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JO MCGOWAN ‘When He Had Cash, He Bought Books’ My self-taught grandfather’s poetry and stories My grandfather died on the same day as JFK. I was five. Events on television and in our own house...

Letter from India (July 2024)

SHORT TAKES JO MCGOWAN Almost A politically wounded Narendra Modi maintains his grip on power. India’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been in power since 2014, increasing its hold on the...

Letter from India (January 2024)

JO MCGOWAN ‘They Asked My Name’ Letter from India “Miracles,” by Seamus Heaney, has always been a favorite poem of mine. This week it felt turbocharged in its power and humility. Not the...

'The Gardens of the Villa D'Este' (February 2023)

CRITIC AT LARGE JO MCGOWAN When Literature Stood on Its Own The letters of John Steinbeck My first introduction to literary letters was Flannery O’Connor’s The Habit of Being. I had never...

Remembering Fr. Stan Swamy (September 2021)

The Dalit Theologian Remembering Fr. Stan Swamy The Jesuit priest Fr. Stan Swamy died while in police custody in India on July 5. He had been arrested for terrorist activities, a charge both he...

Modiâ€™s complacency (June 2021)

SHORT TAKES JO MCGOWAN The Toll of Modi's Complacency Why Covid is ravaging India I arrived in the United States in March 2020—just in time for the birth of our first grandchild. I was scheduled...

Letter from India (April 2021)

Why the Farmers Are Angry Letter from India More than thirty years ago, I boarded a night train to Delhi with my young children. They were fast asleep in our reserved berths when the...

Why I Stayed...and Why I'm Leaving (May 2019)

Jo McGowan Why I Stayed...and Why I'm Leaving My daughter Moy Moy died suddenly and unexpectedly in July 2018. My first Commonweal column—written in 1999 when she was ten years old—was about her....

Too Familiar (November 2018)

SHORT TAKES Jo McGowan Too Familiar HOW CHURCH OFFICIALS IN INDIA SHUNNED A VICTIM OF ASSAULT In a striking departure from business as usual here, a Catholic nun from the South Indian state of...

Sharks & Minnows (October 2018)

Jo McGowan Sharks & Minnows HOW USURERS PREY ON IGNORANCE & DESPERATION Afew weeks ago, I learned that a senior staff member at the foundation I run—I'll call her Mira—had borrowed money from a...

Choking on Growth (July 2018)

Jo McGowan Choking on Growth INDIA'S AIR-QUALITY CRISIS Itravel to Delhi often and one trip blurs into the other. But this past winter was unusual. All through November and December, friends at...

How Can It Be True? (May 2018)

Jo McGowan How Can It Be True? CONFRONTING SEXUAL ABUSE BY THOSE YOU TRUST Ihave watched Spotlight—the acclaimed movie about the Boston Globes investigation into the systematic sexual abuse of...

Resistance, Then & Now (November 2017)

Jo McGowan Resistance, Then & Now DESPERATE TIMES CALL FOR MORE THAN DESPERATION As if real life beneath Donald Trump’s two flat feet weren’t depressing enough—as if coping with this...

Unpaid Bills (September 2017)

COLUMNISTS Jo McGowan Unpaid Bills THE MEDICAL CRISIS FACING INDIA'S POOR This August, sixty children died within forty-eight hours in a government-run hospital in Uttar Pradesh, the largest...

'Still She Is a Wonderful Girl' (July 2017)

COLUMNISTS Jo McGowan 'Still She Is a Wonderful Girl' HOW MY IN-LAWS LEARNED TO LIVE WITH MY CHRISTIAN FAITH Until the day she died, my mother-in-law and I had an amazing relationship. In the...

India's Trump (January 2017)

COLUMNISTS Jo McGowan India's Trump NARENDRA MODI'S 'DEMONETIZATION' PROGRAM The day Donald Trump was elected president, India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, announced his stunning decision to...

What's Worse than Terrorism (September 2016)

Jo McGowan What's Worse than Terrorism TRY HUNGER, DISEASE, AND CLIMATE CHANGE One of the things that make the spate of recent terrorist attacks so chilling is that the choice of targets seems...

