Ethics for Opening

The concern to reopen schools weighs heavily everywhere. In the U.S. the couple hundred Catholic universities and colleges have Catholic ethics to guide them. A conversation is set for next week.

There are approximately 200 Catholic colleges and universities in the country. What does Catholic ethics have to offer, as we face the challenge of reopening? We at the @curran_center welcome you to a discussion next week ... pic.twitter.com/GuDPPDitLe

— Michael Peppard (@MichaelPeppard) July 7, 2020

Tomorrow: Racial Justice Webinar

Among the details is a transatlantic podcast. It may help prep for the Zoom Webinar “for Young Adults (18-35) on July 4th 2-4 pm.”

As the Black Lives Matter movement reverberates around the world, how can we as Catholics respond to the fight for racial justice?
Join a Zoom webinar for Young Adults (18-35) on July 4th 2-4 pm.
email yam@jesuit.org.uk or message via the FB page
https://t.co/hNkDxFvBSq pic.twitter.com/sFkdAfBCV2

— Thinking Faith (@ThinkingFaith) July 2, 2020

“Sidewalk Psychology”

Walkers know they can be in other places in their minds while they move. They also know that others they encounter may or may not respond to their greetings.

Last September Mary Jo DiLonardo posted about the topic; she referenced unpublished and published studies. With more people walking more the post is timely.

Hello, stranger.

(Please don't make this silence awkward)https://t.co/xB9fRrJh21 pic.twitter.com/LcnPA55NTG

— Treehugger.com (@Treehugger) June 30, 2020

First the Launch; Then Five Years Later

A press conference at the Vatican heralded Francis’ Laudato Si! five years ago. Another press conference (video below) marked the encyclical’s anniversary.

The Vatican also released a book on the occasion. America Magazine’s Vatican correspondent Gerald O’Connell noted the just-released book “contains incisive and challenging proposals for the practical implementation of Pope Francis’ encyclical throughout the church and in the wider world.”

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Wiki-image Air pollution by brick factories by “Janak Bhatta - Own work | CC BY-SA 4.0"

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."

Noncooperation

Early commentators drew parallels between U.S. U.S. today and its demonstrations of 1968. However, The Atlantic Staff writer Franklin Foer noted a difference.

"What the United States is witnessing is less like the chaos of 1968, which further divided a nation, and more like the nonviolent movements that earned broad societal support in places such as Serbia, Ukraine, and Tunisia," @FranklinFoer writes: https://t.co/KymoI11lSs

— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) June 6, 2020

Effective

Microcredit extends very small loans to impoverished borrowers who do not qualify for conventional loans. Microcredit does help the lives of poor people. Vatican News highlighted the “largest interest-free microfinance organization in the world.”

The magic of Akhuwat, founded in 2001 in Pakistan by Dr. Muhammad Amjad Saqib, lies not in interest rates but compassion, solidarity and equality.https://t.co/wVTKyVkhJg

— Vatican News (@VaticanNews) May 22, 2020

Still Around

From one place to others the coronavirus spread into a pandemic. While it shows signs of easing in Europe it grips other countries, many with fewer resources.

Global report: Covid-19 grips world despite lockdown easing in Europe https://t.co/D33hOZgSTV

— The Guardian (@guardian) May 19, 2020

Faith-Turn of Ecology

Laudato Si! helped people appreciate that integral ecology and faith go together. Conversion is word Pope Francis used before his encyclical and since. Questions arise: “What is to be understood by...ecological conversion? How would this conversion come about? What would it look like as a community conversion? Do the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius have a role to play in bringing it about?” Jesuit spiritual director and author Eric Jensen opens his article with those questions.

Eric Jensen SJ explores ecological conversion through the thought of #Jesuit theologian Bernard Lonergan and considers what it looks like in practice. https://t.co/iXjTijwxeu #LaudatoSiWeek

— Thinking Faith (@ThinkingFaith) May 16, 2020

Being and Doing

Jesuit Michael Rozier reflected well about human character during the pandemic. “This crisis can make us feel that we are the objects of other people’s decisions, but as I wrote in a previous column (“We must not allow the coronavirus to rob us of our humanity. How can we (safely) preserve it?”), reclaiming our agency is a spiritual task as much as it is a temporal one.”

Seniors who lived through earlier challenging times offered some 1^st-person advice about character, namely being a person who makes the world better. The seniors shared their memories with 2020 graduates.

