This week is about as full as a week can get here at my parish in DC. We celebrate Martin Luther King, as well as the presidential inauguration; the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity takes place; and we will host Cardinal Sean O’Malley in our Mass for Life before the March for Life on Friday. I have found the intersection of these particular events is striking. This week, we pray for Christian unity. We pray that the Holy Spirit... Read more
Over the next several weeks, I would like to share with you all some of my reflections on the three weeks that I recently spent in India on a theological immersion into Hinduism. These reflections are both spiritual and theological, personal and social. The purpose is to clarify my own very undeveloped thoughts on many of these matters, so I wholeheartedly welcome comments and dialogue for clarification. I applied for this course along with the trip to India for one... Read more
There is an inverse relationship between prophetic power and political power. The prophetic vocation often requires a manifold critique of political and social structures, which is vastly more difficult to accomplish when one is seeking powerful positions within them. Simply put, speaking truth to power doesn’t tend to get anyone elected to public office. Thus prophets are almost always political in some way, but politicians can almost never be prophetic. On a day when national remembrance of Martin Luther King – arguably... Read more
[The following is a guest post by frequent commenter Jordan – Matt] A recent article by Jason Dempsey (“Does the NRA Want to Turn America Into Afghanistan?”, Foreign Policy, 16 January 2013) explores resemblances between the pervasive gun culture of Afghanistan and certain aspects of the way in which guns have pervaded American society. Dempsey, a soldier who currently serves in Afghanistan, steers his argument away from the current roiling debate over federal and state gun control laws. Rather, he... Read more
“I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered. ” –Martin Luther King, Jr. April 4, 1967 Read more
Resolved: the Church should move back towards the practice of the early Church, in which laity, clergy and other local bishops played a central role in the selection of new bishops. This question has been raised forcefully by Benedictine Abbott Peter von Sury of Mariastein, Switzerland. This would not be a panacea, but I wonder if the current system, which combines high centralization with a “good-old-boy” network (the role played by Cardinal Law in this process was legendary) really serves... Read more
Given the painful experience with sexual abuse in the Church over the past decade or two, Catholics are all-too-familiar with the tendency of powerful cliques to close ranks in the face of allegations of impropriety. Thankfully, I believe things are dramatically better today, even if bishops are still not being held accountable. But we see the same forces continue to play out in other powerful organizations that instil great tribal loyalty – no more so than in college athletics. We... Read more
Anti-Semitism seems to be a recurring feature among many traditionalist groups. I have blogged about this problem before. I recently ran across another egregious example: Deacon Kandra had a link to this story from CNS on his blog. Recorded speaking in Ontario in late December, Bishop Bernard Fellay superior general of SSPX, gave voice to the anti-Semitism which seems to cling to the society: He spoke about the society’s three years of discussions with the Vatican over the society’s future... Read more
I didn’t make a New Year’s resolution this year. Instead, I’m aiming at a New Year’s conversion, which the dictionary defines as a “change in character, form, or function; spiritual change from sinfulness to righteousness; change from one … belief, viewpoint, etc., to another; a change of attitude, emotion, or viewpoint from one of indifference, disbelief, or antagonism to one of acceptance, faith …” This year, I’m seeking the grace of conversion to live peacefully, nonviolently. I hope to move... Read more
The celebrations that surround the nativity of our Lord often seem to bring a mix of joy and sorrow. While one family enjoys the holidays with a new child, some parents endure the season having lost children during the previous year. Some folks find themselves surrounded by loved ones, while others feel the weight of loneliness, or of a broken family, most intensely. The joy of Christmas cannot but be alloyed with some sorrow when people with whom we are... Read more
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