The Demon in the Shadows: Mental Illness, Mass Shootings, and an Adjunct’s Lonely Death

Last updated on: May 2, 2016 at 10:56 am By Joanne McPortland

Two very different stories in my newsfeed this morning. Both are tragic. Each gets attention for the questions it raises about law and justice. But each has another, less obvious thread that compounds the tragedy, complicates the law, raises more troubling questions of justice. Each challenges us to respond to those questions, as Catholics, as Americans. We’ve all been watching the unfolding tragedy of Monday’s mass shooting at the Naval Shipyard in Washington, DC. The victims are being named and... Read more

The Church and the Costa Concordia: A Lesson

Last updated on: May 2, 2016 at 10:57 am By Joanne McPortland

Righting the ship. If you’ve been following the efforts to raise the wrecked Costa Concordia cruise vessel, grounded for nearly two years on an Italian reef, you know it was no simple operation. It took vision, commitment, lots of money and equipment and time. Righting the Church (which is, even for those of us who share Pope Francis’s graced optimism, always in need of righting) is the much the same. It only takes one person—the Concordia‘s captain, who swears... Read more

The Exultation (sic) of the Holy Cross

Last updated on: September 14, 2015 at 6:13 pm By Joanne McPortland

A year ago today I went on pilgrimage, through the grace of God and the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and my friend Michael. A year ago today I took the first steps of my own Way of the Cross, a journey ad Jesum per Mariam—to Jesus through Mary—that I am still only baby steps along. A year ago today I began to know what suffering, joy, death and resurrection really meant, in my own weak flesh. I am still learning, and... Read more

Hey, Who You Callin’ Egregious?: More on a Blog Name

Last updated on: May 2, 2016 at 10:57 am By Joanne McPortland

In which Pope Francis gives me an inadvertent shout-out, and I get schooled in the etymology of egregiousness. The news service Zenit has released its English translation of Pope Francis’s recent open letter to the founding editor of Italy’s La Repubblica, a secular newspaper known for posing challenging questions to the Church’s role in Italian life and world politics. In the letter, the pontiff addresses some of these questions directly and personally, as a conversation with Eugenio Scalfari, the editor.... Read more

The Power of Names: 9-11, Nameless Children, and Deportees

Last updated on: May 2, 2016 at 11:16 am By Joanne McPortland

Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you. See, upon the palms of my hands I have written your name. (Isaiah 49:15-16) I’m thinking about names today—the names of the dead. The tolling bells this morning, the moments of silence into which fell, one by one like stones into the rippling reflective pool of memory, the names of those who died 12 years... Read more

On Labor Day, Saying Thank You