Mountain man

By Jim Forest| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
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Forty years after his untimely death, Thomas Merton continues to inspire us to climb new spiritual peaks.

Few writers of the past century have had as big an impact on so many people as Thomas Merton (1915-1968). His readers ranged from popes to high school students, from astronauts to taxi drivers, from mystics to people trying to decide if God exists. His interests were as wide ranging as the Milky Way, from prayer and contemplation to war and peace, from every aspect of Christianity to aspects of Buddhism and other religions.

Jim Forest is the author of Love is the Measure, a biography of Dorothy Day, and coedited A Penny a Copy: Readings from the Catholic Worker. His most recent book is Praying With Icons (Orbis).

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Indulgences are back and not for sale

Megan Sweas| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
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I’ve been hearing about how indulgences are being promoted by the church again, most recently for the year of St. Paul. This week an article in the New York Times attempts to explain this practice—which may be as mystifying to young Catholics as it is to non-Catholics.

Catholic and feminist: You got a problem with that?

By Megan Sweas| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Church
Catholics ought to be loud and proud in the fight for women’s rights, argues a young feminist.

I still remember the first time I heard a friend utter the words I considered near blasphemy: “I’m not a feminist.” I was shocked. We were bright junior high girls in the age of the Spice Girls’ “girl power,” and I, for one, had been raised a feminist by a 1960s feminist mother.

Megan Sweas is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles.

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Foreign ministry

By Jeff Parrott| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Church
The shortage of priests has made some places in the United States “mission territory,” drawing clergy the world over to a parish near you.

One would expect to be nervous in his situation, but his warm, frequent smiles make him seem at ease this evening.

Jeff Parrott is a reporter at the South Bend Tribune in South Bend, Indiana. See more posts by Jeff Parrott

Birth announcements: Examining the infancy narratives

By A U.S. Catholic interview| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Church
We shouldn’t get hung up on the details surrounding Jesus’ birth, says this Bible scholar. As with any scripture story, there’s more here than meets the eye.

The editors interview Laurie Brink, O.P.

Learning scripture in the land of the Bible changes the way you read it, says Sister Laurie Brink, O.P., who leads study tours to places such as Bethlehem. “The land holds memory,” she says. “It’s made holy by everybody that went there before.”

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Lean into Lent

By Tom McGrath| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Church Life
The point of lent is to change. We alter behaviors in order to jumpstart a conversion process. But what is it we're supposed to change? How does change occur?
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What I learned about justice from Dorothy Day

By Jim Forest| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Culture

What kind of impact did influential Catholic reformer Dorothy Day have on those who knew her best? A friend and former colleague gives his personal perspective on the woman whom many consider the most important American Catholic of the 20th century.

Jim Forest began his association with Dorothy Day in 1961, when he moved to New York City to join the Catholic Worker community there. A recent convert to Catholicism, he had been discharged from the U.S. Navy as a conscientious objector.

Jim Forest is the author of Love is the Measure, a biography of Dorothy Day, and coedited A Penny a Copy: Readings from the Catholic Worker. His most recent book is Praying With Icons (Orbis).

See more posts by Jim Forest

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