Wednesday, 6 November 2024

Sending Thoughts and Prayers

 

Immigrant children in a cage.
Image credit: Washington Post

For the last 12 or 18 months I have had the kind of feeling you get when someone or something vital is missing - this with regard to the United States. Today it feels like a corpus delicti has been trotted out in some kind of cruel, twisted triumph. No emoji can express how I feel.

I believe history will show that today is a huge indictment on American Christians, including, perhaps especially, Catholics. I feel betrayed by Catholic leadership, ashamed of this family.


Friday, 6 September 2024

Isn't it time to ordain women to the diaconate?

 

Image credit: National Catholic Reporter

Franciscan Fr. Daniel P. Horan is the director of the Center for the Study of Spirituality, and professor of philosophy, religious studies and theology at Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana. Under the headline, "Enough already. It is time to ordain women to the diaconate" he writes in National Catholic Reporter:

At the risk of stating the obvious, it is clear that the Roman Catholic Church (or at least many of those entrusted with the highest levels of leadership) has a serious problem with women. Pope Francis has made great strides in some aspects of extending invitations for greater involvement by and representation of women in some aspects of church leadership, including the appointment of several women to significant posts in Vatican dicasteries and expanding voting rights at the synod to all participants, which includes lay and religious women. 

But the way the pope often speaks about women in abstract ways doesn't sound much different from Pope John Paul II's "separate but equal" complementarianism, which argued for keeping women in "traditional" familial and ecclesial roles and praising their "genius." A decade ago, journalist David Gibson compiled a list of seven examples of Francis talking about women in what the kids might call "cringy" ways. And these came just from the first year of his pontificate.

You can read the full article in National Catholic Reporter here.

Tuesday, 6 August 2024

Happy 75th, Ingrid

Yesterday afternoon/evening the clan got together to celebrate Ingrid's 75th birthday. After a main course of braaied boerie and other good things to eat we came up with some of the fine qualities of the clan matriarch, with ideas for qualities triggered by the letters of her name, INGRID.


Dear Ingrid,
On the occasion of your Seventy-Fifth Birthday, 
these are some of the things your family said about you, 
inspired by your name, INGRID.

I is for… 
INGRID - the most beautiful name I ever heard.

N is for… 
Netherlands, the land of your birth, and the rich cultural traditions that you have passed on to our children and grandchildren; and
Never gives up - when you believe in something.

G is for… 
Gentle woman; and
Gay and joyful, always ready with a smile; and
Grounded - keeping me in the real world, here and now.

R is for… 
Real; and… 
Reliable; and… 
Roman Catholic, religious in the true spiritual sense, but never pietistic.

I is for… 
Independent, as in the way you chose to follow Jesus Christ as a Catholic when you were still in high school; and… 
Inspirational - helping me believe in myself when I become discouraged; and… 
Indefatigable - overcoming every adversity with faith, hope and love.

D is for… 
Dependable - your word is pure gold

Congratulations on your 
Seventy-Fifth Birthday.
All my love
Terry

Friday, 21 June 2024

National Indigenous Peoples Day

 

June 21: National Indigenous Peoples Day. How much do you know of the Indigenous history of the place where you live, or where you work?
It was only last year that I learnt that we are all treaty people, and only this year that I learnt that the treaties are not deeds of sale. I highly recommend a book by Bob Joseph: 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act.