U.S. Catholic
November 2006
Volume 71; Number 11
cover story
Help wanted: Surviving the spiritual challenges of unemployment
A pink slip is more than a sign of economic and career trouble; it can just as often prompt a crisis of faith. Marcia Froelke Coburn explores how some Catholics are helping themselves and each other prevent a lay-off from being a spiritual letdown.
expert witness
Put your best faith forward
Is freedom the first thing that leaps to mind when you think “Catholic”? It ought to be, says author and former Dominican master general Father Timothy Radcliffe, O.P. In Expert Witness he argues that learning to be free is what Christianity is all about.
feature
Veteran healer
Sister Kateri Koverman, S.C. knows well that war wounds are more than skin deep. In Person author Dennis O’Connor explains how this nun has made her own experience in combat zones a bridgehead to the war weary.
sounding board
A modest wedding proposal
Are live butterflies and sumptuous spreads really necessary for a joyful wedding? asks Peg Conway in Sounding Board. She argues that secular customs are crowding out the sacramental meaning of marriage. Readers respond to her suggestions for holier matrimony in Feedback.
essays/opinion
Fully human
Life among children with disabilities has led Jo McGowan to a deeper understanding of our broken and crucified God.
Saints R us
All Saints Day is just that, writes Jay Cormier, as he invokes the names of some of the lesser known of our heavenly helpers.
Gone but not deleted
The digital age has some unintended consequences, says Patrick T. Reardon, who finds that he just can’t bring himself to erase the bits and bytes of the beloved dead.
The price is right
Though it takes effort, Christina Zaker says in Practicing Catholic that shopping fair trade for Christmas keeps the real reason for the season front and center.
A woman’s place
Though they bear a hefty share of the family chores, argues Bryan Cones in The Examined Life, the church’s better half has yet to find a room of her own in God’s household.
departments
Editors’ Note
You May Be Right: Letters
Signs of the Time: News
Catholic Tastes
Glad You Asked: Does the church tell me how to vote?
Under Review
Spirituality Café
Meditation: Evelyn Bence
columns
Odds & Ends by Peter Gilmour
An unlikely patron
Margin Notes by Kevin Clarke
A poor measure of poverty
Testaments by Alice Camille
Autocratic Pilate
Culture in Context by Patrick McCormick
It's how you play the game