The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group’s recently released report is a “code red for humanity,” warned U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. “The alarm bells are deafening,” he further warned. “And the evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse-gas emissions from fossil-fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk. Global […]
At any moment, the world could be within 30 minutes of history’s worst disaster – nuclear war! As we remember the tragic anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945, it would do us well to seriously consider that nuclear weapons today threaten […]
After six years of war, “Yemen remains the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe,” according to the International Rescue Committee. Confirming that terribly sad fact, Catholic Relief Services reports, “Conflict and a lack of aid has triggered a humanitarian disaster, leaving 80 percent of the population in need of assistance, including 2 million children suffering from acute […]
The New Testament repeats the Old Testament concern for needy widows. Jesus condemned scribes who “devour the houses of widows” (Mark 12:40), lamented upon seeing a poor widow convinced to give everything she had to live on to the Temple (Mark 12:38-44), and resuscitated the only son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-17). The […]
Today, as I write, is the Fourth of July – Independence Day in the U.S. It’s a time when many Americans naturally feel a sense of pride. As the world’s oldest continuous democracy, the U.S. has served in many ways as a model for other democratic nations. Its Bill of Rights guarantees freedoms of religion, […]
Last Wednesday I attended a prayer service at JFK park across from SS. Columba-Brigid on Hickory Street. It was exactly one week – to the hour – since there had been a shooting at that playground that injured four young people, one critically. (You can read about Fr. Jud Weiksnar’s experience and the prayer service […]
Today, as I write, is World Refugee Day (June 20). For those of us who are not refugees – nor internally displaced people, migrants, asylum seekers – it is easy to ignore their plight involving fears of harm and death, traveling long and dangerous unknown paths, hunger, thirst, carrying the uncertainty of not knowing if […]
The Book of Ruth can be dated to the early years after the Exile, 587-37 BC, during a time when intermarriage with foreigners was being debated. The book concerns the plight of three widows, Naomi and her two daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth, both Moabite women. Briefly, Naomi and her husband, Elimelech, had settled in Moab […]
Memorial Day in the U.S. is a time when Americans honor U.S. combatants killed in wars. It is a day of intense nationalism with lots of flag waving accompanied with a perceived need for military strength – even superiority. But with more than 1 million Americans who have lost their lives fighting in America’s many […]
This past April 17, the funeral of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was held in Windsor Castle, England. One memorable image was that of Queen Elizabeth, in widow’s black, sitting alone in the chapel for the services. She reminded me of the many stories of widows or references to widows in the Bible. This reflection, the […]
