Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options

Most recent
Most relevant
Clear filter
Letters
Letters

Take to Heart

In The Moment, the Message, the Messenger (4/24), Tom Fox has issued a timely and eloquent plea for our collective commitment to convey the treasure of Catholic social teaching to our country. I share his conviction that our teaching can effect profound social change. At Catholic Relief Services, our re-examination and reflection on the church’s social teaching over the last decade has fueled an institutional transformation. We moved from being an agency that primarily engages in relief and development to one that also promotes justice, human dignity and global solidarity through all of our programs.

In that spirit, and at the risk of ruining a good Catholic construct of seven points, I would like humbly to propose an addition to Mr. Fox’s list of suggestions not only for better communicating the church’s social teaching but also for helping Catholics to live it. We must foster a sense of solidaritywith God, with all of humanity and with creation.

Solidaritythe conviction that we are responsible for and connected to one another, especially those who are poor and marginalizedcalls us to cherish and uphold the sacredness and dignity of every person, commit to and practice peace, justice and reconciliation, and celebrate and protect the integrity of all creation. At C.R.S. we believe that global solidaritystanding with our brothers and sisters overseaswill transform the world.

There are many ways for Catholics to practice global solidarity, such as making just economic choices by buying fair trade products, participating in a partnership with a parish or diocese overseas, advocating for just and transparent government policies or supporting missionary or relief efforts overseas. Catholic Relief Services provides these opportunities and more, to help Catholics put their faith into action on an international scale.

Both the Gospel and Catholic social teaching compel us to live as one human family by respecting the dignity of every human person, loving our neighbors as ourselves and promoting more just and peaceful societies. In other words, we are called to live in global solidarity. It is a message we all must hear and take to heart.

Joan Neal

Film
Falling Down, Falling Down: United 93
Plastic chairs and paper cups, laptops and cell phones: the depersonalizing symbols of air travel. Baseball hats and tee-shirts. Boarding passes spit out of machines at the beckoning of a credit card. The herding into lines by airport and airline personnel clearly bored with their jobs and annoyed b
News
Signs of the Times
Chicago Reports Criticize Handling of AbuseThe Archdiocese of Chicago released on March 20 two reports highly critical of its handling of sexual abuse by clerics. One report focuses on the handling of the cases of priests who were monitored but not immediately removed from ministry after abuse alleg
News
Signs of the Times
Conscience Must Concur With Moral PrinciplesResponding to a recent statement by Catholic Democrats in the House of Representatives affirming the primacy of conscience in their voting decisions, three key leaders of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said conscience must be consistent with funda
The Pope and the Poet
The two most prominent authors we are reading in my course this semester for advanced undergraduates on the classics of spirituality are Augustine of Hippo and Dante Alighieri. I see by his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, that Benedict XVI has been reading them as well. It will come as no surpri
Fasting: A Fresh Look
Have you ever tried to explain the Catholic regulations on fasting to a Muslim, a Jew or a Hindu? Save yourself the raised eyebrows of incomprehension or the smirk that says, “You’ve got to be kidding!” Somehow “one full meal and two lesser ones not equaling it” doesn&r
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
Massive overnight snowfalls in New York City usually mean awakening to a preternatural stillness, with city streets silenced for the moment before the plows begin to clear away huge mountains of snow and the noise of midtown traffic returns. The near-blizzard of 2006, the greatest snowstorm recorded
Television
American Dreams
When I was a boy, I wanted to be the president of the United States. A lot of us did. Though we were growing up in the 1970’s, we knew little or nothing of Nixon or Watergate, wiretaps or carpet-bombing. Our images were of George Washington crossing the Delaware, Abraham Lincoln freeing the sl
The Media, the War and Truth'
Last summer I attended a conference at which a rather distinguished panel of White House correspondents discussedattempted to defend is actually a more accurate descriptionthe coverage by the U.S. media of the Bush administration’s build-up, invasion and continued U.S. military occupation of I
Letters
Letters

Embarrassed and Offended

We were embarrassed to have readers call our attention to the offensive advertisement that escaped our unknowing eyes and appeared in the Dec. 5 issue. Like them, we were deeply offended.

The offense was compounded when we learned in the advertisers reply to a concerned reader that he had intended his art as an assault on Catholic faith and devotion.

We have taken several steps to tighten our advance review of advertising and express our outrage to the artist.

Our thanks to our readers and their friends for their sensitivity and forgiveness.

The Editors

Humanitarian Emergency

This is late, but thank you for the Rev. Donald H. Dunson’s article, A War on Children, (10/10) about northern Uganda. We who are here can hardly believe that this could happen, much less that it has been going on since 1986. I can imagine the incredulity and paralysis of those who are just hearing about the largest neglected humanitarian emergency in the world, as the United Nations described it.

Readers who want to learn more and perhaps pray and take some action could check www.ugandacan.org, associated with the Africa Faith and Justice Network in Washington, D.C. Walks and prayerful witness took place recently in 40 cities worldwide, including several in the United States.

Carlos Rodriguez, a Comboni father, whom you pictured, has made the church here proud, and the government often upset, as a fearless advocate for peace and for more relief to the 1.6 million people trapped in horrendous protected camps. Archbishop John Baptist Odama of Gulu and other religious leaders there, united ecumenically, have been no less inspiring.

And am I the only reader touched by the haunting cover photo by Don Doll, S.J. (10/31)? He wonderfully captures the dignity of southern Sudanese youth and their determination still to find a future despite the destruction of their country. I am proud that the Jesuit Refugee Service has been with them in Uganda and is now accompanying them home.

Tony Wach, S.J.