March 19, 2024

Sr. Mary Roger Thibodeaux, noted 'Black power' nun, dead at 86

https://www.globalsistersreport.org/news/news/sister-mary-roger-thibodeaux-noted-black-power-nun-dead-86-0?fbclid=IwAR2rWXWiRya_8lZdmALw5dQtG39274wQPZ1x8QBOfzKxyZJulVRdHNaaqp0

In 1968, Sr Mary Roger became a founding member of the National Black Sisters’ Conference, one of the core organizations of the Black Catholic Movement. Like the others, the NBSC was borne of the Black Power fervor then quickly gaining strength among African-American Catholics.

Thibodeaux would make a lasting mark on the movement with her 1972 book "A Black nun looks at Black power," containing her poetic reflections on the struggle for Black freedom in America, viewed from a Catholic lens. The work would go on to be cited by various historians in their explication of the Black Power Movement’s wide-ranging impact.

Thibodeaux’s writing therein has since been immortalized in the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, where a large monument contains a quote from the book:

"Black Power is not foreign to Yahweh and Yahweh is not foreign to Black Power… The cause of Justice is and always will be in strict accordance with the Will of God."

February 23, 2024

Texas attorney general moves to shut down Catholic migrant shelters

PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A SAFE HAVEN GROUP. NON-CATHOLICS ARE WELCOME TO JOIN THE DISCUSSION SO LONG AS THEY ABIDE BY OUR RULES, PINNED ABOVE.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued a volunteer-run network of Catholic migrant shelters based in El Paso, Texas, aiming to revoke the organization's nonprofit registration. The lawsuit comes after Annunciation House moved to delay handing over documents about its clients to the attorney general.

"The Office of the Attorney General ('OAG') reviewed significant public record information strongly suggesting Annunciation House is engaged in legal violations such as facilitating illegal entry to the United States, alien harboring, human smuggling, and operating a stash house," the office wrote in a press release on Feb. 20.

If Paxton, a Republican, is successful, Annunciation House, which was founded in 1976, could be required to cease sheltering migrants entering Texas. The lawsuit "seeks to revoke Annunciation House's authorization to do business in Texas and asks the court to appoint a receiver to liquidate their assets," Paxton's office wrote.

On its website, Annunciation House says it has hosted more than 500,000 migrants fleeing death squads, civil wars, human rights abuses and poverty.

https://www.ncronline.org/news/texas-attorney-general-moves-shut-down-catholic-migrant-shelters?fbclid=IwAR1SBOCun-nrMcTgUGIc5S5jD2GzDYrodS3S7kTkSRtnAixQY2hLr_v6wKg

Wouldn't it be nice if this woke the bishops up? (Hint. It won't.)

February 7, 2024

LA Skid Row anchors Catholic Worker 'to the suffering world'

https://www.ncronline.org/opinion/guest-voices/la-skid-row-anchors-catholic-worker-suffering-world?fbclid=IwAR05yO3e4IO-Zj8zOXMo_dzBst-2nPq3_fPuuh0GsPJwyYDgACk4KIlZ20Y

THIS IS A SAFE HAVEN GROUP. NON-MEMBERS ARE WELCOME TO COMMENT SO LONG AS THEY FOLLOW OUR RULES (PINNED ABOVE)

The only people we knew who would be crazy enough to buy shopping carts for homeless people was us, the Catholic Workers. Since that first distribution of shopping carts in front of the police department we have given more than 100,000 shopping carts to homeless people on Skid Row.

One could easily dismiss our project as insane, but it meets the needs of homeless people where they are actually situated in real life. I have seen people turn our carts over, put a tarp on top and sleep inside. The homeless are daily harassed and told to "move on." To do so, they need to be able to move their meager possessions to the next location. They also use our carts for recycling, to earn essential income.

As Skid Row continued to evolve from one homeless encampment into the squalid Beirut and Baghdad refugee encampments of today, we took our fight to the courts. Along with help from civil rights attorney Carol Sobel, we won the constitutional right of homeless people to "security in their property and possessions." We also won the constitutional right of homeless people to be free from the "cruel and unusual punishment" of police harassment and jail time for the "crime" of sleeping on the sidewalks until such time as the city provides additional low cost shelter or housing for them.

As more and more areas of our city — indeed our entire country — begins to look like the tent cities of Skid Row, we must realize that the expanding American economy has left behind and abandoned a significant population to the status of homeless refugees.

