Welcome to a wintery Wisdom Wednesday. Pope Francs remains in hospital with a respiratory infection. Many faith groups’ environmental projects remain frozen. Our focus on the nexus of faith, culture and politics leads us Hindu sacred music, married priests who had been Anglicans, and U.S. bishops who enslaved people.
Pope Francis
Pope Francis’ hospitalization is extended due to a ‘complex clinical situation,’ according to Religion News Service. Pope Francis admitted himself to the hospital on Friday after struggling with a respiratory infection.
Pope’s autobiography reveals some secrets, keeps others, according to a book review by Jason Berry. The memoir, Hope, is “a book that should be taught in every class on political science, business and theology. Francis raises a challenge to all believers of the common good.”
Black History Month
“I wonder: Why are we still comparing civil rights and abortion?” Daryl Grigsby writes on the false equivalencies finding oxygen due to actions from a nascent Trump administration bent on anything but racial justice. From Black Catholic Messenger.
Here are the Catholic bishops who enslaved Black people in America. Nate Tinner-Williams explores the history of episcopal human trafficking in what would become the United States of America.
The climate and the funding freeze
More than 300 faith communities have lost access to grant funds that were intended to plant trees in disadvantaged urban communities, environmental faith leaders who managed the grants told Religion News Service.
From the Climate Working Group: Plastic-eating fungi could be a glimmer of hope in cutting ocean pollution. By Swantje Stein and Oliver Ellrodt, for Reuters.
Migrants and migration
Trump’s foreign aid pause hits Jesuit Refugee Service hard. Humanitarian work in 9 countries in jeopardy as Jesuit program scrambles for funding. From National Catholic Reporter.
Lawmakers, faith groups are pushing a bill to prevent ICE raids on churches, sensitive locations, according to Religion News Service. “We cannot become a government that normalizes cruelty,” Rep. Jesús G. Garcia, an Illinois Democrat, said while discussing the bill on the House floor.
Here are 9 Things to Know About the Catholic Church’s ‘Magna Carta’ of Migration. The 1952 document of Pope Pius XII was cited by Pope Francis in his letter to U.S. bishops. Matthew McDonald reports for the The National Catholic Register.
The Register also has compiled “A Catholic Glossary for Understanding the Debate” — key players and terms on the issue of immigration.
In the United Kingdom, a new immigration bill ‘punishes’ refugees, say Catholic Bishops and Jesuit Refugee Service. Another item from the Register.
Does ‘ordo amoris’ justify the expulsion of foreigners? Here is a report from La Croix International. “Pope Francis directly and sharply responded in a letter to U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, who had asserted that charity should be directed primarily toward one’s own people, invoking the concept of Ordo amoris.” From Saint Thomas to the Good Samaritan, Jesuit Father Alain Thomasset, a moral theologian, sheds light on this debate.
OPINION by Mark Wingfield, at Baptist News Global. One month later, it is obvious Bishop Budde didn’t go far enough. She rightly appealed for mercy for immigrants and LGBTQ people but didn’t know she should have mentioned federal workers, educators, South Africans, Ukrainians and so many others Trump and his minions have no mercy toward. It turns out the only people Trump doesn’t want to scare are those who do his bidding.
OPINION by John Grosso, National Catholic Reporter. Is it Word on Fire? or “Word extinguished: Bishop Barron’s digital silence. Known for his tendency to use his extraordinary social media apparatus to comment on any perceived Catholic slight, his absence in the face of the Trump administration’s anti-Catholic policies is jarring. But not surprising.
‘Sanctuary in houses of worship has always been tenuous.’ It’s a practice marked by promise and difficulty—both in the Bible and today, according to the Christian Century.
DEI
OPINION: “Dismantling DEI is about making America white again.” Donald Trump’s prohibition of government diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives has nothing to do with fairness and everything to do with subduing marginalized communities, pastor, activist and author Jacqui Lewis said during a recent episode of “The State of Belief” podcast.
The University of Notre Dame is facing a fresh round of criticism after the institute’s chief academic officer told faculty that hiring women and minorities is “equally important” to its mission as is hiring Catholics. The National Catholic Register reports on the DEI criticism.
Christian Nationalism
OPINION from Religion News Service.
Trump 2.0’s scapegoating of trans people is a Christian nationalist distraction. Reprising arguments from the abortion debate, Christian nationalists are claiming to be “defending innocent children” in their war against gender-affirming care.
SURVEY RESEARCH from Baptist News Global: In the wake of the election of Donald Trump with the strong support of white evangelical and other conservative white Christians, PRRI released last week its annual update of the largest ongoing study of Christian nationalism ever conducted. By Robert P. Jones, president and founder of PRRI.
Gaza
From Word&Way: “While some Trumpian Christians quickly praised Trump’s idea [to acquire Gaza], many other people denounced it as a call for ethnic cleansing.” A United Nations leader called the proposal illegal, and leaders of nations in the region and beyond also criticized it. Last week, a group of more than 350 U.S. rabbis signed a statement to oppose Trump’s proposal and declare that “Jewish people say NO to ethnic cleansing!”
Seventh Sunday
Barbara Molinari Quinby reflects on the readings for the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 23. The Death Penalty.
Married Catholic Clergy
10% of priests in one Catholic diocese in England are married. Here’s a look inside their daily lives, from National Catholic Reporter. “When Fr. Clive Dytor took over as priest here in 2021, it marked the culmination of a career which had seen him honored as a war hero and lauded as head of a top Catholic school.Since he’d also previously been an Anglican priest, he could welcome his wife and family to his parish Masses.”
Turnabout
‘A Black Church That Now Owns the Proud Boys Logo Is Using It To Sell Shirts.’ Religion News Service reports on the historic Black church whose Black Lives Matter sign was destroyed by members of the extremist group Proud Boys, is now selling T-shirts using the group’s logo, after the congregation won the Proud Boys trademark as part of a years long legal dispute. From Word&Way.
Feature essay
What is active citizenship in the era of rule by decree? American political theology has tended to take democracy and the rule of law for granted. What now? From the Christian Century.
Mikroi
An initiative on small Christian communities, from Today’s American Catholic.
A news story about news
Much of the news people consume is produced by newswires. Their reporters keep their opinions to themselves so you can make up your own mind about world events. A report from Nelson Graves on the legion of journalists who report unbiased news, from News Decoder.
Hindu devotional singing is having a moment
From Grammy winners to yoga teachers, the ancient art of sacred Hindu music is appealing to masses young and old across the world.
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