What’s So Great about Being Poor?
The people with whom I worked as a priest in the altiplano of Bolivia in the 1970s were 98 percent indigenous. Subsistence farmers, they grew mostly potatoes, plus some quinoa ...
Stressors and the Search for God
My father, Pat Carney, who died in 1995 at age 94, was in a nursing home his final couple of years. During that period, I spent a lot of time ...
Does God Intervene in our Lives?
My friend Bob, a retired lawyer, is a lifelong Christian and regular church-goer. But like me, he considers himself a skeptic. That may be why he’s a regular reader of ...
Searching for God is Searching for Peace
Speeches by Miss Universe candidates drip with peace wishes. Popes pray for peace in their Christmas messages. The United Nations exists to maintain and promote peace. The Peace Corps attempts ...
Friendship: A Lifework
Bob McCahill has been writing an annual Christmas letter to the National Catholic Reporter every year since 1984. This year, his letter provided vignettes on his long-time mission in Bangladesh. ...
The Six Wise Men
I’m sure you’ve heard the gospel story of the “three wise men,” sometimes called “the three kings” or the “magi.” Most Scripture scholars believe the writer of the Gospel of ...