The Dialog

By TheDialog

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — In the wake of the deaths of a U.S. ambassador and three staff members in Libya and the unrest triggered by a U.S.-made amateur film hostile to Islam, the Vatican decried disrespect toward all religions and deplored all violence as unacceptable.

“Profound respect for the beliefs, texts, outstanding figures and symbols of the various religions are an essential precondition for the peaceful coexistence of peoples,” said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman.

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By Tom Sheridan

The conversation was about evil.

There were four of us, all guys, driving to a senior softball game. Discussion centered around the morning news reports. Texas had executed yet another murderer. And the Tucson, Ariz., shooter who killed six people and wounded several others last year, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, would escape the death penalty.

The talk was sadly predictable. The execution delighted my buddies, despite the fact that the murderer had an IQ of only 61. That Giffords’ assailant, Jared Loughner, would spend the rest of his life in prison brought only hoots of displeasure. Rope and a tree were mentioned.

Such crimes  and such conversations put renewed focus on the existence of evil in our world, and how we respond to it.

We are not an evil people. Our actions, however, demonstrate that we are a people with a capacity for evil. Read more »

By Tony Magliano

From abortion to war, vigilante militias to hate groups, angry language to road rage, computer games to movies, violence holds so much of American society in its deadly grip.

Countless numbers of Americans have either become violent, are insensitive to the grave harm violence brings, or are entertained by it. These easily observable facts point to a society that has significantly lost its respect for the dignity of each human life.

There is no one single solution to America’s obsession with violence. A multifaceted strategy must be employed. Read more »