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LAST WORD ‘An Incomparable Woman’ JERRY RYAN In the Papal Bull of 1631, Pastoralis romani pontifices, Urban VIII declared that In order to contain such great audacity with more strictness and...

A second death (March 2020)

LAST WORD A Second Death JERRY RYAN I might imagine the dead waking, dazed into a shadowless light in which they know themselves altogether for the first time. It is a light that is merciless...

Fireworks (July 2019)

LAST WORD Fireworks Jerry Ryan For perhaps ten years, on the evening before every Fourth of July, there were fireworks over Boston Harbor synchronized with Handel's "Royal Hymn to Fireworks."...

Privilege Masked as Orthodoxy (March 2019)

LAST WORD Privilege Masked as Orthodoxy Jerry Ryan Last Pentecost Sunday, Pope Francis named fourteen new cardinals. Several of those selected were from the "peripheries," countries where...

He Does Not Forget (May 2018)

LAST WORD He Does Not Forget Jerry Ryan Now that I am no longer capable of the kind of manual labor I used to do for a living, I have fallen back on translating and proofreading work as an excuse...

A Communion of Sinners & Saints (February 2018)

LAST WORD A Communion of Sinners & Saints Jerry Ryan I have no idea what, exactly, the Beatific Vision will be like. I cannot begin to imagine it. I can only desire it as a "mystery gift," a...

The Other Guy (July 2017)

LAST WORD The Other Guy Jerry Ryan When I was a boy the third person of the Trinity was referred to as the Holy Ghost. I recall not being too keen on doing business with a ghost, however holy he...

A Faith for Failures (January 2017)

LAST WORD A Faith for Failures Jerry Ryan first learned of Shusaku Endo in the pages of Commonweal about twenty years ago. The article was about Endo's historical novel Silence, which Martin...

The Lord Delights (September 2016)

LAST WORD The Lord Delights Jerry Ryan "When one tries to speak lovingly of God, all human words become like the tears of blind lions seeking sources in the desert." —Leon Bloy Not long ago I...

Artist, Activist, Martyr (August 2015)

Jerry Ryan Artist, Activist, Martyr THE PRIEST BEHIND THE HAMMER-AND-SICKLE CRUCIFIX Outside of Bolivia, I don't think many people knew of Luis Espinal before Pope Francis, during his recent...

Knowing Jesus (May 2015)

Knowing Jesus Easier Said than Done Jerry Ryan Awhile back, I was asked to write about "what the person ofJesus meant to me." I took this as a request to describe my personal relationship to...

One of the Least (February 2015)

THE LAST WORD One of the Least Jerry Ryan I could see it coming. For many years I had worked at demanding and dangerous jobs as a Little Brother of Jesus: more than a decade in foundry work, a...

Journet's Blind Spot (December 2013)

Jerry Ryan Journet's Blind Spot WHY A GREAT THEOLOGIAN FEARED VATICAN II On Saturday mornings, Charles Journet, (more commonly known simply as Abbe Journet) would take the train from Fribourg to...

Orthodoxy & Dissent (February 2013)

Orthodoxy & Dissent Truth & the Need for Humility Jerry Ryan St. Pius X, in his encyclical Vehementer (1902), wrote: “By its very nature the church is a society of unequals; it is composed of two...

Farewell: Faithful Ferryman (September 2012)

FAREWELL Jerry Ryan Faithful Ferryman JOSEPH CUNNEEN, 1923-2012 Joseph Cunneen, a longtime contributor to Commonweal, passed away in his sleep on July 29. He was eighty-nine years old. The son...

Broken (May 2012)

Articles Broken The Life and Death of Ren‚ Page Jerry Ryan Ren‚ Page died on February 2, 2010. He was eightysix. His obituary did not appear in the New York Times or, as far as I know, in...

Legacy Of A Country Priest (October 2011)

Legacy of a Country Priest My Friend the Exorcist Jerry Ryan I never learned his name. He was simply “the curé of Sère-Lanso.” In the 1960s, over the course of several years, I visited him...

Masked Mysticism (December 2010)

ARTICLES Masked Mysticism Everyday Suffering, Everyday Sanctity Jerry Ryan Christian mysticism can be defined as the experience of direct, personal encounter with the God of love. It is an...

A Christian & the Qur'an (January 2010)

Short Takes Jerry Ryan A Christian & the Qur’an IRAN HONORS AN UNLIKELY SCHOLAR Early last year, the Ministry of Culture of the Islamic Republic of Iran awarded its World Prize for the...

Unlikely Prophets (December 2009)

Short Takes Jerry Ryan Unlikely Prophets HOW A MOTLEY CREW OF FRENCH CATHOLICS INSPIRED VATICAN II The years just before and after World War II saw breakthroughs in theology that had...

A God Who Trembles : Péguy's theology of hope (December 2008)

A God Who Trembles Fear & Hope in the Poetry of Péguy Jerry Ryan B enedict XVI’s encyclical Spe salvi, published a year ago, is magnificent as a theological lesson on the virtue of hope,...

Why l Stay Catholic (February 2007)

Why I Stay Catholic The Bonds of Belief & Friendship :Jerry Ryan S ome time back, I got an e-mail from an old friend with whom I had lost contact many years before. He was an exseminarian...

A Desecrated Land: Letter from Jerusalem (March 2006)

Standing in the valley, I can't but wonder how a pious Jew feels as he or she gazes on this violated graveyard, ver- itably screaming for the resurrection of the dead. Is there any consolation in...

A real church lady (January 2004)

A REAL CHURCH LADY Jerry Ryan L ast spring, I finally got to meet Elisabeth Behr-Sigel. At ninety-six, she is the undisputed "grandmother" of Western Christian Orthodoxy and one of its foremost...

1054 & ALL THAT (January 2001)

Medium When she'd outgrown a Medium, my daughter gave me a red ski sweater, strewn with snow in knitted flakes. It's thick—wool—but the sweater's extra warmth (despite the chilly rows of...

Back to the Future (January 1999)

BACK TO THE FUTURE Christian unity & the papacy Jerry Ryan Hregory I (pope from 590-604), in a letter to the patriarch of Alexandria, addresses him as his "brother in rank," refuses to be...

THE DESCENT INTO HELL Eastern and Western views of the time between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection (April 1997)

THE DESCENT INTO HELL Abandonment or a victory over death? Jerry Ryan The first time I assisted at the Russian Orthodox Easter Vigil at Saint Mary's in Chelsea, I was disoriented and somewhat...

TWICE ON SUNDAYS Learning to "breathe with both lungs," a Catholic joins a Russian Orthodox choir (January 1996)

TWICE ON SUNDAYS My Orthodox temptation Jerry Ryan according to the version my wife likes to tell, when she took me to see the house which was up for sale and with which she had fallen in love, I...

The news that didn't fit (October 1994)

THE POPE & THE MILLENNIUM—I THE NEWS THAT DIDN'T FIT A REPENTANT CHURCH? Reporting the consistory of the College of Cardinals last June, the American media missed the point. Their main focus...

Ryan, John A

Ryan, John A.

Ryan, John J.

Ryan, John K

Ryan, John K.

Ryan, Joseph L.

Ryan, Kathryn White

Ryan, Kay

Ryan, Kenneth

Ryan, L.John A.

RYAN, MARY JOHANNA

Ryan, Mary Perkins