Never Too Old to Feel Orphaned (August 2016)

COLUMNIST Jo McGowan Never Too Old to Feel Orphaned MOURNING PARENTS IN MIDDLE AGE Iwas nine years old when my father's mother died. I still remember hearing the phone ring and knowing—...

Keeping the Books (December 2015)

Jo McGowan Keeping the Books OWEN MCGOWAN, RIP My father, Owen McGowan, grew up poor during the Great Depression. Books saved him. Of the seven children in his family, he was the only one to go...

The More You Know (August 2015)

Jo McGowan The More You Know WHAT GAY FRIENDS TEACH US One of the great things about Facebook is the wide range of people one can be "friends" with while still clinging to one's own ideological...

Spare the Rod (May 2015)

COLUMNIST Jo McGowan Spare the Rod TREATING VIOLENCE LIKE A CONTAGION Iwas in the Delhi airport last week, waiting for a flight to Scotland. Like most foreign flights, it was leaving at a...

Hidden Behind Words (February 2015)

COLUMNIST Jo McGowan Hidden Behind Words HOW LANGUAGES REFLECT AND REINFORCE SOCIAL BIASES Last week I held a writing workshop for some of my young colleagues here in India. Although fluent in...

Fully Alive (December 2014)

Jo McGowan A Larger World Fully Alive Discovering What Matters Most Timothy Shriver Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $27, 304 pp. I thought I knew pretty much everything there is to know about...

Don't Beatify Us (December 2014)

COLUMNIST Jo McGowan Don’t Beatify Us WHAT PARENTS OF THE DISABLED REALLY NEED It’s a strange time for people with disabilities. Among the general public in most developed countries, there is...

Modi's M.O. (June 2014)

COLUMNISTS Jo McGowan Modi's M.O. THE BIG PROMiSES & DARK PAST OF iNDiA'S NEW PRiME MiNiSTER "I dearly love a presidential year," E. B. White wrote in 1956. "What capers! What laughs and spills!...

Moving Day (January 2014)

COLUMNISTS Jo McGowan Moving Day SENDING DAD FROM HOME TO A HOME There's nothing easy about watching one's father drift out of his own life. Alzheimer's, old age, senility—whatever you call...

Clean Sweep (November 2013)

COLUMNISTS Jo McGowan Clean Sweep A REFORM PARTY TAKES ON CORRUPTION IN INDIA A few nights ago, I met an old friend in a coffee shop in New Delhi. Stephane is a French architect who has lived...

'Like a Shadow' (July 2013)

COLUMNISTS Jo McGowan ‘Like a Shadow’ A TRAGEDY TESTS PROLIFE CONVICTIONS Maya is a young woman who works at the foundation I direct. Until a few months ago, she also worked part-time as my...

Breaking the Silence (February 2013)

SHORT TAKE Jo McGowan Breaking the Silence Rape & india’s honor culture In December a brutal gang rape stunned all of India. Protesters poured out onto the streets every day for weeks in New...

Shivved (January 2013)

Columnist Jo McGowan Shivved The Growing Threat Of Fundamentalism In India A few years ago, my husband Ravi and I walked to our local police station at one in the morning to complain about...

Backdoor Humanitarianism (October 2012)

Columnist Jo McGowan Backdoor Humanitarianism HOW A SCIENTIST IS HELPING BLIND CHILDREN IN INDIA Here's what I believe: If you plan for the most vulnerable, the world works better for everyone....

SIMPLIFYING SEX (April 2012)

Jo McGowan Simplifying Sex What some priests don’t understand about contraception The current debate over health insurance and contraception has raised interesting questions for people of...

Two Homes, Two Lives (February 2012)

Jo McGowan Two Homes, Two Lives BRINGING iNDiA TO AMERICA AND AMERiCA TO iNDiA I come home from India to the United States every year now to visit my dad. There he is in all his rakish charm,...

On the Take (November 2011)

Jo McGowan On the Take THE STRUGGLE AGAINST CORRUPTION IN INDIA The problem of corruption in Indian public and private life is vast and complex. According to a 2006 report by the Swiss Banking...

