Welcome to Wisdom Wednesday, January 15, holding our breath five days ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration – on the same day we remember Martin Luther King. Cardinal Timothy Dolan (“Trump’s altar boy,” said Bob Mickens on X) will open inaugural ceremonies. Our 88-year-old pope looks back on his life in a new autobiography, and begs readers to look to the future with hope.
Inauguration
National Catholic Reporter says Cardinal Dolan will lead interfaith prayers at Donald Trump’s inauguration; the report is part of a series of articles looking toward the second Trump term.
Honoring Dr. King
Trump will be sworn in on the day honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a rare collision of these events according to the Memphis Commercial Appeal.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” said Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, referencing Dr. King.
At Black Catholic Messenger, editor Nate Tinner-Williams provides a national listing of Church-relevant events honoring the life and legacy of the African-American martyr slain for the cause of civil rights.
OPINION 60 days later: Introspection is needed on White Catholic rejection of Kamala Harris. Ahead of Inauguration Day. Writer Efran Menny offers food for thought on the bankruptcy of the Catholic moral vote and how to pick up the pieces.
Pope Francis
Pope Francis looks back on his life, urges people to look to future with hope, in a book published January 14. “Hope: The Autobiography,” was written by Pope Francis with the Italian editor Carlo Musso, and published around the world in a dozen languages.
COMMENTARY Pope Francis, on Jan. 11, became the third pope to be given the highest civilian honor in the U.S., the presidential Medal of Freedom. From the National Catholic Register.
First woman of ‘new martyrs of the Americas’
U.S. Sister Dorothy Stang, a member of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur from Dayton, Ohio, is the first woman honored as one of the “new martyrs of the Americas” at a unique shrine in Rome. The article comes from the U.S. bishops’ website.
Jubilee Year
St. Peter’s Holy Door sees more than half million pilgrims in just two weeks. From Dec. 24, when the pope inaugurated the Holy Year, to Jan. 7, the Vatican said, 545,532 people from around the world have made the journey along the lengthy boulevard leading to St. Peter’s Square and crossed through the basilica’s Holy Door. From the U.S. bishops’ website.
Hope, the theme chosen by Pope Francis for Jubilee 2025, is in short supply in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza right now, but is needed more than ever, local Catholic leaders say. While few Holy Land Christians will be able to travel to Rome for the special yearlong celebration, they will celebrate the jubilee where the Church began, in Nazareth. From the National Catholic Register.
Community organizing, faith based
In San Antonio, a pioneer of modern faith-based community organizing has deep roots. A grassroots advocacy organization consisting largely of San Antonio religious groups has taken on the issues that San Antonio leaders were neglecting, revitalizing a strategy of faith-based organizing that spread throughout the US.
Seeking a new House chaplain
House Speaker Mike Johnson has launched an effort to select a new House chaplain, working with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on a framework to select a new person to fill the post just days after the current chaplain offered a Jan. 6 prayer asking God to help lawmakers defend against “enemies within.” Punchbowl News first reported the potential change, citing unnamed sources and noting the current chaplain, the Rev. Margaret Kibben, is now listed as “acting chaplain.” From Religion News Service.
Transition
Bill McCartney, a former college football coach who became one of the most influential religious figures in American life during the 1990s after founding the Promise Keepers movement, died Friday (Jan. 10). From Religion News Service.
The Vedanta Society of New York is easy to miss. The center of worship, housed in a plain-old brownstone on the Upper West Side, has hosted dozens of monks, lamas and other “spiritual celebrities” over more than 100 years — all thanks to Swami Vivekananda, the young monk who brought the ancient Hindu spiritual wisdom to the city. Vivekananda was born 162 years ago in Kolkata, India. He was “America’s first guru.”
Is it genocide?
In the past four years, the United States has recognized the Uyghur genocide in China and the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar. Just this past week (Jan. 7), the U.S. accused a Sudanese paramilitary group and its proxies of committing genocide. But when it comes to Israel’s war in Gaza, which has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians, injured thousands more and flattened the coastal strip, making it largely uninhabitable, the U.S. government is nowhere near arriving at that conclusion. The same is true for many U.S. religious groups. From Religion News Service.
Research and surveys
Following a flurry of judicial confirmations in the final weeks of the 118th Congress, President Joe Biden will end his tenure in the White House having appointed 228 judges to the federal courts. That figure includes record numbers of women and racial or ethnic minorities.
Donald Trump left the White House having appointed more than 200 judges to the federal bench, including nearly as many powerful federal appeals court judges in four years as Barack Obama appointed in eight.
Black Lives Matter tops the list of groups that Black Americans see as helping them most in recent years, according to Pew Research.
Faith is vital to millions of LGBTQ Americans whose patterns of belief and practice closely mirror those of the wider U.S. population, according to a new study.
The rising tide of unpartnered American adults may have reached its limit, according to new data from Pew Research.
Trump and Pence conversations
When Mike Pence opted not to endorse Trump last year, the president said he “couldn’t care less” and that “we need strong people in this country, we don’t need weak people.” He’s also spent time praying for Trump, as he pledged he would do in one of their final conversations in office. Trump told him, “Don’t bother,” he recalls.
Quandry: Heros or Hooligans?
A rabbi and his son were arrested for vandalizing a swastika mural. Are they heroes or hooligans? It was September, and Milwaukee was abuzz over a mural that had gone up on the side of a commercial building. Painted on slabs of vinyl affixed to the brick, the mural featured a background that appeared to depict mass graves, weeping mothers, drones and other scenes of carnage in Gaza. From Jewish Telegraphic Association.
A seminary story
In a world shaped by alienation and distraction, seminarians are learning to embrace silence, prayer and true community. The National Catholic Register offers a look at seminary life, a personal, family experience.
A Catholic Response to the Potential TikTok Ban
As clock winds down for the Chinese app, Catholics consider the dangers and uses as evangelization tool. From the National Catholic Register.
The case against Opus Dei
GUEST REFLECTION Christmas holiday recollections are likely to come as a shock to many who have come into close contact with Opus Dei over the years. From National Catholic Reporter.
Webinar invitations
February 5, 02:00 PM Central. The Women in the Church Working Group of the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests (AUSCP) seek to give space for listening deeply to the testimony of sisters and brothers who sometimes experience a judgmental Church instead of a listening and welcoming Church. Register for our upcoming Conversation in the Spirit between priests and women here:
February 12 Noon to 1:30 PM Eastern The Synod: Hope for a Disintegrating World, or Just Another Document? with Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe, OP. Radcliffe gave the opening retreats to the Synod Delegates in both sessions, setting a positive tone for the proceedings. Shortly after accepting the APP offer to speak, Pope Francis named him a Cardinal! From the Association of Pittsburgh Priests.
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