Welcome to Wisdom Wednesday. Although much of world news is grim, the pope’s message to a million young people is joyful: “Jesus is our hope.” Among items this week: The seal of confession is challenged by a law intended to protect youth; the Vatican may become the world’s first carbon-neutral state; and a question is proposed: Are AI sermons ethical? We lean heavily this week on Baptist News Global for reports on religious matters and the Trump administration.
Hiroshima August 6, 1945
Eighty years ago two of the world’s deadliest weapons were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, bringing near-total destruction. But a Catholic monastery built in Nagasaki by a future martyr and saint survived and to this day brings a Franciscan message of peace to a place that could easily plunge into hatred and despair. National Catholic Reporter published the OSV story.
Pope Leo XIV and Youth Jubilee
Pope Leo XIV addressed the largest crowd of his pontificate in Rome’s outskirts on Saturday, telling an estimated 1 million young adults to “study, work, and love according to the example of Jesus” and to pray: “Stay with us, Lord.” The National Catholic Register reported on the Saturday event, and also on the encouraging words of Sunday’s Mass, that “Jesus is our hope.”
The National Catholic Register reported that Pope Leo earlier Saturday offered heartfelt prayers for Pascale Rafic, a Jubilee of Youth pilgrim from Egypt who died while in Rome, from cardiac arrest.
Gaza
With growing urgency, more US Jews urge Israel to ensure ample food deliveries to Gaza. “What is clear is that the ranks of American Jews alarmed by the current conditions in Gaza have swelled and now include major organizations that customarily avoid critiques of Israeli policies,” according to a report from Religion News Service.
Saturday evening (August 2) began the day for Jews marking the destruction of the first and second temples in ancient Jerusalem, a time traditionally observed by fasting, mourning and lamentation. “But this year on Tisha B’Av,” Religion News Service reports, some Jews mourned another destruction — “not of the historic temples, but of Gaza.”
The Evangelical Church in America has elected its first Black presiding bishop – who immediately called Israel’s action in Gaza a genocide. Religion News Service reports the Rev. Yehiel Curry, bishop of the ELCA’s Metropolitan Chicago Synod since 2019, will serve a six-year term as presiding bishop of the 2.7 million-member denomination.
Settler violence in the West Bank
OPINION “Years of impunity against Jewish extremist terror have created a monster” according to the opinion published by Religion News Service, describing settler attacks in the West Bank where “Impunity, not justice, remains the rule.”
NEWS REPORT Attack on West Bank Christian town in early July was the latest event stirring calls for the Israeli government to curb settler violence. Religion News Service reports that settler attacks have skyrocketed since the Gaza war began.
Detroit archbishop fires three seminary theologians
National Catholic Reporter says the three Sacred Heart Seminary theologians had criticized Pope Francis.
New ambassador to the Holy See
The U.S. Senate has confirmed former CatholicVote President Brian Burch as Holy See Ambassador. The National Catholic Register reports the vote Saturday (August 2) was 49-44 to confirm the Catholic father of nine from Chicago.
Religious matters in the courts
An Evangelical legal group is asking the Supreme Court to overturn its same-sex marriage ruling. Religion News Service reports that Matthew Staver, head of Liberty Counsel, said, “We think that it’s not a matter of if, but just a matter of when, the Supreme Court will overrule Obergefell.”
OPINION Last week, a federal judge issued an injunction barring the state of Washington from enforcing an amendment to the state’s mandatory reporting law that would have required Catholic priests to inform authorities of child‑abuse disclosures made during confession. “It’s hard to imagine the judge doing otherwise.”
OPINION Should clergy call the cops? A writer at Religion News Service says, “Respecting the confidentiality of confession does not mean taking no action.”
A federal district court on Friday ordered that a Colorado medical clinic run by two Catholic nurses can continue its abortion-pill reversal ministry, partially blocking a state law that had sought to ban the practice. From the National Catholic Register.
Care for Creation
The Vatican has struck a solar farm deal to become the world’s first carbon-neutral state. The agreement stipulates that the development of the Santa Maria Galeria site will preserve the agricultural use of the land and minimize the environmental impact on the territory, according to a Vatican statement. From the Associated Press.
Religious matters and the Trump administration
Baptist News Global reports, “Federal workers are now free to preach and pray in the workplace and are even encouraged to proselytize colleagues while on the job, according to a new memo from the U.S. Office of Personnel and Management.”
Claiming the nation is under threat from unhoused people, the Trump administration has announced “a new approach” to ending homelessness that includes expanded police powers and mass incarceration. From Baptist News Global.
