Time Magazine Spotlights America’s Obsession

The frenetic six-day youth festival that is called “World Youth Day” is going on this week in Rio de Janeiro.  More than a million young people have come together for prayer, catechesis, and joyful celebration of their Catholic faith.   

This is big news—right?

The world watched yesterday as Pope Francis arrived in town and addressed the crowd for the first time.  The Holy Father was featured on the cover of Time Magazine around the world:  in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the South Pacific. 

The cover in those diverse lands looked like this:

But in the United States, Time’s cover looked like this:

Trayvon Martin, and by inference the issue of racism in America, remains foremost in our minds.  Not the meaning of life; not matters of faith; not spiritual growth.  Not the things that matter most.

I’m not saying that racism is not important.  I’m just sighing, muttering under my breath, “Enough already!”  Let us go forward–and when we love God, we will also love our neighbor.  Problem solved!