Bono and Pope John Paul II Originally uploaded by atu2. Best. Photo. Ever. Read more

Dangerous little book aims to inspire exhausted women When I was 13, my eighth-grade Bible teacher delivered a lecture about what I now recognize as gender roles, but what he called “biblical ideals.” That was the day I found out that it was my destiny, apparently, to be a “helpmate,” and that God’s will for me was to become something called a “Proverbs Woman.” The idea comes from the 31st chapter of the biblical book of Proverbs, where we learn... Read more

Irish Muslims no longer strangers in a strange land DUBLIN — The main reason I’ve returned to Ireland almost yearly since my first visit in 1993 is because of hospitality. When it comes to welcoming strangers, being innately kind, and unfailingly openhearted, the Irish are world champions. At least in my book. Anyone who knows me has heard me say (at least twice) that it is physically impossible to have a bad time in Ireland, the ancestral home my grandmother,... Read more

Heeding the call is utlimately up to us Can you have a calling, if nobody else hears it? Or if the right people don’t hear it — the ones handing out the funny collars and the jobs? It’s a question I’ve been mulling as the Roman Catholic Church and those of us who watch it for a living await the arrival of a Vatican document that is expected to impose a blanket ban against allowing homosexual men to train for... Read more

Was she too sexy for her church? Warning: Cleavage may be dangerous to your soul. At least in Italy. A Roman Catholic bishop in the Italian city of Fano, on the Adriatic, recently fired Caterina Bonci, a 38-year-old woman who had taught religion classes in state-run schools on behalf of the diocese for 14 years. Bishop Vittorio Tomassetti says Bonci lost her job because she is divorced, which goes against Catholic Church teaching. Bonci, who the Italian newspaper Corriere della... Read more

Pastor’s sign rubs salt in wounds of downtrodden A few days after Hurricane Katrina clobbered New Orleans, I was sitting in the lobby of the Algonquin Hotel in New York City with one of my favorite hedonists, the author Tom Robbins, mourning the destruction of the city we both adore and the suffering of thousands of poor folks who lost what little they had to begin with. Robbins described New Orleans as “the depository of America’s soul.” I hadn’t heard... Read more