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NCR: Does the United States support the idea of international law? Ferencz: The United States plays games with the idea. It's a hypocritical, deceitful game that's being played. We say [...]

'This is very alarming. It goes beyond Trent,' said Catholic church historian Gerald P. Fogarty, a Jesuit priest. The professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia then repeated [...]

Fr. Henri J.M. Nouwen, widely published spiritual writer, lives n the L'Arche community of Daybreak in Toronto, Canada. The following is a slightly edited transcript of a telephone interview Nouwen [...]

LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. -- At precisely 1:32 a.m. on a bitter cold January morning, the train, traveling on decades' old tracks and carrying the deadliest of known materials -- irradiated [...]

A Few words about our Christmas cover. Were he never to carve another Madonna and Child, posterity would probably remember Joachim J. Wagner not only for the elegance of his [...]

I enjoyed reading 'Why Go Veg?' (Resources, vegetariantimes.com), but I did notice a key point was missing: the importance to save water. In today's world of scarce resources, this is [...]

In January 2005, I stepped aside as NCR publisher and began interviews with a number of spiritual seekers. I recorded each and a number of those recordings can be found [...]

The National Catholic Reporter Publishing Company board of directors announced last week that at a board meeting in Kansas City, Mo., Nov. 14 it elected Annette E. Lomont as the [...]

Tom Gallagher began writing regularly for NCR this past spring as his Mission Management column (Page 27) was introduced. He is our lead writer for the column and identifies examples of best practices found in Catholic organizations. He also is one of the "NCR To day" bloggers on the NCR Web site. Like other NCR writers, Gallagher actually has a life outside of the paper. He has spent most of his professional energies in the practice of law on Wall Street, before moving to an investment banking and securities firm. In 2004, he spent the next three years helping the-Missionaries of Charity create and administer the Blessed Teresa of Calcutta Center, a New York state not-for-profit organization. He did this on a pro bono basis and traveled to Calcutta, India, and Tijuana, Mexico, on several occasions as part of the effort. He cofounded a media company called Wake Up! Media, Inc., which creates uplifting digital audio content and this spring released a new CD titled, "Prayer, Always in Season," by Dr. Kathleen Sullivan of the University of Notre Dame. Gallagher serves patients at Greenwich Hospital in Connecticut as a volunteer eucharistic minister and he is a lector at his parish. Perhaps most unusual is his passion for participating in ultra-endurance footraces in deserts around the world. Yes, footraces in deserts around the world. These are 150-mile events and take place over six days during which Gallagher carries a 20-pound backpack filled with food, supplies and a sleeping bag. TIME magazine has ranked these races No. 2 in its Top 10 Most Difficult Endurance Competitions. Gallagher has competed in the Atacama Desert in Chile and the Gobi Desert in China. On Oct. 25, he will be in the Sahara in Egypt, where the finish line is in front of the pyramids in Cairo. For Gallagher, these events combine, he says, "athletics, spirituality and terrific people in a compelling location--the desert." Gallagher uses his races as fundraisers and raised more than $30,000 for Malta House for women and children in Norwalk, Conn., through the first two races. His goal is to raise $15,000 in the Sahara. You can find out more at www.maltahouse.org. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] And, yes, even in the desert, Gallagher will be blogging after each day's race. You can follow his mind-boggling event at www.4deserts.com/sa hararace. Finally, he lives with his wife, Wendy, in Riverside, Conn., with their dog, Duke. NCR editor at large Tom Roberts was back in Kansas City, Mo., after a swing through New Mexico where he had been exercising his reporting skills as part of his ongoing "Emerging Church" series. "So how much space do I have?" he asked, knowing only too well space in any given issue is limited and even good articles get cut, held or die on the vine. In this case, in this issue, there wasn't nearly enough space for Roberts' recent encounters. So take the story on Page I as a kind of introduction and expect more in the next issue. We think you'll agree that after reading his piece this week you will be looking for more in the days ahead.

There's plenty in this issue to bite into, starting with Rich Heffern's piece on the new food documentary (Page 1) and John Allen's report on what was not on the [...]

President Obama, speaking in Cairo earlier this month, presented his clearest vision for world peace. It was a planet free of nuclear weapons, one in which nations respected each others' [...]

Death spawns warm memories. So I sit before my computer today in a happy-sad place. It was one year ago, April 30, 2008, that NCR columnist Tim Unsworth met up [...]

