Just a few days after a Malaysian court ruling allowing a Catholic newspaper to use the word Allah to refer to God seemed to offer the nation rsquo s minority Christians a small civil victory the government has reinistated its ldquo Allah rdquo ban among non-Muslims Malaysian officials are appar

David Gibson puts together a useful analysis of the media s handling of an apparent divergence of opinion between the U S C C B and the Catholic Health Association on the health care reform package see Jim Martin s nbsp previous post nbsp on this and the possible use of federal money to pay for a

Determined to locate something positive to say before the editorial close of 2009 this reporter did not have to poke around the net too long before finding news to be happy-new-yearish about despite the bad economy and high unemployment national crime stats continued to trend downward in 2009 A

I had myself a tranquil little Christmas this weekend with two civilized family gatherings i e no one Tarzan-swung a chandelier through a bay window no traditional child tantrums around the tree and everyone generally satisfied with the weekend s offerings and observations with no ER visits or

As ousted President Manuel Zelaya entered his third month holed up in the Brazilian embassy in Honduras rsquo capital city Tegulcigalpa it appears unlikely that the popularly elected Honduran president deposed on June 28 will spend Christmas anywhere else but with the Brazilians Attempts to neg

McClatchy syndicate s Joe Galloway offers a sobering call to disarm on the latest incarnation of health care reform in the United States Following the appalling display by Connecticut s Joe Liebermann and the jaw-dropping turnabout by the DNC s Howard Dean it is hard to argue with his sobering th

The Vatican released excerpts from Pope Benedict s World Day of Peace address for New Year s 2010 Reworking a line from Pope Paul Benedict says If you want to cultivate peace protect creation The quest for peace by people of good will surely become easier if all acknowledge the indivisible

Lest anyone suspect that Afghanistan is the only theater of war that U S strategists need to concern themselves with the recent car bombings in Iraq is a seriously unwelcome reminder that things may not be proceeding altogether well in that front of the late unlamented war on terror An Iraqi Cr

Observers at the Copenhagen climate conference from Caritas Internationalis were pretty underwhelmed by commitments from European states to help poor nations in the developing world mitigate unnatural disasters due to global warming calling the purported new commitments a wind-powered bluff In a

Apparently a thoroughly devastating report on clerical sexual and physical abuse of Irish children and attempts to cover it up by the Irish hierarchy has been gruesome enough to draw an unprecedented response from Pope Benedict XVI Benedict met with senior Irish bishops and high-ranking members of