Justice Poetry

P ope Francis encouraged judges of Africa and South America that their decisions are poetry for people and for the world.

Keeping Balanced

Consequential means stressful. Degrees of feeling stress vary by person. The U.S. Election stresses many even beyond that nation’s borders. Ignatian spirituality can help us regain balance during and after the election.

Stressed? Despairing? Freaking out? Here are some Jesuit tools to help you get through the election and its aftermath. https://t.co/1QoZS6Iedq

— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) November 2, 2020

A Moral Imperative for Today

In a 12-minute TED Countdown Talk Pope Francis offered 3 actions steps to address climate change. He sounded notes from his encyclicals Laudato Si! and Fratelli Tutti.

This second address in this venue by the Pope was part of the of the TED Countdown Global Launch. The website hosting the video described it as “a visionary TED Talk from Vatican City.”

Triptych on Relationships

Austin Ivereigh sees Fratelli Tutti calling us to restore our relationships with others. It completes Francis’ earlier restorative calls: with God—Evangellii Gaudium and with creation—Laudato Si! The video is 4 minutes.

“All Our Votes Are Compromised”

Canada celebrates its Thanksgiving today. Soon Canadians will also go to the polls. In democracies voting is a cherished right never to be wasted. Voting is fraught with compromise, a “blunt instrument,” to use the metaphor of theologian Brett Salkeld: it neither converts candidates nor baptizes issues. Yet many are tempted to think otherwise. Mr. Salkeld:

We do not like to think that the ways our vote exemplified Catholic teaching might not have been perfectly efficacious in manifesting Gospel values in the law of the land, and so we are tempted (and the parties are there to goad us on) to imagine a straight line between our vote and the achievement of the goods we seek, even though politics is much messier than that.

Mr. Salkeld’s essay is well worth reading: its clarity balances its length. A gentle and alert reading rewards with an accurate knowledge and better understanding of Catholic reasoning about the civic right and responsibility of voting.

___________________

Image “Arnaud Jaegers | Unsplash " 

21st-Century Renaissance

Pope Francis’ most recent encyclical takes stock of human relationships in the world. He invites a renaissance in human relationships ([8], [35]), “a new style of life.” Two overviews help reading the encyclical.

• Panelists at an event hosted by Georgetown University noted key elements
• “Inside the Vatican” host Colleen Dulle offered 5 takeaways from it

Faithful Civic Engagement

The Society of Jesus in Canada and the U.S. released a  document to help practitioners of Ignatian spirituality engage their ”shared political life” at local, state, provincial and federal levels. In his introductory letter to the document Fr. Kesicki noted that “‘Contemplation and Political Action’ is not a voter guide.… Instead, it applies our tradition of Ignatian spirituality to our shared political life.”

"Contemplation and Political Action: An Ignatian Guide to Civic Engagement" shows us how we can live our faith through political action: https://t.co/OxBYLSjhD8 pic.twitter.com/cNiXLOseES

— Fr. Tim Kesicki, SJ (@FrTimSJ) September 16, 2020

Not Ordinary Times

Voting is a measured action, a deliberative one. “Yet while the right choice is not obvious, neither is it unknowable”: from an editorial in America Magazine this week.

The editors of America: Donald Trump is a unique threat to the Constitution

1/https://t.co/1ke7tuOhKG

— America Magazine (@americamag) September 16, 2020

Healing Catecheses Continue

Pope Francis continued his series of catecheses at the General Audience today. “To Heal the World” is the name of the series the Pope offers in the face of the pandemic. Today Francis highlighted solidarity and faith.

Vatican News summarized the catechesis.

“Preparing the Future That We Need”

At his 05August General Audience Pope Francis began a catechesis-series entitled “To heal the world”: ”In the next few weeks, I invite you to tackle together the pressing questions that the pandemic has brought to the fore, social ills above all. And we will do it in the light of the Gospel, of the theological virtues and of the principles of the Church’s social doctrine.” 

Catholic News Service has posted about the pope’s series.

In light of #COVID19 #Pandemic Pope Francis will begin new series of audience talks on social doctrine https://t.co/Sq8ExtOReD via @CatholicCourier pic.twitter.com/3hqXtynEgl

— Catholic News Service (@CatholicNewsSvc) August 5, 2020

Racial Justice Initiative

The dean of Boston College Law School and president-elect of the Association of American Law Schools explained that the “the Forum on Racial Justice in America...will be a transformative process for the university and will launch a rethinking of how we understand our role in higher education, in the greater Boston community, in the nation and in the world.”

Pleased to welcome Dean Vincent Rougeau of @BCLAW back to the pages of @americamag to talk about this important new initiative. @BostonCollege @jesuitcolleges @jesuitnews https://t.co/wYX4dP1XtO

— Matt Malone, S.J. (@Americaeditor) July 17, 2020

Not at War

The Second Vatican Council developed “the doctrine of recent popes on the inviolable rights of the human person and the constitutional order of society”(Declaration on Religious Freedom, 1). This week the U.S. Supreme Court defended L.G.B.T. people and their right to work: they  cannot be fired for belonging to that community.

