Stories - 2010

American flag. CC0

Questioning Polarized American Politics

US, UK and More

The November election results once again invite us to go beyond polemics to the needs and desires at the heart of the people. John Samples, prominent DC think-tank director, author, and professor addresses the issues head-on.

Barack Obama signs the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act at the White House. Via Wikimedia Commons

Protecting Rights or Championing Interests?

US, UK and MoreAdam Skoczylas

While the health care debate seemed to originate in a desire to serve real human needs, its culmination expresses a weak sense of altruism and a serious battle of interests. Carter Snead, an expert in the field of law and bioethics, helps us take a look.

2010 Haiti earthquake relief efforts by the US Army. Via Wikimedia Commons

People at work. On the Path toward Charity

US, UK and MoreLorenzo Albacete

Americans have not held back in their desire to help Haiti, spending themselves in a mobilization that has involved common people as well as Hollywood stars. What can this surge of generosity teach us? To dig deep down to discover the nature of charity.

Cairo, Egypt. Creative Commons CC0

The Cairo Effect

WorldWael Farouq

Last month, we read about the two-day event in Cairo. Here one of the protagonists tells us what thoughts the Meeting provoked in the media and in the Arab world.

Priests receiving ordination. Wikimedia Commons

Vocation and Companionship

EncountersChinh Pham

In the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, several seminarians, a philosophy professor, and local laity gather on Monday nights for a School of Community led by four seminarians, all to be ordained within the next two to three years.

St. Nicholas Ordained to the Priesthood. Wikimedia Commons

An Immense Gift

WorldPhil Forlano

50 priests from across America gathered to share their experiences, affirming He who carries their missions forward, the Creator of all, Christ. In tribute to the conclusion of the The Year of the Priest, we present the content of these inspiring days.

'The Old Guitarist' by Artist Pablo Picasso via Flickr

In Front of Those Tears, I Found a Father Again

WorldAlessandra Buzzetti

The meeting of the Pope with the abuse victims in Malta, and his tears, struck everyone. What happened afterwards? We asked some of the protagonists, and they told us why “for the first time, I envisioned I could forgive those who had hurt me so much.”

Sant Rita. Wikimedia Commons

You Can Ask Anything of Her

EncountersPaola Bergamini

Among those whose holiness blossomed in family life, we meet “the patron saint of the impossible.” Before entering the convent, she tragically lost her whole family. She asked the Lord to let her participate in His sufferings, and got a surprising answer.

Boston, MA. Wikimedia Commons

There is No Longer Any Man Who Does Not Interest Me

EncountersSuzanne Tanzi

The newness of Christianity, embraced in a surprising meeting, began to reshape the life of an ordinary man in the Boston area, transforming his machine shop and his home into places of dialogue and welcoming.

Prison. Creative Commons CC0

Here, it has Happened

EncountersAlessandra Stoppa

Here are a few testimonies and the story of what we saw during a day among friends in the Due Palazzi Prison of Padua, with songs, a soccer game, and a big party. An experience that begs the question: “If it can happen here, can it happen anywhere?”

Skyscrapers. Creative Commons CC0

Architecture and Man: A Reciprocal Relationship

EncountersPaige Smith

Traces interviews Philip Bess, Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Notre Dame’s School of Architecture, to understand more about the relationship between urban design and human flourishing.

Luigi Giussani

His Loving Gaze Changed My Life

EncountersJohn Zucchi

Five years after the death of the CL founder, a Professor of History in Montreal recalls his friendship with him and the fruits it still bears today.

A Broad Chain. Wikimedia Commons

Torn out of the Void

EncountersAlessandra Stoppa

Gregoire Ahongbonon was a family man with a successful business selling tires but, at a certain point, he lost everything...from the depths, his life was reborn, and in gratitude he sought to serve others, even the mentally ill.

Port Au Prince, Haiti. Wikimedia Commons

Tenderness of God Amid Ruins

WorldAnna Leonardi

The witness of a pediatrician who worked in Haiti leads us to the truest face of charity: the acknowledgment of our powerlessness in front of a huge need and the discovery of that embrace to which our life belongs.

Poet Ol’ga Sedakova. Wikimedia Commons

Critique of Stupid Reason

EncountersFabrizio Rossi

“Our civilization? It’s not reasonable; it’s rationalistic. In the secondary things it’s intelligent, but in those that count....” In a conversation with the great Russian poetess Ol'ga Sedakova, she explains why she defends “what makes man human.”

The Disciples Peter and John Running to the Tomb by Eugene Burnand via Wikimedia Commons

He Gave Life to My life

EncountersPaola Bergamini

Edoarda was a novice, full of questions, when she first heard him speak. A friendship sprung up that was never lost, one that “gave a name” to everything she was living.

Setting up for the New York Encounter

Rendezvous at the Heart of the City

EncountersGiacomo Maniscalco

Conferences, exhibitions, and shows… but the three days in Times Square was not a “festival” like others: at stake here was the bet that the Christian fact is something inherent within everything and the testimony of something greater.

Luigi Giussani at the Portofino lighthouse with students. © Archivio CL / Lapresse

“The Seed is Here. It Was Buried in the Sand”

EncountersMichele Benetti

First, that summer afternoon... then, the “revolution” in Brazil... then, the breaking point. One of the first CL high school students takes us back through the encounter...

St. Gianna Beretta Molla. Wikimedia Commons

When Everyday Life Becomes Heroic

EncountersPaola Bergamini

This is the story of a wife and mother who abandoned herself “without reserve to the action of Grace,” to the point of sacrifice. The second episode in our series about saints in the family....

'School of Athens' by Artist Raphael via Wikimedia Commons

The Lens of Experience

EncountersAmy Sapenoff

During a historical moment in which “experience” is questioned, ignored, or even refuted, a three-day seminar with some of academia’s most incisive minds yielded fruitful collaboration.

The Stock Market. Wikimedia Commons

Can the “Us” Enter into the Definition of the “I”?

EncountersSuzanne Tanzi

Two American business leaders test the pertinence of Carrón’s words. Through the experience of these experts on economic cooperation and development, we go deeper in our understanding of “man fully alive” in the workplace and in society.