Reflections/Catholic Social Teaching

Seeing the Face of Jesus in children in Jerusalem’s West Bank

A Daughter of Charity cares for orphans at the Crèche in Bethlehem. (photo: Samar Hazboun)Not far from Bethlehem’s ancient Church of the Nativity, which marks the site of the birth of Jesus, cribs line the wall of a nursery. Within them lie infants swaddled in pink and blue blankets; their names are displayed on stickers. Colorful mobiles dangle above their heads.

Most of the babies are asleep, but not little Nadia; she lies on her stomach while her big brown eyes seem to dance around the room. She is alert and beautiful, and she was found abandoned on the street.

Administered by the Daughters of Charity, the Holy Family Children’s Home, also known as the Crèche, is a humble site unknown to the thousands of tourists who flock Bethlehem, especially during the Christmas season.

The sisters, who belong to the St. Vincent de Paul family of religious men and women, came to Bethlehem in 1884 with a mission to care for the poor, the sick and the marginalized. They founded a hospital and later, in 1905, set up an orphanage to house the babies abandoned on their doorstep. The Crèche has grown since, now offering shelter to expectant mothers and a home for children.

Read more Seeing the Face of Jesus in children in Jerusalem’s West Bank

Heaven is the fulfillment of earth

Recently I received a letter from a lady in Seattle in which she said that when she dies she will miss all the good things of this life. She said that while she wants to go to heaven, she does not want to go to some sterile place. Heaven might not be as interesting as earth. What follows is an adaptation of my response to her. (She gave me permission to publish it as long as I did not use her name.)

With many people you share the notion that heaven and earth are disconnected and that at the end of time, the earth will be no more. But the authentic Catholic view is that God will save not only our souls, but also our bodies and, indeed, the whole created order within which human persons exist.

Read more Heaven is the fulfillment of earth

Lessons Learned in Mission Land USA

Many years ago as a young man born and raised in Baltimore, I spent a very different week getting a taste of life in Appalachia.

The opportunity to travel from the hustle of big city life to the quiet beautiful mountainous area of eastern Kentucky–to deepen my Catholic faith, experience Christian community with other young adults from around the U.S., and help the rural poor–was an offer this adventurous soul jumped at.

Through a wonderful program which the Glenmary Home Missioners still offer, I and about 20 other guys, under the supervision of two skilled Glenmary brothers, worked on improving impoverished homes of several mountain families. Then in the evenings, we participated in wonderful spiritual retreats.

Read more Lessons Learned in Mission Land USA

With immediacy comes rapid responsibility in the social media world

The image on social media was striking. A smiling teenager wearing a red "Make America Great Again" baseball cap and a Native American elder playing a drum and chanting, both staring at each other in a tense encounter.

Soon after the one-minute video of the Jan. 18 incident in Washington went viral on Twitter, commentators lashed out at the student, 16-year-old Nick Sandmann, and his schoolmates from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky for allegedly disrespecting Nathan Phillips, the Omaha tribal elder.

Read more With immediacy comes rapid responsibility in the social media world

Bringing the Vatican’s fight against climate change to the big city

By the year 2050, according to the UN, more than two-thirds of the world’s population will live in urban areas, up from just 30 percent in 1950. In North America, including the United States, the urban share of the population is already a staggering 82 percent, and worldwide roughly 4.2 billion people are now city-dwellers.

By any measure, therefore, urbanization is among the mega-trends of the times. Among other things, that means the battle for stronger environmental protection will be won or lost in the big city. That, in a nutshell, is the intuition behind a book presented on Wednesday at the headquarters of Vatican Radio titled Laudato Si’ and Big Cities, which is edited by Cardinal Lluís Martínez Sistach, the former archbishop of Barcelona in Spain.

Read more Bringing the Vatican’s fight against climate change to the big city

Haiti Bishops Warn of Collapse of Institutions

The Bishops of Haiti state that their country has just experienced: "A Christmas marked by the great ills affecting our country."
Police are moving people from flooded areas in Ferrier, northeast Haiti; author: Josiah Cherenfant/VOA Creole Service
The collapse of state institutions, the escalation of violence, armed gangs in the pay of powerful sponsors, the growing economic debacle leading to intolerable impoverishment, but also widespread corruption, arrogant impunity, mistrust, non-compliance respect for the sacredness of life and brazen attack on the dignity of the human person: these are the many ills affecting Haiti denounced with so many strong words by the Catholic Church of Haiti in its Christmas Message 2018 addressed to: priests, religious, lay faithful, men and women of good will.

A Cry for Help

In a 14-point document sent to Fides News Agency, the Episcopal Conference of Haiti makes its voice heard with regards to an alarming and increasingly tragic situation for the Haitian people. The Bishops recall that God “God does not let man rush back into the abyss of evil. He comes to his rescue to help him up from the depths of his fall”.

Read more Haiti Bishops Warn of Collapse of Institutions

Reflections On 2019 World Day Of Peace Message

Pope among the people at St. Peter's Square in May 2013; photo: Edgar Jiménez from Porto, PortugalAs the saying goes, “Politics and religion don’t mix.” Although this cliché is espoused by many, you will not hear it from Pope Francis.

On the contrary, the leader of the Catholic Church firmly teaches that our Gospel-based faith has a wealth of wisdom to offer the often corrupt world of politics. And that it is our duty to strive to infuse that wisdom into the body politic.

As exhibit “A,” consider the Holy Father’s January 1 World Day of Peace message—appropriately titled “Good politics is at the service of peace.”

Peace “is like a delicate flower struggling to blossom on the stony ground of violence,” the pope writes. “Politics is an essential means of building human community and institutions, but when political life is not seen as a form of service to society as a whole, it can become a means of oppression, marginalization and even destruction.”

This is so true. As one of many sad examples, consider how often political officials allow and even authorize the oppression of minority groups like the Rohingya in Myanmar.

And consider that many political leaders in governments throughout the world, including democracies, largely ignore the marginalized poor—in effect exiling them to the fringes of society, and even leaving millions of them to die every year.

Read more Reflections On 2019 World Day Of Peace Message

A Need for the New Pastoral Letter on Racism

During discussion at their Baltimore assembly on the U.S. bishops' new pastoral letter, “Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love, A Pastoral Letter Against Racism”, Bishop Robert J. Baker of Birmingham, Alabama, said the document's message was needed, as the civil rights movement “began 60 years ago and we're still working on achieving the goals in this document.”
A woman holds an anti-racism poster in Washington, DC to protest the white nationalists' rally “Unite the Right 2”; photo: CNS photo/Tyler OrsburnIf there is any evidence needed of that, one need only hear the stories told at listening sessions sponsored earlier this year by the U.S. bishops' Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism, which drafted the pastoral letter.