A reasoned America Magazine editorial noted: “The vocation of Catholics is to exercise moral suasion to influence the opinion of the citizens of the United States.” Persuasion is not force; “suasion” respects human dignity and freedom.

Editorial: L.G.B.T. discrimination protections are not a catastrophe for Catholicism. https://t.co/blF7fIP9jW

— America Magazine (@americamag) June 18, 2020

Responding to an Urgent Question

Fr. Alvan I. Amadi serves in Green Bay, Wisconsin. He wanted 2^nd graders ”to know another truth…’we are more alike than unalike.’”

How can I explain the color of my skin—and racism—to young white students? https://t.co/l2XWAs5HEV

— America Magazine (@americamag) June 13, 2020

Racism Can Affect Anyone

Sean Cardinal O’Malley spoke personally as well as pastorally in a call to end racism. “Racism can be explicit, but it also can be unrecognized and unacknowledged. Yet, all of its manifestations are deadly and corrosive to civil society. …Racism is a social and spiritual disease that kills people."

No “turning a blind eye to racism and exclusion”

So Pope Francis addressed the people of the United States at the Wednesday General Audience.

The tweet contains a video of the pope’s remark and an audio report from Vatican News.

#PopeFrancis comments on the protests in the United States following the killing of #GeorgeFloyd, saying we cannot claim to defend the sacredness of every human life while turning a blind eye to racism and exclusion.https://t.co/OcOubWRLF7

— Vatican News (@VaticanNews) June 3, 2020

Systemic Racism Killed George Floyd

On 31 May the President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) included in his "Statement…on George Floyd and the Protests in American Cities,“ “Racism has been tolerated for far too long in our way of life.”

Today U.S. Bishop Shelton Fabre, Chairman of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism, was interviewed by Vatican News. He reiterated the the earlier presidential statement of the U.S. bishops: destruction of property and harm to others do not address the racism in a way that helps. Bishop Fabre noted that “the roots of the current situation do not lie only in the pandemic. They are deep, historical roots that are part of the disregard for life in this country and our inability or unwillingness to address the issue of race and racism.” Its tweet includes audio of that conversation.

Following the murder of #GeorgeFloyd, Bishop Shelton Fabre speaks denounces the systematic racism the US faces today.https://t.co/1RB8LaPA51

— Vatican News (@VaticanNews) June 2, 2020

Religious Props

Most sad that the memory of Pope St. John Paul II—who staunchly defended human dignity and human rights—has been abused for a photo-op.

UPDATED: After @realDonaldTrump and @FLOTUS visited @JP2Shrine the president signed an executive order expanding U.S. support for international religious freedom. But not everyone was happy with his visit. https://t.co/rC806YCjx7 (CNS photo/ @tylerorsburn) pic.twitter.com/q39S2os3Rz

— Catholic News Service (@CatholicNewsSvc) June 2, 2020

Mapping

Molly Burhans is cartography fluent. She has been mapping properties of the church so the church may administer them more effectively. That increases service to others. She opened a company to do this.

Her work helped the Vatican with a recent document. America Magazine recently chatted with Mary on one of its podcasts. Subject: how location data can help the Vatican’s COVID-19 response.

___________________
Wiki-image Old World map by “Museum | PD-US"

Homeless Are Not Invisible

Pope Francis said in his recent interview

the poor are hidden, because poverty is bashful. In Rome recently, in the midst of the quarantine, a policeman said to a man: “You can’t be on the street, go home.” The response was: “I have no home. I live in the street.” To discover such a large number of people who are on the margins … And we don’t see them, because poverty is bashful. They are there but we don’t see them: they have become part of the landscape; they are things.

In Detroit Ss. Peter and Paul Jesuit Church and the University of Detroit-Mercy are not shy to see the homeless. The Church is home to the Pope Francis Center. The Center made a creative move to keep people healthy and still offer showers to those who are homeless.

The #Jesuits' @popefranciscnt has opened mobile showers in a @detmercy parking lot for the homeless to use during the pandemic. https://t.co/7eQMcuXjoy

— Midwest Jesuits (@MidwestJesuits) April 16, 2020

New Way

The current pandemic has caused people to live in new ways. The celebration of Easter offers Christians new, living hope: not only to live through the pandemic but to live each present moment with divine vitality that invigorates everyone’s limited humanity.

Ironically physical distance has increased awareness of, even longing for, humans’ connection with one another and all creation. The social teaching of the Church names this virtuous longing solidarity. “Solidarity is one of [its] basic principles.” It includes “responsibility toward” all as well as friendship and social charity.” Solidarity names deep moral commitments. It was and is alive in the life and ministry of Risen Christ Jesus.

In 1983 Cardinal Joseph Bernardin proposed the consistent ethic of life to help navigate moral commitments in the modern age. Theology professor Steven P. Millies reminds what that ethic is not before reminding that the current successor to Cardinal Bernardin, Cardinal Blase Cupich has...reformulat[ed] it slightly as a consistent ethic of solidarity.

___________________

Wiki-image Solidarity Grid by “Michal Klajban | CC BY-SA 4.0"