Wisdom Wednesday | April 16th

How do you witness to the Resurrection of Christ? Barbara Molinari Quinby leads our Holy Week edition of Wisdom Wednesday with a prayer. “Lord of Easter’s Promise, I live in faith of the Resurrection, but . . . so much of me remains entombed. Break open the tomb.” Our topics include deportation, Pope Francis, and a look at a dozen papabili. Opinions and commentaries this week – included, not endorsed – are the property of the writers and publishers. In a powerful commentary in the Catholic Standard, Washington Auxiliary Bishop Evelio Menjivar pleads, “Do you not see the suffering of your neighbors? . . . Is your conscience not disturbed? How can you stay quiet?

Justice Bulletin Board

Barbara Molinari Quinby offers a parish bulletin item each week, Justice Bulletin Board. For Easter Sunday, she asks, “How do you witness to the Resurrection of Christ?” A prayer from Catholic Relief Service asks for God to “break open the tomb,” acknowledging that “so much of me remains entombed,” like compassion, mercy, humility, humanity, my sense of joy and my willingness to forgive.

Pope Francis

On Palm Sunday, recovering Pope Francis says to carry the cross with compassion. At the start of Holy Week, Pope Francis called for solidarity with the suffering.

Pope Francis advanced the sainthood cause of famed Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi and five others. Gaudí is famed for his design of the Sagrada Familia Basilica.

Britain’s royal couple met with Pope Francis at the Vatican. The pope is slowly starting to hold small meetings.

Holy Week and Deportation

The Church remembers Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus in a spiritual and sacramental way during Holy Week and the Easter Triduum, but some people actually experience the Passion in a tangible and personal way in their very lives. Among them are members of the immigrant and refugee communities today. Commentary in the Catholic Standard from Bishop Evelio Menjivar, an auxiliary in Washington.

The church must risk all to support migrants, says Bishop Mark J. Seitz. US Catholic reports on his sermon, that “Jesus makes it clear: the church has a special responsibility to serve the poor and the stranger—even if this leads to persecution.”

‘Sad day has dawned’: Trump’s policy forces US bishops to abandon children and refugees. The snews report originated in Our Sunday Visitor News.

A joint report by U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Department of Migration and Refugee Services and evangelical partners estimates 80% of immigrants at risk of deportation from the U.S are Christian. They call on all Christians to recognize and respond to this impact.

National Public Radio reported that “A majority of Catholics and evangelicals backed Trump on Election Day. But some say his promise to enact a mass deportation of migrants threatens their churches.”

The USCCB Office of Public Affairs points out that roughly one in twelve Christians in the United States—and one in five Catholics specifically—either face the risk of deportation or live in a household with someone who does.

A foreign “Religious Worker” applying today could wait well over a decade before receiving permanent residency in the United States. Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and Bishop Mark J. Seitz, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Migration, called on US legislators to advance a “much needed source of relief” by passing the bipartisan, bicameral Religious Workforce Protection Act.

COMMENTARY by Jesuit Thomas Reese

All over the world, Christ is again being crucified in the bodies of human rights lawyers and journalists who stand up for justice in the face of criminality, whether from gangs or governments. Most people are bullied into silence, but these few speak out against corruption and exploitation, and they meet the same opposition that Jesus did. They are arrested, tortured and killed.

Anniversary of ‘Year Zero’

50 years after Pol Pot, April 17 is a day Cambodians would rather forget. Cambodia will quietly commemorate the beginning of the ‘Year Zero’ tragedy – the communist takeover of Cambodia on April 17, 1975. The Khmer Rouge imposed their dreaded agrarian-based Year Zero policies that left about a third of the population dead and collapsed a nation in less than four years. From UCA News.

Condemning Palm Sunday attack

Catholic and other religious leaders are condemning a Palm Sunday attack by Russia on a Ukrainian city that killed 34 – including two children – and injured 119. “When we celebrate the feast of life, the enemy wishes to inflict its feast of death on us,” said Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, in an April 13 statement reported by Our Sunday Visitor News.

Condemning violence at governor’s mansion

Catholic leaders and public officials condemned violence and called for peace after an alleged arson attack on the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Bishop Timothy C. Senior said “Our prayers are with the Shapiro family and their guests, whose faithful observance of the sacred tradition of their faith [Passpver] was grievously violated by this act.” From Our Sunday Visitor News.

EU will struggle to fill gap left by USAID

The Guardian reports that Non-Governmental Organizations are warning of “some difficult years” ahead as increasing humanitarian needs meet shrinking finances.

“Trump’s USAID cuts contradict Jesus’ call to love thy neighbor,” says Delaware Senator Chris Coons, published in the National Catholic Reporter. Slashing lifesaving aid shows the world “that we are not a reliable partner defined by its compassion, but an unreliable one defined by cruelty and indifference.”

Palm Sunday in Managua

Police and paramilitaries maintained a heavy presence outside the Nicaraguan Managua cathedral on Palm Sunday, ensuring celebrations occurred entirely on church property – and sending a not-so-subtle message of intimidation. Inside, Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes of Managua ignored the harassment. He focused his homily on forgiveness instead. From Our Sunday Visitor.

Parish Life: Suicide and Communion rails

US Catholic provides a feature, “How parishes can minister to survivors of suicide loss.” Writer Kevin Beck says “Addressing the issue of suicide may be difficult or painful, but it is essential that parishes support and accompany survivors.”

