Commonweal - May 15, 2015 - Volume 142, Number 9

Sep 29, 2026

Commonweal (May 15, 2015) presents editorial staffing and publication details for a biweekly religious, literary, and arts magazine. The issue includes letters addressing clerical abuse, education for incarcerated people, and criticisms of how priests and military leaders are trained. It also features sections such as Upfront, Editorial, Columnist, Short Take, Articles about Greece and Ukraine, a film review, art commentary, and book reviews, organized around the date and serial volume numbering.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryReligion & Spirituality

FormatPDF

Pages32

Reading Time1 h 21 min

AccessFree to download

Upfront

Letters

Editorial

Held to Account

Do No Harm

Columnist

Spare the Rod

Short Take

Does the Earth Have Rights?

Articles

A Continent Adrift

How Greece & Ukraine Are Testing Europe

Knowing Jesus

Easier Said than Done

Film

Effie Gray & Cinderella

Art

'The Divine Comedy' at the National Museum of African Art

Books

Beyond the Abortion Wars

CommonwealMAY 15,2015 Commonveal·May 15,2015 Founded in 1924 Commonweal Editor Paul Baumann Associate Editors Grant Gallicho,Matthew Boudway Production Tiina Aleman Digital Editor Dominic Preziosi Editor at Large Mollie Wilson O'Reilly Copy Editor Susanne Washburn Editorial Assistant Maria Bowler Intern Nicholas Haggerty Marketing Coordinator Kaitlin Campbell Business Manager James Hannan Development Christa A.Kerber Poetry Rosemary Deen Film Richard Alleva,Rand Richards Cooper Stage &Television Celia Wren Columnists E.J.Dionne Jr.,Anthony Domestico,Rita Ferrone,Cathleen Kaveny,Jo McGowan,Charles R.Morris,Mollie Wilson O'Reilly,William Pfaff,Margaret O'Brien Steinfels Subscription Information 855-713-1792 subscriptions@commonwealmagazine.org Advertising Manager Regan Pickett commonwealads@gmail.com 540-349-5736 Publisher Thomas Baker Commonwea/[ISSN 0010-3330],a review ofpublic affairs,religion,literature,and the arts,is published biweekly,except in April,July,August,and November,when it is publishedmonthly,by Commonweal Foundation,475Riverside Drive,Rm.405,New York,NY 10115.Telephone:(212)662-4200.E-mail:editors@commonwealmagazine.org.Fax:(212)662-4183.POSTMASTER:send address changes toCommonweal,P.O.Box 3000,Denville,NJ07834-9982. Commonweal is indexed in Reader's Guide toPeriodical Literature,Book Review Digest,andBook Review Index.Commonweal articles are.available at many libraries and research facilitiesvia ProQuest and OpinionArchives.Serials Dataprogram No.:ISSN 0010-3330.Periodicals postagepaid at New York,NY,and at additional officesCopyright ◎2015 Commonweal Foundation.Single Copy,$3.95.Yearly print subscriptions,U.S,$65;Canada,$70;other parts of the world,$75.Special two-year rate:U.5.$108;Canada,$118;other parts of the world,$128.Add $45for airmail.For digital and online subscriptionoptions visit www.commonwealmagazine.org/digital. Cover design:Cecilia Guerrero Rezes Cover image:spectrumblue LETTERS Teaching prisoners,seminarians &ourselves ("Clerical Errors,"March 6).The church,beyond any hesitation,has a long way togo.As a survivor of clerical abuse,I mustfocus on your first writer,Paul Blaschko,and his experience in the seminary.I washorrified.What Blaschko witnessed ascommon practices with respect to sexual-ity and human development can only bedescribed as draconian.No wonder somemen are inclined to abuse.Most do not.I've been blessed to know many goodand holy priests who are wellgroundedand have deep friendships with both menand women.Over time,life has taughtthem that they,regardless of celibacy,arecomplex sexual persons who need intima-cy just like all pilgrims in Christ. SHORTSIGHTED Kudos to Robert Cowan("Prisoner's Di-lemma,"March 6)for saying that the ob-jections that scuttled Governor AndrewCuomo's plan to pay for college classesfor prison inmates were "shortsighted."By refusing to fund what these politi-cians sardonically labeled"Attica Universi-ty,"they show themselves penny-wise butpound-foolish,as well as ostrich-like intheir refusal to see some basic facts. Cowan's statement that"with accessto college-level courses,prisoners aremuch less likely to return to the behav-iors that landed them in jail in the firstplace"has been demonstrated time andtime again.Fewer than 2 percent of thereleased graduates of Hudson Link forHigher Education in Prison,highlighted inthe HBO documentary Sing Sing U,havereturned to the penal system.This hassaved the public millions of dollars.Justas important,these college-educated menhave returned to their communities,got-ten jobs(not without difficulty),helpedkeep their children in school,and mod-eled how our penal system might actuallyaccomplish justice and restoration ratherthan punishment and serial recidivism. MARK JOSEPH WILLIAMS Today we see signs that many peo-ple are waking up to the terrible effectsof policies that have caused the mass in-carceration of poor

FAQs

What topics are discussed in the letters section of the May 15, 2015 issue?

Readers write about clerical training and clerical abuse, and they also discuss education for incarcerated people and the broader cost of ignorance. Several letters respond to articles in the same issue.

Which subjects appear in the Upfront and editorial parts of the issue?

The contents list includes an editorial and related items under Upfront, including “Held to Account” and “Do No Harm,” reflecting the issue’s engagement with practical and ethical concerns.

What are some major categories of content included beyond letters?

Beyond Letters, the issue includes a columnist section, a short take on whether the Earth has rights, articles on Greece and Ukraine, film and art coverage, and multiple book reviews.

Sep 29, 2026

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