Talking as he leans over a hot cup of tea in the coffee shop of a Kansas City, Mo., hotel, Ken Hackett is cordial, modest and purpose-driven. President of Catholic [...]

By now we know it's more than just another 'recession.' Some have dubbed it 'The Great Recession.' New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, thinking on another plane, has termed it [...]

Lent begins as we go to press with this issue. NCR staff writer Rich Heffern offers personal reflections on Page 15, and more Lenten thoughts appear on the back page. [...]

Say it isn't fair, but when the Vatican announced Jan. 30 it had begun a study of U.S. women's religious congregations (Page 1), I couldn't help but recall the utterly [...]

Despite the economy, despite our forever wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, despite the depressing news from the Middle East, despite all this, I'm ready to be hopeful in 2009. I […]

Fr. Ed Hays, author, spiritual guide and 'God spy,' lives in and writes from a space without borders. Words like 'natural' and 'supernatural' don't fit into his One Spirit universe. [...]

I was turning the compost in my backyard, or maybe that's the way I now remember it, when my wife told me Sr. Rita was calling. Then NCR publisher, Rita […]

The John Main Center for Meditation and Inter-Religious Dialogue at Georgetown University has become a focal point of meditation among college students. The center is named after a British Benedictine [...]

Last month Tom Fox, former NCR editor and publisher, received an honorary doctorate from St. Peter's College in Jersey City, N.J. He delivered the commencement address. The following is an [...]

EVENING THOUGHTS: REFLECTING ON EARTH AS SACRED COMMUNITY By Thomas Berry Sierra Club Books, 17Z pages, $19.95 Longtime NCR readers are familiar with Passionist Fr. Thomas Berry and his writings. [...]

An event billed as the First National Asian and Pacific Catholic Convocation drew nearly 1,000 laity and clergy to Washington June 30-July 3. The event combined talks, worship, a pilgrimage, [...]

Development of a relatively simple growth modelling approach for plantation species that allows derivation of cardinal (base, optimum and ceiling) air temperatures for growth, whilst accounting for changes in organism size, would represent a considerable advance over existing models. Such an approach would provide insight into species phenology and, in an agronomic setting, allow growers to closely match species to sites. Here, a model is described that can be used to predict seasonal variation in growth and cardinal air temperatures from simple seasonal measurements at a single site. The model was applied to data from an irrigated trial comprising two Eucalyptusspecies and three Eucalyptuscrosses. Using measurements of mean daily air temperature data and stem volume, taken over a two year period, the model was fitted to the data and used to estimate cardinal air temperatures for the five species/crosses. The model predictions corresponded well to the actual data for all five species/crosses, with R2ranging from 0.993 to 0.999. The optimum air temperature, To, for E. camaldulensisx E. globulusof 26.9°C significantly exceeded Tofor the other four species/crosses, where Toranged from 15.4 to 18.7°C. As Tofor E. camaldulensisx E. globuluswas close to the highest mean daily air temperature recorded at the study site, the air temperature modifier for this species was almost always sub-optimal and consequently this cross was not well matched to the site. In contrast, Tofor the other four species/crosses were considerably closer to the mean air temperature of the site with Tofor E. nitensmost closely approximating the mean air temperature (15.4 vs. 13.0°C). The described approach can be used to account for complex variation in seasonal growth patterns and provides insight into how well a species may be matched to a particular site. As climatic information is available at a range of scales (from local to global), this type of model is likely to be useful for producing maps that describe species growth and areas of optimal suitability.

The pecan is the best-tasting nut you can buy anywhere! Well, that's my sentiment anyway. About 30 years ago, I purchased 72 acres in Michigan. I then thought, 'Why not […]

September 26, 2003 Dear Friends of NCR, Thank you for your generous support during the past 12 months. It has been a rewarding year at NCR. Curiously, warfare and domestic […]

The article offers step-by-step instructions for making a squirrel feeder.

I was surprised to hear one of our guides call Chairman Mao Zedong a dictator. The communist icon's portrait still hangs proudly over Tiananmen Square, and his body remains in [...]

The highway to Beijing from the airport is wide, straight and clean. The trip takes 30 minutes. As if signaling kilometer markers, uniformed soldiers, standing at attention, punctuate the route. [...]