The National Catholic Register offers a feature, “Communion Rails Return as Churches Embrace Beauty and Reverence.” Writer Joseph Pronechen says, “A growing number of Catholic parishes in the U.S. are restoring altar rails, renewing reverence and transforming the faithful’s experience of the Holy Eucharist.”

Care for Creation

The Vatican has announced the theme for the 2025 World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, held annually on Sept. 1: “Seeds of Peace and Hope.” The National Catholic Register reports this year’s theme reflects the urgency of working “to create the conditions for peace, a lasting peace built together that inspires hope.”

COMMENTARY in the National Catholic Register

Tim Busch is the founder of the Busch Firm in Irvine, California, and founder of the Napa Institute. He writes, “The April 3 death of Theodore McCarrick marks the end of a particularly sad chapter in the recent history of the Catholic Church.” Busch continues, “McCarrick should have been held accountable decades earlier, but the biggest barrier was the Church’s governing structure . . . . a bureaucratic, inward-focused, reform-defying edifice that must be changed.”

COMMENTARY in Baptist News Global

“This is a three-alarm fire for freedom of speech,” begins the opinion piece by Mark Wingfield. “Of all the shocking things the Trump administration has done in less than three months, please pay attention to this: Today, the administration said it has the power to deport a student simply because of that student’s beliefs. Not because of any illegal activity. Not because of any imminent danger. But because the administration dislikes his beliefs.

Wingfield writes to “Dear fellow Baptists,” but his opinion touches a larger audience.

Pauli Murray – a ‘boy-girl’

Kelly Brown Douglas offers her view in the Christian Century, that Murray’s “contributions to this nation can hardly be overstated. The federal government’s attempt to erase them has theological implications.” She says the Trump administration’s executive order to “restore biological truth” is a mandate that seeks to define gender identity in strictly binary terms and erases from federal resources the lived realities of transgender, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming individuals. Murray identifies herself as a “boy-girl”—her refusal to accept the binary gender distinctions imposed by society.

BOOK REVIEW

In The Minneapolis Reckoning, Michelle Phelps offers an incredibly compelling description of the many acts of resistance, and the responses prompted by that resistance, that arose from the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, in Minneapolis. Floyd’s death at the hands of police sparked widespread protests and movements advocating for racial justice and police reform around the world. (Many members of the AUSCP, who were attending the annual assembly in 2021, participated in a prayer service at the site.) Published in the Christian Century.

New York Street sign for Thích Nhất Hạnh

Dozens of Buddhist monastics and lay believers huddled together on a busy Upper West Side street corner on a cold, rainy day to bear witness to a historic new street sign placed in their spiritual leader’s honor Friday (April 11). The crowd, many of whom are part of Hạnh’s Plum Village tradition of Buddhism, created a serene silence at the event — contrasting normal morning car alarms and police sirens. From Religion News Service.

The 12 cardinals who might succeed Pope Francis

Don Clemmer, writing in US Catholic, says “Speculation about who might be the next pope is always a risky business, but these prominent cardinals might be contenders.”

Funeral for cadavers

Several years ago, theology professor Mike Tapper asked a group of young, aspiring pastors how many had ever been to a funeral. Less than half, it turned out. Many had never been in the same room as a dead person. Tapper, who teaches in the school of theology and ministry at Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, worried what might happen when his students found themselves ministering at a church. Religion News Service reports they performed a mock funeral for the cadavers they met in the lab. It took some getting used to.

Joan Brown Campbell dies at 93

Joan Brown Campbell, the global and national ecumenical leader, who also was the director of religion at the Chautauqua Institution, was described as “an extraordinary ecumenist and activist” by Bishop Vashti McKenzie, the current NCC general secretary.

Evangelical seminary moves to Canada

A prominent but troubled evangelical seminary has agreed to be acquired by a Canadian university and move to British Columbia, the school’s leaders announced Tuesday (April 8). The Evangelical Free Church school alums have played an outsized role in shaping American evangelicalism. From Religion News Service.

Israel-Palestine study cancelled

Harvard Divinity School announced last week it was pausing its Religion, Conflict and Peace Initiative, a program that focused on Israel-Palestine as a case study. On Wednesday (April 2), it cut the last remaining position in the initiative. Hilary Rantisi is the sole Palestinian American staff member at the divinity school. Her last day is at the end of June. From Religion News Service.

Shannon Fleck named Faithful America leader

Religion News Service reports that Fleck, a former probation officer turned pastor, was one of the leading voices against efforts to put Trump Bibles in schools.

Insulting cartoon

The New Yorker magazine has just managed to insult Christians and Jews alike with a cartoon depicting the Last Supper, writes Phyllis Zagano for Religion News Service. In the drawing, by Adam Sacks, Jesus says to the apostles, “So this is my body, the wine is my blood, and the chocolate bunny is a fun springtime treat.”

SATIRE from Thomas Reese

President Donald Trump, who has been in an ongoing fight with Pope Francis over migration, Gaza, Ukraine and global warming, has imposed tariffs on indulgences and other products imported from the Holy See. “Why should we import indulgences from the Vatican when we have domestic producers like Paula White who offer products that are much better,” said a White House spokesperson. Read more of the satire in Religion News Service.