I am often asked, especially at gatherings of theologians such as annual conventions of the Catholic Theological Society of America, what I see–from my vantage point as editor of this journal–as trends in contemporary theological writing. Its a question I dread, especially if the interlocutor expects a quick answer. But even over a leisurely dinner,

The first several months of this year have been acutely painful and deeply troubling for Catholics in the United States. Each day, so it seemed, new revelations about sexual abuse of minors by priests have been made public. Adding to the shock have been published accounts illustrating grievous neglect by church leaders to address the

Theological Studies has long enjoyed a distinguished reputation for its coverage of contemporary moral theology. Our annual March feature, “Notes on Moral Theology,” has helped keep theologians informed of ethical reflection on a wide variety of topics. In this present issue we include a lengthy overview of moral theology as it is being articulated throughout Latin

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, Et lux perpetua luceat eis. We mourn the sudden, unexpected deaths of all those who died tragically in the senseless violence in New York City, Washington, and in Pennsylvania. Just as the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the destruction of Hiroshima, the assassination of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King,

Paraphrasing the lament of one of Gilbert and Sullivans operettas, I am sometimes tempted to hum “An editor’s job is not a happy one.” Work load includes drudgery (proof reading), worries (statistics on subscriptions), dread (writing non-acceptance letters), and tensions (meeting deadlines). Fortunately, that is not the whole picture. I also experience notable satisfactions: seeing

Theological Studies was founded in 1940 when the condemnation of Catholic Modernism still lingered in the air, when Europe was already in the throes of World War II, and the United States was arguing, before Pearl Harbor, whether or not it should enter the war. Could the American Jesuits manage a journal on their own? Would

Four months have passed since the United States presidential election. Those who were ready to stay up a bit later that evening for the results, hoping to retire before midnight, were disappointed as uncertainty about electoral ballots continued on and on. Instead, what followed was not a day or week of uncertainty but a tortuous

After long silence, Theological Studies has begun to make amends for its shameful avoidance of the evil of racism in the United States. To accomplish this task, the editorial board has invited a team of African American Catholic theologians to reflect of this painful neglect especially in the light of the thirtieth anniversary of Black

Ben Yagoda in his recent About Town: The New Yorker and the World It Made (Scribner, 2000) presents a fascinating account of how that weekly, sometimes associated with light fiction and sophisticated cartoons, came to publish in its issue for August 31, 1946, John Hersey’s “Hiroshima.” Published one year after the bombing, the lengthy and harrowing account

As I write these reflections during Easter Week in the year 2000, I look back over what has turned out to be an unusually dramatic Lenten season for the Catholic Church. On March 12, the first Sunday of Lent, a remarkable gesture of repentance took place in St. Peter’s Basilica, when the Church of Rome,