More than 1,000 churches and nonprofits in 50 states have signed a letter protesting the Trump administration’s attempt to shield congregations from a law banning tax-exempt organizations from endorsing political candidates. From Baptist News Global.
New lawsuit again seeks to block ICE raids at churches. The Alliance of Baptists and American Baptist Churches USA have joined a coalition of religious groups in a new lawsuit seeking to bar immigration enforcement actions in houses of worship. The federal action was filed July 28 by Democracy Forward. From Baptist News Global.
Six months into Trump 2.0, Project 2025 is ‘reshaping America’. Think tank policy proposals come and go, usually with little impact. But the 900-plus page Project 2025 is in a league of its own, thanks to a cooperative Trump administration and Supreme Court decisions that support its agenda. From Baptist News Global.
OPINION MAGA is making an ‘all-out assault on Black life’. It is naïve and uncritical to describe the racial injustice dominating American culture and politics as simply the latest iteration of bigotry to plague the nation, Willie Francois III said during the Progressive National Baptist Convention’s 64th annual session. From Baptist News Global.
OPINION Faith without deeds is dead: On the failure to stop the One Big (not so) Beautiful Bill. In Black Catholic Messenger, Dr. Ronald Smith explains “how we could have stopped historically harmful legislation, and how the Catholic Church failed to use its voice.”
James Dobson has much to celebrate. Roe v. Wade is history. President Donald Trump is reversing transgender gains, targeting elite universities and defunding Planned Parenthood and public broadcasting. Dobson’s disciples lead the Senate and House, and conservatives have a majority. From Baptist News Global.
OPINION The current MAGA evangelical attacks on science threaten to make America less safe, less healthy and much dumber. This anti-science compulsion is no surprise. Evangelical Christianity in the United States has rejected science at least since Charles Darwin. From Baptist News Global.
Trump administration proposes rule change to end abortion at Veterans Affairs facilities. From Catholic News Agency.
To help uncover Black ancestry
The power of reckoning: How Catholic Church records can help African Americans uncover their ancestry. From Black Catholic Messenger.
Are AI sermons ethical?
Clergy consider where to draw the line, in this report from Religion News Service and National Public Radio. Much of the debate involves grappling with the question of whether AI is being used as a replacement for a sacred human project or whether it’s a tool in the service of that project.
American Bishops Celebrate St. John Henry Newman
Pope Leo XIV has approved the 19th-century Catholic convert to be declared the 38th doctor of the universal Church. From Catholic News Agency.
‘Manifesto of the Young Christians of Europe’
“We’re not tourists in spiritual things. We are pilgrims [searching for] meaning. We come with backpacks full of doubts, wounds, songs, and hope. And with a certainty in our hearts: Christ is alive. And he calls us.” That’s the beginning of the manifesto, as reported by the National Catholic Register. The pilgrimages are Rome in 2025, St. James in 2027 and Jerusalem in 2033.
International Matters
‘Just a jumble of bones’ How a baby grave discovery has grown to haunt Ireland. From the Associated Press. Ireland and the Catholic Church, once central to its identity, are grappling with the legacy of ostracizing unmarried women who they believed committed a mortal sin and separating them from children left at the mercy of a cruel system.
Pakistan softens death penalty laws, preserves blasphemy statutes. According to a Catholic News Agency report, Islamabad removes death penalty for two crimes to preserve European trade benefits, but blasphemy laws targeting Christians remain untouched.
A relic of Blessed Carlo Acutis stolen. The relic was removed from the St. Dominic Savio Parish in the Argentine Archdiocese of Paraná. The pastor is seeking to recover it, emphasizing that it has no material value but does have profound spiritual significance for the community.
Personal Stories
Paul Hunker. As the second Trump administration doubles down on harsh immigration policy, Paul Hunker, an Opus Dei member who retired from ICE to join a private immigration law practice in February 2024, is in a position to speak out. From Religion News Service.
Chip and Joanna Gaines. They “tried to build a big tent. Conservative Christians aren’t having it. The home makeover reality stars’ recent troubles highlight the difficulty of catering to both mainstream and Christian audiences. They faced backlash in recent weeks over their decision to feature a gay couple on their new reality show, “Back to the Frontier.” From Religion News Service.
Kyle Langford, 24, is a longshot candidate for the Republican nomination for governor of California, where he is garnering the praise and support of avowed white supremacists, far-right online streamers and radical traditionalist Catholics. From National Catholic Reporter.
Justice Bulletin Board
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