In this issue
U.S. Catholic ∙ Vol. 74, No. 9 ∙ September 2009
COVER STORY
Final exam: Can we reinvent Catholic schools?
School’s out forever? Sarah Karp looks at a few ways America’s Catholic schools cram toward a passing grade in viability.
System update required
The nation’s Catholic school system was designed for a different time than the digital age it confronts today. Father Joseph O’Keefe, S.J. retools a 21st-century Catholic school.
Learning experience
When can you graduate from university to elementary school? Jeff Parrott reports on Catholic university programs matching young people committed to teaching with parochial schools determined to stay open.
READER SURVEY
Is your faith working?
Are you satisfied with your life’s vocation or just longing for a vacation? A U.S. Catholic Reader Survey scans the help wanted signs of the times to find out if most people feel like they’re doing the Lord’s work or merely getting worked over on the job.
EXPERT WITNESS
Welcome center
Father Paolo Dall’Oglio, S.J. extends the hand of hospitality—and dialogue—in a Middle East in dire need of both. In Expert Witness Bryan Cones studies “human biodiversity” with a modern monastic determined to keep the conversation going among Christians, Jews, and Muslims at an ancient site where modern civilizations meet.
ESSAYS/OPINIONS
Fast friends
In Practicing Catholic Sue Stanton explains how she learned to get the most out of an interreligious fast: take it slow.
The terrible brilliance
A detail from Brian Doyle on the terrible beauty of suffering at the hopeful center of our faith.
FEATURE
All my children
Forget about the shoe! What Rita and Russ Hoffman need is a dormitory. Foster parents to more than 500 kids, they tell John Rosengren in In Person how this Guinness-sized family grew out of a mutual call to parenthood.
DEPARTMENTS
Editors' Note
You May Be Right - LETTERS
Signs of the Times - NEWS
Catholic Tastes - HUMOR
Glad You Asked: WHEN DO THE BREAD AND WINE BECOME THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST?
Culture in context: REVIEWS
At Home with Our Faith
Eye of the Beholder
COLUMNS
The Examined Life - Bryan Cones
PRIESTS OFF THE PEDESTAL
Testaments - Alice Camille
PRACTICE WHAT YOU TEACH
Culture in Context - Patrick McCormick
RE-CYCLE YOURSELF
Margin Notes - Kevin Clarke
LET THEM EAT CASH
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