Mother Knew Best (June 2011)

Jo McQowan Mother Knew Best AND USUALLY KEPT IT TO HERSELF After my mother died three years ago (see "Spare Every Expense, Except One," October 10, 2008), my sister Lucy kept discovering...

Hallowed Ground (April 2011)

COLUMNIST Jo McQowan Hallowed Ground IN THE PRESENCE OF THE DEAD While visiting my sister Mary and her husband recently in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, I saw a beautiful cemetery and asked Mary to...

A Godsend (February 2011)

Jo McQowan A Godsend SOMETIMES WE ANSWER ONE ANOTHER'S PRAYERS Ifirst met Gia, a young schoolgirl, one afternoon while walking with Moy Moy, our twenty-one-year-old daughter who has special...

Keeping Up Appearances (November 2010)

COLUMNISTS Jo McQowan Keeping Up Appearances INDIA HOSTS THE COMMONWEALTH GAMES The Indian media had a ball in the months leading up to the recently completed Commonwealth Games, hosted by India...

Above the Law, Beneath (September 2010)

COLUMNIST Jo McQowan Above the Law, Beneath Contempt WHY INDIAN 'HONOR KILLINGS' ARE SO HARD TO STOP Honor killings—in which families murder their own children for defying the elders' wishes for...

The Unwanted (June 2010)

Columnist Jo McQowan The Unwanted EXTENDING THE ARGUMENT AGAINST SEX-SELECTIVE ABORTION I've changed my mind about the outcry against sex-selective abortion. Since the 1980s, when the issue...

Hiatus (June 2010)

Jo McQowan Hiatus WHY I STOPPED GOING TO MASS , While I took Lent and Easter more seriously than ever this year—in terms of prayer, Scriptural reading, reflection, and discipline—I didn't go to...

The Help (February 2010)

Jo McGowan The Help will india’s domestic workers demand what they deserve? India’s upper-and middle class homes (mine included) are kept running by the efforts of domestic...

Trickle Down (October 2009)

Columnists Jo McGowan Trickle Down CONSERVATION IS NOT JUST A PRIVATE VIRTUE There is a scene from Andrew Sorkin’s TV series The West Wing, now on DVD, in which two characters...

Change They Can Believe In? (July 2009)

Columnists Jo McGowan Change They Can Believe In? SEISMIC SHIFTS IN INDIAN POLITICS I made my first-ever campaign contribution to an Indian candidate in the recent national elections...

Parched (April 2009)

Last month I attended a confer ence in Delhi. I arrived late at night and went straight to bed. When I got up the next morning, I was sur prised to discover that just beyond the boundary...

The Conflicted Samaritan (February 2009)

Columnist Jo McGowan The Conflicted Samaritan WHEN A NEIGHBOR IS BEYOND HELP I was traveling by taxi from Delhi to Dehradun. It usually takes about seven hours over a very rough...

On Edge (December 2008)

Commonweal . December 5, 2008 columnists On Edge ized that I wanted to take her to a near- She didn’t reckon on Enzo. Enzo is by hospital for treatment, she grew visiing the cars and...

Spare Every Expense, Except One (October 2008)

columnists Jo McGowan Spare Every Expense, Except One My MoTHeR’s oBITuARy Whenmymother,PatriciaMcGowan, died in late June, we chose the cheapest coffin for her burial. The...

A Political Prisoner (June 2008)

Jo McGowan A Political Prisoner Dr. BinaYak Sen, PeDiaTriCian Twenty-five years ago, when Dr. BinayakSenandhiswifeIlina moved to the remote Adivasi area of what is now the state...

Touching the Untouchables (April 2008)

Jo McGowan Touching the Untouchables ThE LIFE OF bAbA AMTE When Baba Amte died here in India in February, at the age of ninety-three, he was re membered as the champion of people...

The Trash Man Cometh (November 2007)

Columnist Jo McGowan The Trash Man Cometh CONSUMERISM & INDIA’S REFUSE PROBLEM My kitchen window overlooks a vacant lot. Like other vacant lots in India, it is covered with plastic...

