New Wineskins

Jon Magnuson 9-01-1995

O Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all; the earth is full of thy creatures.

I began this piece on the 50th anniversary of D-day-June 6, 1994.

Deanna Wylie Mayer 5-01-1995

"A group of women who have had abortions will be meeting" read the sign on the women's room wall. Immediately I knew I wanted to go. But why? I had never had an abortion.

David Batstone 3-01-1995

I am a welfare queen. There, I've said it.

Wes Howard-Brook 11-01-1994

"And so the disciples returned to their own homes..." —John 20:10

Rufina Amaya 9-01-1994

Rufina Amaya is one of the few survivors of the 1981 massacre in the Salvadoran village of El Mozote.

Joe Nangle 8-01-1994

Never have I written on a more difficult subject than the pope’s recent letter on women’s ordination in the Catholic Church. As the product of an Irish-Catholic family, the church I share with John Paul II is my roots, my home, my tradition. In addition I have had the joy of being a member of the Franciscan order for more than 40 years. In the ceremony of admission to that religious institute, we pledge obedience to the rule of life set out by St. Francis himself, part of which prescribes obedience to the pope.

Over the several decades of my life as a priest, I have had occasion to glory in some wonderful expressions of Catholicism. For example, I was a direct beneficiary of the Latin American church’s conversion moment at Medellin, Colombia, in 1968. There our bishops spoke of the "institutionalized sin" that afflicted and oppressed the majority of our people, and they called the whole church to a preferential option for the poor.

Working for the most part as a pastor since my ordination, I have consistently endeavored to help people encounter the Lord Jesus in and through, despite and beyond, the necessary rules and regulations of our worldwide body. This has sometimes proven most difficult, but I believe I can say honestly that I have remained faithful to that ideal.

It is this pastoral preoccupation that makes the present moment in Catholicism so difficult. In the face of Pope John Paul’s letter forbidding women’s ordination in our church, we are left with pastoral concerns that seem overwhelming.

John Dear 7-01-1994

John Dear, S.J., Philip Berrigan, Lynn Fredriksson, and Bruce Friedrich are currently being held in the Chowan County Jail in Edenton, North Carolina, for their Pax Christi-Spirit of Life Plo

Jennifer Johnson 6-01-1994

Thirty years after Mississippi Freedom Summer, 3,000 international observers return from El Salvador’s postwar "democratic elections."

James W. Douglass 5-01-1994

Jim Douglass traveled to Bosnia to continue his work of building support for a peace pilgrimage of world religious leaders to Sarajevo.

Rose Marie Berger 4-01-1994

We got off the 11th Street bus in downtown Washington and headed toward the people gathering on the 10th Street overpass. A man in his early 40s fell into step with us.