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U.S. Catholic ∙ Vol. 75, No. 11 ∙ November 2010

COVER STORY

From the grounds up: Can fair trade grow beyond just coffee?
Coffee and chocolate sales have become seasonal staples at parish Christmas bazaars, but how much of a difference is fair trade really making? Daniel P. Smith explores whether this movement is sustainable.

Sidebar (PDF): Trade, from farmer to cup. Comparing fair and conventional trade

EXPERT WITNESS

Internal medicine
The human side of health care has been replaced at the bedside by burdensome technology, especially at life’s end, says physician and ethicist Daniel Sulmasy, O.F.M. in Expert Witness. But Catholic wisdom that predates even antibiotics holds the key to rediscovering the art of dying well.
Sidebar: Do I need an advance directive?

FEATURE

A good rep
From a war-torn Saigon to a Katrina-ravaged New Orleans to a divided Capitol Hill, U.S. Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao’s experiences of suffering have truly made him a man of the people, writes In Person author Heidi Schlumpf.

SOUNDING BOARD

Let’s bury the eulogy
A funeral is no place for an open microphone, argues Father James Field in Sounding Board, speaking from experience. The Mass for the dead shouldn’t be a tribute to the deceased but a thanksgiving for a disciple’s life in Christ. In Feedback readers discern the boundary between appropriate remembrance and too much information.

ESSAY

Visiting hours
Sue Fox McGovern discovers lessons for living as she walks with the dying in their final days.

Day by Day
There was more to Dorothy Day than bread, soup, and picket lines, writes biographer Robert Ellsberg. As her personal letters reveal, the energy for her activism had deep roots in spiritual discipline.

A rite to remember
Words fail when death claims its victims too early, too cruelly, or too unfairly, writes Kathy Coffey. Ritual and music, candles and incense, on the other hand, never lose their power to soothe death’s sting.

DEPARTMENTS

Editors' Note
You May Be Right Letters
Signs of the Times News
Catholic Tastes
Culture in Context: Reviews
Glad You Asked: Is DÍa de los muertos the same as all souls day?
At Home with Our Faith
Eye of the Beholder 
Jerry Bleem, O.F.M.

COLUMNS

The Examined Life - Bryan Cones
America the anxious
Margin Notes - Kevin Clarke
Take the next exit
Culture in Context - Patrick McCormick
Hope against hope
Testaments - Alice Camille
Soul searching