under attack in Muslim lands.

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