by Bill Droel and John Erb For some time now, we have thought about the meaning of income levels in our society. Our main point in this four-part essay is not so much the preciseness of the numbers, although we consulted several sources. This essay is one attempt to put lots of discussion into one format. In our professional settings (a financial advisor’s office and a community college) and in informal conversations, we sense that most of us have only... Read more

A pilgrim goes to a place that contains some spiritual sentiment—like Rome, Mecca or Bethlehem. A “successful” pilgrim learns 1.) that the journey itself is really the destination; 2.) that although a pilgrimage is a serious spiritual endeavor, it has elements of a vacation; 3.) that although the pilgrim travels alone, she or he is really keeping company with all those who have trod this path or another; 4.) that although the pilgrim seeks personal insight, nothing really occurs until... Read more

Martin Scorsese was vaccinated with “a Catholic imagination,” writes Fr. Andrew Greeley (1928-2013). For Scorsese this means that the use of Catholic images and themes in many of his films is “not a matter of choice but of necessity.” The Catholicism of the films, Greeley emphasizes, is not churchy. Sorrow for sins plus redemption “is worked out not in church.” The quest for holiness occurs in the messy world itself. For Scorsese and for others with a Catholic imagination, it... Read more

Fr. Gustavo Gutierrez, OP of Peru is rightly receiving awards these days for his role in developing liberation theology. His 1973 book, A Theology of Liberation, signaled the end within Catholicism of the Western European theological monopoly. It is also now worthwhile to recall Ivan Illich (1926-2002). In early 1964 he gathered several Latin American theologians and church leaders in Brazil. It was there that the methodology and major themes of what would become libration theology took shape. Thus, Illich... Read more

Some time ago a business group sponsored a Saturday clean-up in my neighborhood. Teenagers were recruited from area churches and schools. They were treated to a party at the conclusion of the day’s effort. At a planning meeting about ten days before the event I was asked to approach two, small fundamentalist churches for more teen volunteers. One of the congregations already seemed interested in the neighborhood and its leaders were friendly when I arrived. “Will our teenagers work alongside... Read more

The internal battles are the hardest. The particulars of an internal dispute quickly seem inconsequential but the long term stakes can be significant. For example, during the four years prior to its 1972 convention, the credentials committee of the Democratic National Committee wrangled over delegate seating. The eventual decisions shifted the focus of electoral politics in this country. The recent Catholic bishops’ Synod on the Family provides a second example. For nearly three years the Synod process was given to... Read more

A small number of Catholics more or less believes that capitalism is evil. On the other extreme an even smaller number of neoconservative Catholics believes that humanistic capitalism is God’s preferred system. Most Catholics implicitly take a micro-position, confining judgment to particular cases. Thus these Catholics might see holiness in the work of a hospice nurse or a special-education teacher. These Catholics, if they thought about it, also see goodness in some small business owners, but probably not in a... Read more

Once upon a time there was an elderly monk “who wove a basket one day; the next day he unwove it,” Fr. John Courtney Murray, SJ (1904-1967) relates. “The basket itself did not matter; but the weaving and unweaving of it served as a means of spending an interval.” Only the soul was of value, the monk believed. For everything else, “what did it matter” whether a person wove baskets or constructed skyscrapers or composed symphonies? This story, found in... Read more

After about 35 years of weekly gatherings, the members of my spiritual support group are now all retired. At our age we tend to recall the long gone car companies, the discontinued breweries and the great athletes of yesteryear. However, our group concludes that nostalgia is a temptation, that escapism is a distraction. What applies to individuals is also true for our society. There is far and away too much energy given to inaccurate comparisons with a so-called golden age.... Read more

Bishop Ricardo Ramirez of Las Cruces, New Mexico, grew up in a small Texas town. There were six Mexican-American families on his block and others nearby. One large family “was unique,” writes Ramirez, a member of the Basilian Fathers, in Power from the Margins: the Emergence of the Latino in the Church and in Society (Orbis Books, 2016). How was this family unique? “They gave high priority to school.” All parents want the best education for their children. But all... Read more