How the coronavirus can help us reclaim the virtues of self-sacrifice and prudence https://t.co/bF3eEq0gcw

— America Magazine (@americamag) May 15, 2020

Here is some guidance — senior to senior — from people who graduated in the midst of epidemics, wars and the fight for equal rights. https://t.co/hifOVPrIUw

— CNN (@CNN) May 15, 2020

Late But Correct

The word that the coronavirus more adversely affects peoples of color has been announced sooner than in past circumstances. The announcement is nevertheless late; it began in typically understated fashion. Today the U.S. bishops supported the needs and rights of indigenous peoples.

“We hold in prayer our brothers and sisters who are suffering and grieving in these communities, and we stand with them in calling for a robust response to the pandemic in their lands.” #Catholic #COVID https://t.co/YJ2gHTlORJ

— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) May 15, 2020

Time Not Withstanding

The story below spans two continents and several cultures. It recounts a past favour being repaid today. 

The Irish are repaying a favor from 173 years ago in Native Americans’ fight against coronavirus https://t.co/4C7Q5KwPIE

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 13, 2020

Withdrawing: Sometimes Helpful

Tension, frenzy, missing meaning, physical upset: living is never perfectly balanced. Humane living ever seeks to be as close to equilibrium as possible—a constant quest. Mr. John Gehring recounts experiencing extremes and learning equilibrium.

Perspective: Most of us want to stand out, speak up, find our voice. What happens when we perform the radical act of withdrawing and being quiet? https://t.co/OD8i9IexYf

— NCR (@NCRonline) January 9, 2020

Isolationism Is Imaginary

Doctor Kevin Hargaden noted that “the clarity that [the pandemic] offers about our present vulnerability means there can be a positive political impact.” That result will be a matter of joint effort not that of individuals”—people, governments, classes—but “a politics that recognises common ground, draws on common sense, and builds for the common good.”

#COVID19 is a catastrophe and a window on to an unequal & unjust world, says Dr Kevin Hargaden of @JCFJustice https://t.co/axuPDGgDya @kevinhargaden

— Irish Jesuits (@jesuits_ireland) March 13, 2020

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Later: Poetry

Unlikely Pair

Human thinking may not readily pair beauty and conversion. They may, in fact, be close kin. This morning Pope Francis prayed for at mass for makers of beauty, because it  help us “understand the gospel.” The gospel invites conversion in ongoing fashions.

The pandemic has allowed more time to notice beauty and to ponder personal meaning. Such pondering opens hearts to conversion. The “extreme situation that we are living through can change us, individually and collectively, says Mauricio López Oropeza.” By a close reading of a classic novel and our “extreme situation” Oropeza nudges one to consider changing.

It falls on all of us to ask how the extreme situation that we are living through can change us, individually and collectively, says @redamazonia's Mauricio López Oropeza: https://t.co/1U2ZU7Zp9T #coronavirus

— Thinking Faith (@ThinkingFaith) May 7, 2020

4 Tips

T

he Sisters of Mercy continue to post encouragement during the pandemic. Physical distance does not mean no connection, wrote Sister Sheila Stevenson. She offered four concrete actions to stay connected she found in ”a great article by a chaplain at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota.”

"Can we let the fire of our spirituality lead us so that our purpose, meaning, value and connection to God, others and our world are turned around right once again?"https://t.co/SmeRHSwDPs

— Sisters of Mercy (@SistersofMercy) May 6, 2020

Dr. Fauci: Video and Read

The National Geographic was a platform for Dr. Anthony Fauci’s update on the novel Coronovirus—from nature, from a lab?—and moving forward. “To  Dr. Fauci, the coronavirus is “‘extraordinary.’” Extraordinary measures are required.

Read more here: https://t.co/bUyYYpmR3e

— National Geographic (@NatGeo) May 5, 2020

Prudent Behaviour

Physical distancing is key to minimizing the impact of COVID-19. Get the facts. #COVID19 #ONpoli

— Ontario Medical Association (@OntariosDoctors) March 27, 2020

Timeless Guide to Living

Earth Day observances need not end. The Lord’s Prayer guides ways to honour the earth daily.

The Our Father: Our Environmental Teacher https://t.co/HQHA9Ke0RZ #EarthDay

— Franciscan Media (@FranciscanMedia) April 22, 2020