After the Floods (September 2007)

Commonweal . September 14, 2007 6 Columnist After the Floods Jo McGowan HOW NATURE REACTS TO OUR MISTAKES The rainbow and God¡¯s promise to Noah must be of scant comfort to the...

Through a Lens Brightly (March 2007)

Columnist Mc owan Through a Lens Brightly WHAT PHOTOGRAPHY TEACHES US ~ ~ have been taking photographs for most of my adult life. With no technical knowledge of f-stops, apertures, or how...

Betting the Farm (January 2007)

Mc owan Betting the Farm AGRIBUSINESS COMES TO INDIA ~ Food occupies a great deal of ~our attention, day in and day i out. It also raises jamng questions: Why do hundreds of I millions of...

Taking Stock (October 2006)

Taking Stock vent or in arrears? And where is the money to pay for it The treasurer of our organization--a coming from? There it is again: the evi- r t"l .g funding crisis now may be just...

A Thrift Shop in India (July 2006)

o O 0 Mc owan A Thrift Shop in India DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH were dismayed and a bit annoyed when she gave it to an elderly woman who often came to the Worker for meals. When someone pointed...

To Welcome a Child (May 2006)

To Mc owart To Welcome a Child GAY COUPLES & ADOPTION his wife adopted both their children. There was a time when I thought of starting an adoption agency because it seemed the perfect answer...

Pied Piper of Dehra Doon (March 2006)

To Mc owan Pied Piper of Dehra Doon THE MUSIC OF CHARLIE KING the money to make it possible. Charlie and I have been friends since we met on a 1976 march for disarmament. We ended up being...

Feeding My Daughter (January 2006)

a) a a U C HARLOT Jo Mcgowan Feeding My Daughter WHEN SOMEONE CAN'T SWALLOW of God's being that can show at least that it is not unreasonable to think that God may be real. But...

Learning Curve (October 2005)

Mc owan Learning Curve WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE DISABLED 8 r ~~ "This fi!m changes people's lives, Dr. Martha Rose, a ~ professor of special educar tion at Salve Regina Uni~~[~ versity,...

Another Modest Proposal (July 2005)

e-i A g ia law seem to conflict with our paramount obligation to love our neighbor? What sort of self-sacrifice do love of God and love of neighbor require? Is it selfish to protect our own...

Learning Not to Think (February 2005)

Mc owan Learning Not to Think SCHOOLING IN INDIA Days after the tsunami, Manmo~ h a n Singh, the prime minister of India, toured the Andaman ~ ~ and Nicobar islands, among the areas worst...

Minister of employment No skills, no jobs, no hope (November 2004)

OF SEVERAL MINDS JO McGOWAN MINISTER OF EMPLOYMENT My side job in India My first morning back in India after a trip to the United States, my daughter woke me at 8:00 a.m. to say that a young...

Kerry, our erring brother (September 2004)

KERRY, OUR ERRING BROTHER The need for quality control W hat is all the fuss about Catholic bishops refusing Communion to prochoice politicians? Controlling access to Jesus Christ has been a...

In custody (July 2004)

OF SEVERAL JO MCGOWAN THE INAUGURAL SARAH SMITH CONFERENCE ON MORAL LEADERSHIP; IN CUSTODY When jailers resort to violence W hen my seventeen-year-old daughter first saw the photos of...

Sonia Gandhi steps down (June 2004)

voice saying `Get smart."' And, of course, the not so obvious: "First Things." What topics and writers would you like to see in Common-weal? Several names made repeat appearances: Andrew Greeley,...

One great sermon (May 2004)

'Y~'~??,S$eXf'-5i•.lxVii ~•s.~!51T. Fh Ahw.xATi', t'Yfli... .~ Yw6 '. X" ~:-.~F`.tline:iv,:?:tnni'. OF SEVERAL. JO McGOWAN ONE GREAT SERMON And an even better confession n the small town in...

'Whom do you hate?' (February 2004)

rth«ac:i" Kww...M.4rcigtts f ,,n:;.1ariargPiMI ^.,. RTIKO as T..calefi eram PalegIr exa * sa, °WHOM DO YOU HATO° Measuring our love for Jesus y sixth-grade teacher was a nun who enjoyed scaring...