February 7, 2024

Journalist O'Loughlin named first executive director of national LGBTQ Catholic ministry

https://www.ncronline.org/news/journalist-oloughlin-named-first-executive-director-national-lgbtq-catholic-ministry?fbclid=IwAR2qdPoQTWF-d15r9U9SbkeOZdVK1qR-yts6Wt4LTO-Rb0oy9ZLEJ24qZJA

THIS IS A SAFE HAVEN GROUP. NON-CATHOLICS OR NON-ORTHODOX ARE WELCOME TO COMMENT SO LONG AS THEY ABIDE BY OUR RULES (PINNED ABOVE.)

Giving its ministry added journalistic heft, Outreach — a news, opinion and resource site for LGBTQ Catholics that's affiliated with the Jesuit-run America magazine — has named a former Boston Globe and America reporter as its first executive director.

The organization announced Feb. 6 that author and award-winning journalist Michael O'Loughlin will fill the post, where he'll focus on fundraising, assist with strategic planning, help manage the website and annual Outreach conference, and report on LGBTQ Catholics.

"We definitely want him to continue reporting," Jesuit Fr. James Martin, a longtime advocate for LGBTQ Catholics and current editor of the site, said in an email to NCR.

There are a number of organizations that aim to provide welcome and resources to the LGBTQ Catholic community, such as New Ways Ministry, Dignity and Fortunate Families.

January 24, 2024

"Looking for my brother's ghost."

Lovely story about grief, loss and the way we feel connected with loved ones even after they're gone.
 
https://www.thecut.com/article/looking-for-my-brothers-ghost.html

What our pediatrician called “night terrors,” our 2-year-old son Kian called “the scary lady who I see at night.” He slept just ten feet down the hall in our Brooklyn apartment. The close proximity didn’t keep me from checking the Nest Cam constantly. I would stare at the blurry black-and-white image on the screen, his little belly rising and falling as he slept.

One night, I heard a rustling and grabbed the monitor. Kian was sitting up, staring at the foot of the bed, seemingly in full conversation. His toddler rambling became more and more anxious, and then he lifted his arm — not unlike in a scary movie — pointed with his index finger, and began to scream.

Kian’s father sided with the pediatrician. But I recognized the look on my son’s face. I had seen it before on my little brother Neal.

January 15, 2024

Nicaragua expels Catholic Bishop Alvarez, priests amid crackdown

PLEASE note where you are. Non-Catholics are welcome to comment so long as they follow our rules.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/nicaragua-expels-catholic-bishop-alvarez-priests-amid-crackdown/ar-AA1mXHHi?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=f123673ef15b4a778a1ea5c683c8e96c&ei=17

Nicaragua said it expelled 19 clergymen to the Vatican on Sunday, including Catholic Bishop Rolando Alvarez, a prominent critic of President Daniel Ortega.

Bishop Isidoro Mora, 15 priests and two seminarians who were detained in Nicaragua were also expelled.

snip

Alvarez, the bishop of Matagalpa, forcefully criticized the government's deadly response to mass protests in 2018, and was convicted of treason and sentenced to a 26-year prison term earlier this year.

snip

Mora was arrested in December for saying at a mass that he was praying for Alvarez, sources said.

More info, for those who aren't familiar with this situation:

The Catholic Church has been targeted by the Ortega government since 2018, when a wave of nationwide protests rocked the country. The church took a leading role in trying to mediate a political solution to the crisis, which took the lives of more than 300 people, most of them killed by Nicaragua’s security services. Angered by the church’s role, Ortega accused it of being part of a plot to topple his government. (Ortega tinkered with the country's retirement, which led to protests, which led to the more than 300 deaths. It's my understanding that government forces shot into the crowd.)

The outspoken Álvarez, bishop of the city of Matagalpa, had been in prison for almost a year after receiving a 26-year sentence for treason. The prelate previously refused to go into exile with 222 other political prisoners who were stripped of their Nicaraguan citizenship and expelled to the U.S. Mora, the bishop of Siuna, was detained in December after he asked for prayers for Álvarez at a mass.

Snip

In October, Ortega’s government released and expelled 12 priests. Since 2018, more than 200 Catholic clergy have been forced into exile or refused re-entry to Nicaragua, according to Martha Patricia Molina, a Nicaraguan academic now living in Miami who keeps a tally of government actions taken against the church.

Twelve religious orders including the Jesuits, to which the pope belongs, and Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity, have been kicked out of Nicaragua, Molina said. The Ortega government has also confiscated Catholic universities such as the Jesuit-run Central American University, which the government said was a center for terrorism.


