In the post below, I wondered: How often do we complain about the church (or praise it) or seek something from it, but do little-to-nothing to raise up a new generation to serve it? If our kids are serving the church, they’ll never get rich. And they will struggle daily on that wire between earth and heaven, along with the church — and sometimes they’ll slip because that struggle is maddening and certainly humbling — but they will grow a... Read more
In the comments section of this piece, some appear to be wondering whether I am simply “dismissing” the Note on Financial Reform. I can’t do that, as I still have not read it. I do think the church is, as ever, caught upon the same wire it has danced upon since its founding, with one foot poised for the next step, hovering between earth and heaven and trying to reconcile both to each other, and trying to do so in... Read more
As the day draws to a close, I want to thank Elizabeth Scalia for her kind hospitality in welcoming me to spend a day here in her warm cozy blog space. I know you readers will be thrilled to have the Queen back firmly ensconced on her throne tomorrow, but I thank you all for your warm welcome and for the great interactions we’ve shared in this space today. If you’d like to connect with me in the future, please... Read more
When big news breaks as it did today with the release of “Toward Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of Global Public Authority” by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, I sometimes pause to think about the majority of the Catholics I know. While we in the blogosphere are running from Twitter to Facebook to the blogs in search of informed perspectives, I’d venture to say that most of the folks sitting near us in the... Read more
. . . take media reports of this one with a grain of salt. When my Southern Baptist friends read press accounts of news or statements coming from the Vatican, they sometimes write me saying, “what fresh hell is this? Was Jack Chick right? Is the Vatican a bunch of commies?” And I always have to remind them to “ignore the headlines; the headlines are about the press framing their preferred narrative, because they know that two days of blaring... Read more
In the comments below, Manny invited me to say a few words about living as a faithful Catholic in the state of California. I’ll state up front that I’m not a political blogger, nor am I qualified to making sweeping defenses of every issue on the plate. But I can respond — at least from one mom’s perspective — to Manny’s question, “Is California as anti Catholic (or anti religious in general) as it seems?” California is a big, diverse... Read more
In the comments below, my good friend Lisa Schmidt (of the wonderful blog The Practicing Catholic) posed the following query: Archbishop Chaput recently issued (in part) the following statement: “We should see ourselves as Catholic first — not white or black, or young or old, or Democrat or Republican, or labor militant or business owner, but Catholic first as the main way we identify ourselves. Our faith should shape our lives, including our political choices.” One of the many things I... Read more
Being a Californian, earthquakes around the world tend to catch my attention. Today, as we pray for the souls of those impacted by a devastating magnitude 7.2 quake in eastern Turkey, it’s good to know that Caritas International is already responding to the needs of those impacted. From the Caritas blog: Caritas will assess the needs of people whose homes or livelihoods have been impacted by the quake. Access to the area’s villages, where many mud-brick homes have collapsed, may... Read more
Thank you all, for your prayers for Kitty. She is heading into a second CAT scan as they are concerned about something; she is still feverish and for some reason they are concerned about her heart rate, so things are not yet where we’d hoped they would be, by now. I’ll keep you updated, but please know how much your prayers are appreciated. This weekend will be very busy, and I am not sure I’ll get much time for blogging,... Read more
A stunning photo essay of the progress that has been made in Japan’s post-tsunami clean-up. Read more
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