Kickboxing in India Protecting my daughter (December 2003)

OF SEVERAL MINDS JO McGOWAN KICKBOXING IN INDIA What every girl needs to know My daughter was molested last week. Cathleen, sixteen, was returning home from a school sport event and just outside...

Breathless in Fall River (October 2003)

JO McGOWAN BREATHLESS IN FALL RIVER Fireworks & other unnecessary treats Fireworks! Who came up with the idea? Who thought of spraying the sky with color and light, dazzling thousands of people...

A death in India (August 2003)

JO McGOWAN A DEATH IN INDIA Priestcraft & usurers Sat Pal is an office assistant in the school where I work here in India. He has an eighth-grade education and limited intelligence. When his...

Hello Dalai (June 2003)

JO McGOWAN HELLO DALAI My brush with His Holiness In these anxious days, when world leaders astonish us with their deeply held stupidity, meeting a man like the Dalai Lama-whose very being...

Opportunity knocks (April 2003)

JO McGOWAN OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS And in India, the servant class responds Hot the past three months, my friend Savita has been looking for a family to live in her servants' quarter. Her primary need...

Impossible journey (February 2003)

JO McGOWAN IMPOSSIBLE JOURNEY India's female astronaut Kalpana Chawla is a household name in India, and a first-name at that. When the space shuttle Columbia crashed this month, the headlines...

Assimilation To dream in Hindi (January 2003)

OF SEVERAL MINDS JO McGOWAN ASSIMILATION The stuff dreams are made of The first time I dreamt in Hindi-nearly twenty years ago-I was both pleased and confused. Pleased because this surely...

Toy story (October 2002)

JO McGOWAN OF SEVERAL MINDS TOY STORY In abundance, opportunity Hoys are the essence of childhood. When I visit the United States, I am always enchanted with the wonderful things my nephews and...

India & the United States Two responses to threats of nuclear war (August 2002)

JO McGOWAN OF SEVERAL MINDS INDIA & THE UNITED STATES Two responses to a nuclear threat The recent crisis between India and Pakistan which, at its height, prompted the governments of the United...

Snake in the church (May 2002)

OF SEVERAL MINDS JO NcGOWAN SNAKE IN THE CHURCH Clean up or run away? The current sexual abuse crisis in the American church reminds me of the time we saw a dangerous snake go into our garage...

Making do What India lacks in amenities it makes up for in traffic flow (March 2002)

OF SEVERAL MINDS JO McGOWAN MAKING DO The virtues of underdevelopment As a child, one of my favorite books was Half Magic by Edgar Eager. It was about four children who find a coin that grants...

Family feud (February 2002)

JO McGOWAN OF SEVERAL MINDS FAMILY FEUD Will India & Pakistan come to blows? When the Indian Parliament was attacked by terrorists on December 13, 2001, we watched the news reports on television...

An annunciation, of sorts Is she or isn't she? (December 2001)

JO McGOWAH AN AMtftf MeiATiOli, OF SORTS Where faith & fear collide Three times in the past two years I have been almost certain I was pregnant. Whether this says more about passion or...

Lies, damn lies & statistics: In India, when a census taker asks questions, he already knows the answers. (August 2001)

OF SEVERAL HINDS JO McGOWAH LIES, DAMN LIES & STATISTICS How India's census takers count India's census, a once-adecade undertaking, is a massive, door-to-door exercise because...

Caste away: Paddling against the current in India (May 2001)

7 OF SEVERAL HINDS JO HcGOWAN CASTE AWAY Touched by the untouchable Hast week the entire staff of the school I work with here in India went river rafting. With the exception of me and...

Lyrics to live (April 2001)

OF SEVERAL N I M D 5 JO McGOWAN LYRICS TO LIVE BY What my children are listening to My teenagers love music. Anand's taste runs to Aero smith, Moby and Bon Jovi, while Cathleen...

Corporal punishment: Earthshaking events in India (February 2001)

C ORRESPONDENCE A clarification In my letter inquiring about the church's agenda regarding a sexual orientation that it considers objectively disordered, the editors of Commonweal replied,...