I can remember when Jimmy Carter was mentoring Ortega, who'd had just lost a campaign for office. Carter told him that in a democracy you have winners and losers and that in order for democracy to work, losers must lose gracefully. How far both countries have fallen.

October 24, 2023

6-year-old boy killed, mother seriously wounded in hate crime motivated by Israeli-Hamas war, police say

https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/plainfield-stabbing-8-year-old-boy-killed-mother-seriously-injured?fbclid=IwAR3aiExFDE-bX4zjxcxN_nm1XoxUu08CffYkBdwGqepHehBDJgJ3uD_1x14

The boy’s paternal uncle, Yousef Hannon, spoke at a news conference Sunday hosted by the Chicago chapter Council on American-Islamic Relations. The organization identified the other victim as the boy’s mother.

"We are not animals, we are humans. We want people to see us as humans, to feel us as humans, to deal with us as humans, because this is what we are," said Hannon, a Palestinian-American who emigrated to the U.S. in 1999 to work, including as a public school teacher.

The Muslim civil liberties organization called the crime "our worst nightmare," and part of a disturbing spike in hate calls and emails since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war. The group cited text messages exchanged among family members that showed the attacker had made disparaging remarks about Muslims.

"He knocked on the door, attempted to choke her and said ‘Muslims must die,’" said Ahmed Rehab, CAIR-Chicago's executive director.

"Palestinians basically, again, with their hearts broken over what’s happening to their people," Rehab said, "have to also worry about the immediate safety of life and limb living here in this most free of democracies in the world."

I had a discussion with someone I respect, re Islam, she is a liberal Democrat. She had quite a lot to say; at times, she sounded like a Trumpie on this issue, repeating the words "sharia law" over and over again. I kept telling her that whatever she felt about the faith, we have to keep the temperature down in this country. Even if we do, keep the temps down, incidents like this can happen.

October 19, 2023

Please pray for my husband

Currently in the hospital, multiple issues. Kind of a rollercoaster right now. Prayers appreciated.

October 16, 2023

Patriarch of Jerusalem offers himself up in exchange for child hostages held by Hamas

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/patriarch-of-jerusalem-offers-himself-up-in-exchange-for-child-hostages-held-by-hamas-there-is-total-willingness-on-my-part/ar-AA1ii1gG?ocid=msedgntp&pc=LCTS&cvid=eb690be4bcde463b9f7745bcd86bb2bc&ei=12

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pope Francis' representative in the Holy Land, said on Monday that he would be willing to exchange himself for the child hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa made the comment during a video conference with journalists in Italy, according to Reuters.

He told the press: "I am ready for an exchange, anything, if this can lead to freedom, to bring the children home."

"There is total willingness on my part," he added.

August 27, 2023

"Can I forgive myself for my daughter's death?" Shocking, heartbreaking.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/aug/27/can-i-forgive-myself-for-my-daughters-death

It’s been two years since my daughter, Martha, died in hospital, just before her 14th birthday. I divide my life into before her death, and after: nothing is the same and the change is permanent. Alongside Merope, Martha’s mum, I’m grappling with how to live. Consciously or not, we adjust a little more each day to our new reality, wondering: can we manage to appear “normal”? Is it possible to keep being friends with families and not be flayed by envy?

If grief can be defined as learning to be in the world without a person you love, I have a lot of learning still to do. As things stand, my thoughts revolve around two questions – they dominate my days. The first is: can I forgive the doctors and the hospital who so badly let her down? (Martha’s was a preventable death.) And second, at the core of everything: can I forgive myself for failing to save her?

When you raise a child for 14 years, the line where you end and they begin gets blurred; the cliché is that they become part of you, with all your instincts and priorities transformed. From the time Martha was born in 2007, I saw myself, first and foremost, as a dad; from 2009, I was the father of two daughters and it gave me a huge sense of self-worth and fulfilment. I did what parents do everywhere – the bathtimes, the picture books on repeat, the school run. It felt right; it was a lot of fun.

snip

My primal, existential role was to protect my child, to keep her alive – and I failed. Most bereaved parents know a version of this feeling. It’s one of the reasons losing a child can be different from other types of grief. Not only is such a death an inversion of the natural order. And not only was Martha denied anything that resembled a full life (“She had so many plans,” her sister, Lottie, said.) But I was responsible for her welfare during all of her short life. So when I went to see Martha’s body, post-autopsy, at the undertakers, what I howled was: “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

Written by the child's mother a year earlier:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/sep/03/13-year-old-daughter-dead-in-five-weeks-hospital-mistakes