U.S. Catholic
February 2007
Volume 72; Number 2
Special Issue: Muslim-Catholic dialogue
Stay the course
Though papal speeches and public protest make the evening news, Catholics and Muslims have been making quiet progress in mutual understanding. In Expert Witness two veterans of the interreligious conversation, Sayyid Syeed and Sister Margaret Funk, O.S.B., explain why the stakes for dialogue are higher than we think.
We go way back
There’s more to the history of Muslim-Catholic relations than the battle for Byzantium and the calamities of the Crusades, writes Scott C. Alexander. Conversation and courtesy have been part of the story, too.
Won’t you be my neighbor?
While the late Mister Rogers may no longer be able to teach us how to get along, Megan Sweas profiles ordinary Catholics, young and old, who are making their neigborhoods friendlier places for everyone.
features
King and I
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. becomes less of an icon but more of a hero, writes Father Bryan Massingale in Wise Guides, when you take a few steps in his preacher’s shoes.
sounding board
Not so fast
The mathematics of the Friday fast may have gotten a little out of hand in days gone by, acknowledges Sister Joan Chittister, O.S.B. in Sounding Board, but that’s no reason to abandon this ancient discipline. Readers ruminate on the spiritual benefits of restricting physical appetites in Feedback.
essays/opinion
Desert crossing
Even in the dry dust of a personal spiritual wasteland, Ed Wojcicki found that perseverance can still lead him to prayer and peace.
My (almost) ashless Wednesday
When her busy toddler derailed her first day of Lent, Annemarie Scobey discovered that there is more than one way to start the season off right.
For whom the bell tolls
Its call to prayer may not ring out from the village monastery these days, but the Angelus can still quiet our minds for a few moments of prayer, says Angelo Stagnaro in Practicing Catholic.
Let’s not rush into this
In The Examined Life Bryan Cones wonders if too hasty a trip to the altar for Catholic priests might mean a quick end to the new forms of lay ministry that have grown up since Vatican II.
Departments
Editors’ Note
You May Be Right—Letters
Signs of the Times—News
Catholic Tastes
Glad You Asked: The church and the war on terror
Under Review
Spirituality Café
Meditation—Jerry Bleem, O.F.M.
Columns
Odds & Ends—Peter Gilmour
The art of evangelization
Margin Notes—Kevin Clarke
Troubled waters
Testaments—Alice Camille
Change'll do you good
Culture in Context—Patrick McCormick
Character assassination