Christmas in India (December 2000)

what is holy in other religions, to see that the enlightenment to be found in Buddhism is not a lie but radiant and JO McGOWAN good, to have a filial respect for the Ju- daism...

Too much, too soon, too often (October 2000)

is holy places to all of the Islamic na- on Jerusalem by the two sides rest on re- international authority. Until that can tions, including his principal sponsors, ligious...

'Thinking' Catholics (July 2000)

In keeping with Commonweal's usual schedule, only STRUCTURES OF DECEIT When America's most one issue is published each month...

Not your standard Auntie (May 2000)

in East Harlem that flourished in...

Uncomfortable in comfort (February 2000)

be surly and uncommunicative. I...

Ignorance is bliss (December 1999)

OF SEVERAL MINDS JO McGOWAN IGNORANCE IS BLISS U.S. college students in India There is nothing like meeting a college student for getting a sense of popular culture. My husband and I, who...

Moy Moy's journey (October 1999)

OF SEVERAL HINDS JO NcGOWAN if ®Y MOY'S J®WitilEY Nearing the end Ten days ago, our pediatrician told us that our little girl, Moy Moy, aged ten, probably has only a few months left to...

In the Palm of God's Hand (July 1999)

In the palm of God's hand P9^(E9 I'1'1'1- nn three children were babies, one of ¦ W^WM ^w '-t'1!'^ s I particularly liked was their disH^B^H own o: their hands. Ft was so surprising HHMI lo...

Burning Christians (June 1999)

Jo McGowan BURNING CHRISTIANS India's BJP gets out the vote Y ou could almost feel sorry for the BJP, India's ruling party and a bastion of Hindu militancy. After successfully whipping the...

The Defense Rests (December 1998)

THE DEFENSE RESTS lo McGowan ~ hen I heard about the October 17 death of Jim McFadden, founder and publisher of the Human Life Review (HRL), I felt strangely bereft. My association with...

Fallout in India (July 1998)

idence is currently in short supply supporting a direct connection between Pius and these rescue efforts. And some historians such as Susan Zuccotti argue that many of these rescue efforts were...

Moy Moy seals the bargain (May 1997)

MOY MOY SEALS THE BARGAIN Jo McGowan A doption in India is still a very strange concept for most people. The most positive response I get from strangers who learn that our third child is adopted...

Get me to the church on time: (October 1993)

regard the police. boats that have suddenly flashed their lights built at the cost of $2.2 billion, money that should have been and are heading straight for you. For a moment you are...

Take your shoes off my books: (June 1993)

TARE YOUR SHOES JO McGOWAN OFF MY BOOKS NEGOTIATING A HINDU-CATHOLIC MARRIAGE V1 When my...

Little girls dying (August 1991)

LITTLE GIRLS DYING AN ANCIENT & THRIVING PRACTICE JO McGOWAN hen we named our adopted daughter Moy Moy, we only meant to name her after my adopted sister, who is Chinese. The name means...

India (May 1991)

Lemann says, by a critical policy mistake. Johnson embraced "community action," an idea cooked up by the Kennedy team, as the central precept of the war on poverty. Not only did community action...

Two is not enough: (May 1990)

TWO IS NOT ENOUGH JO McGOWAN OF BABIES, DIRTY DIAPERS & WONDER I live in India where, in the middle class, the two-child family is not only the ideal but close to the norm. Having but two children...

The poor break through (June 1987)

THE POOR BREAK THROUGH 10 mcgowan SOLILOQUY FROM NEW DELHI I was walking in Connaught Circus, the "fashionable" shopping area of New Delhi, the other day, trying to figure out how I had...

Marriage versus just living together (March 1981)

ACKNOWLEDGING LIFE IN THE CONTEXT OF COMMUNITY Marriage versus just living together JO McGOWAN SOME MONTHS AGO we had a beautiful young woman from India (my husband is also from India) staying...

McGowan, Josephine

McGowan, R A.

McGowan, R. A.

McGowan, R.A.

McGowan, Thomas

McGrady, Pat

McGrath, Dorothy C.

McGrath, Justin

McGRATH, MELBA

McGrath, Michael O'Neill

McGreevy, John

McGreevy, John T