We Would Love
to Keep in Touch!
The Secret of Their Success is Love
Shipla Joy, Devika Narayanan and Deepu Sasidharan are three very different people.
They hail from different parts of Kerala, a state in southwestern India, and from different family backgrounds. They have different interests and pursue different callings. Yet these young adults share something in common: their needs as children and students were attended to in child care initiatives of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church.
Time for DACA compromise – Pass the USA Act
The time has come for our leaders in Congress to do what is right and pass legislation that will provide a permanent solution for the nearly 2 million young people who were brought to this country as small children by undocumented parents or family members.
Far from Washington, on the other side of the country, the issue of these young people, known as Dreamers, is urgent. More than one quarter of the Dreamers live in California and by most estimates there are about 125,000 living within the borders of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles – more than anywhere else in the country.
Martin Luther King, Jr.'s legacy
– Faith, Hope and Sacrifice
Fifty years after the death of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Catholics can still learn much from his legacy, said a leader in the largest predominantly black Catholic organization in the U.S.
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C. “Dr. King’s legacy is one of faith and overcoming external forces working against you. His life, work, and ultimate sacrifice illustrate that we are called to work for the greater good,” Percy Marchand, associate director of the Knights of St. Peter Claver, told CNA April 3. “Dr. King’s legacy is a shining example of self-deprecation and personal sacrifice for one’s fellow man.”
“Dr. King would not want us to look upon this day in sadness,” Marchand continued. “He would want us to look at it with inspiration and rededication; with hope and commitment; with love and compassion – even for our enemies or those who don’t love us.”
The Knights of Peter Claver [LINK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_of_Peter_Claver] is a New Orleans-based Catholic fraternal order present in about 39 states and in South America. Its membership is significantly African-American but open to all practicing Catholics without regard to race or ethnicity. Many of its members played a role in the U.S. civil rights movement of the mid-20th century, in which King, a Baptist minister, was the most prominent leader.
Cardinal Bo warns of environmental holocaust
Asian Religious met in St. Mary’s Cathedral in Yangon, Myanmar, on Feb. 27-March 3, 2018; photo: Aung Maria Goretti“Today we face an environmental holocaust. It is a scary moment,” Cardinal Bo said in his keynote speech at the Asia-Oceania Meeting of Religious (AMOR) forum in Yangon on Feb. 27. Just over 130 men and women religious attended the forum held at St. Mary’s Cathedral compound Feb. 27-March 3.
“Climate change is an atom bomb waiting to explode,” he said. The 69-year-old cardinal told the forum that greed has unleashed ecological terrorism upon the Earth while adding that the poor are the most affected. “Who is dying? The poor are dying,” he said.
During his speech, Cardinal Bo cited Pope Francis’ environmental encyclical Laudato si’ and said that degradation to the environment was being caused by “economic terrorists and ecological terrorists.” Overall, Cardinal Bo’s speech stressed the forum’s theme “Call for Global Ecological Conversion.”
Easter Joy as Missionary Disciples
Each year I look forward to the Gospel we hear tells us about that first Easter evening when two of Jesus’ disciples travel toward Emmaus full of confusion, rejection, and sadness, but return to Jerusalem with fire in their hearts following their encounter with the risen Jesus.
This passage, telling of Jesus’ encounter with his disciples on the road, and has always been a favorite passage of mine. It always resonates inside of me when I listen to it. It highlights how we encounter Jesus in the Eucharist, in our celebration of the Mass, and how he is always with us, even when we do not recognize him. However, it is a passage that gives each of us the chance to pause to reflect and ask ourselves: how do I encounter the risen Christ in my life?
What’s DACA Anyway?
Pope Francis, is his 2018 Message for the 104th World Day of Migrants and Refugees stated:
“Every stranger who knocks at our door is an opportunity for an encounter with Jesus Christ, who identifies with the welcomed and rejected strangers of every age (Matthew 25:35-43). The Lord entrusts to the Church's motherly love every person forced to leave their homeland in search of a better future. This solidarity must be concretely expressed at every stage of the migratory experience – from departure through journey to arrival and return. This is a great responsibility, which the Church intends to share with all believers and men and women of good will.”
What is DACA?
On June 15, 2012, the Secretary of Homeland Security announced via a memorandum that certain individuals who came to the United States as children and met several guidelines could request consideration for deferred action through the newly initiated Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. DACA was patterned after the DREAM Act, bipartisan legislation that was initiated more than a decade ago but has not become law. The purpose of DACA was to utilize prosecutorial discretion to provide undocumented persons who were brought to the United States when they were children with temporary relief from deportation (deferred action) and work authorization. DACA recipients also have the ability to apply for advance parole (permission to temporarily leave and re-enter the U.S.). The status expires after two years, subject to renewal.We’ve Reached an Ethical Limit to Nuclear Weapons
Aboard his flight from Bangladesh to Rome on Saturday, Pope Francis said that the destructive potential of nuclear weapons is so great that humanity has reached the limit of morally possessing them or using them as deterrents.
Pope Francis answers questions aboard the papal plane, Dec. 2, 2017. Credit: Ed Pentin, CNA/EWTN News“In the nuclear field…today we are at the limit,” the Pope said Dec. 2. “This can be a matter for discussion, it's my opinion, but I am convinced of my opinion: we are at the limit of liceity to have and use nuclear arms.”
The Pope’s comments were made during an in-flight press conference during his return flight from an apostolic trip to Burma, also known as Myanmar, and Bangladesh from Nov. 27-Dec. 2.
Asked if something has changed since the time of the Cold War, when many world leaders considered nuclear weapons a useful and ethically acceptable deterrent to war, Francis stated that he thinks the rationality of the claim has changed. He also noted that the number of nuclear arms continues to grow, becoming more sophisticated and more powerful, and those factors change the consideration.
Fighting Child and Maternal Mortality in Myanmar
"To bring the Gospel to the ends of the earth": with this spirit the Catholic-inspired "St. Bryce Missions" operates in one of Myanmar's conflict areas, that of Kachin state. The area, with a Christian majority, has one of the highest rates of infant and maternal mortality. In a commitment to human promotion, the organization, founded by the American Catholic layman, Greg Mitchell, works to reduce infant and maternal mortality by promoting health programs and housing for pregnant women.
The organization's work is supported by Cardinal Charles Bo of Yangon, Myanmar, and by the Bishop of the diocese of Myitkina, diocese in Kachin state. According to local Christians "the St. Bryce Missions project is sent by God", the need for intervention in this sector is very strong.Pregnant Women at Risk
Thanks to the collaboration of the Jesuit Giresh Santiago, St. Bryce Missions has started a pilot program in Myitkina based on a model that he implemented in India and Costa Rica, aimed at assisting pregnant women and mothers at risk.Filipino Seminarians Remember Drug War Victims
Victims of the deadly Philippines drug war deserve to be remembered, said Catholic seminarians as they reaffirmed the need for true peace and unity. “We, seminarians of San José Seminary, will not forget the merciless and senseless deaths brought about by this drug campaign,” said the students from the Quezon City-based seminary.
Red State-Blue State Blues
Having grown up in California and having lived in Indiana, I often joke that I speak both “red state” and “blue state.” Most of my friends in California voted for Barack Obama. One friend was so enthusiastic about his election in 2008 that he made a “Hope Mix” for me with songs like U2’s “Beautiful Day” and Kool and the Gang’s “Celebration.” Virtually no one I know in California voted for Donald Trump in 2016.