Wisdom Wednesday | July 24th

Two topics dominate the flow of news today: the Eucharistic Congress and the rise of Kamala Harris to the top of the Democratic ticket. Welcome to Wisdom Wednesday, navigating the two rivers of news and views. We also have a report on why the founder of Legionaries for Christ was not removed 50 years ago; an essay about “The Great Man” theory, commentaries on surrogacy, Natural Family Planning, and psychedelics and spirituality.

National Eucharistic Congress

• As the Congress ended, Bishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, told 50,000 attendees at Lucas Oil Stadium that plans are underway for the next congress.
• Dorothy Day’s granddaughter, twice denied her requests to speak at the Eucharistic Congress, then finally invited following media reports, said “I was happy that Dorothy was being respected and not omitted . . . . Her voice is really critical for the U.S. Catholic Church right now.”
• OPINION Columnist Tom Reese says the Eucharistic Revival misses how synodality makes for better Eucharist.
• INTERVIEW Keynoter Gloria Purvis talks racism, resistance at the 10th National Eucharistic Congress, in an interview with the Black Catholic Messenger.
• Black Catholic Messenger writer Briana Jansky recounts some of her conversations with attendees from around the country who came seeking renewal in Indianapolis.
• The National Catholic Register says “For the many parents who brought their young children to the historic July 17-21 gathering in Indianapolis, the congress was an inspiring confirmation that the Catholic Church is alive and well and that other families across the country are working hard to raise their kids in the faith.”

Presidential Politics

• Kamala Harris would be the first presidential candidate with a diverse personal religious and spiritual history that is now far more representative of America’s multi-faith makeup. The story from Religion News Service.
• A reporter sees “an uneven, awkward embrace of religious pluralism” at the Republican National Convention, as an official led a Sikh prayer while images of Christian crosses flashed behind her.
• When Ohio Sen. JD Vance was introduced at the Republican national convention as Donald Trump’s running mate, the most notable debut for many Americans was not the senator but the woman at his side: Vance’s wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, a Hindu and the Telugu-speaking daughter of Indian immigrants. Hindu Americans are leaning further right than ever, according to Religion News Service.
• Michael Sean Winters, writing for National Catholic Reporter, has published two opinion pieces worth noting: “JD Vance gives Catholicism a bad name” and the state of the presidential race is “muddled and frightening.”
• US Catholic also examines “The not-so-Catholic candidacy of J. D. Vance.”
• Fact checking: A wave of false claims about Harris’ eligibility and her background have emerged, some years ago, some since President Biden stepped down.

Young Priests: Confident, conservative

The New York Times (you may need a subscription to read it) says young Catholic priests “overwhelmingly lean right.

Marcial Maciel: Why he was not removed in 1956

The recently opened archives of Pope Pius XII have shed new light on claims the World War II-era pope didn’t speak out about the Holocaust. But they’re also providing details about another contentious chapter in Vatican history: the scandal over the founder of the Legionaries of Christ. From the Associated Press.

‘The great man theory is poison for the church’

Thomas Carlyle said “The history of the world is but the biography of great men.” Writer Julian DeShazier vehemently disagrees, in the August 2024 issue of the Christian Century. He points out that is why “the story of America, for example, as one about the brilliance and resilience of a few individuals instead of colonial conquest and genocide. What is the threat of the theory to pastors and their parishes?

Gay, married, Methodist bishop

United Methodists have elected a third openly gay, married bishop, according to Religion News Service. Kristin Stoneking will replace Bishop Karen Oliveto, the denomination’s first openly gay married bishop, who, at age 66, is retiring.

Psychedelics and Spiritual Care

On a Friday afternoon at a woodsy retreat in the middle of North Carolina, Hunt Priest, an Episcopal clergyman from Savannah, Georgia, is talking to a small group, urging Christians to come together with the growing community of researchers that is exploring the spiritual uses of psychedelic drugs. From Religion News Service.

Surrogacy and NFP: A changing landscape

Amid ongoing Vatican condemnations, Catholic families pursue surrogacy with love, respect and resilience. NCR’s Camillo Barone explores their faith, challenges and the evolving landscape of family within the church. For some Black Catholics, medical racism complicates Natural Family Planning, according to US Catholic. “If the church hopes to advocate for NFP, Catholic medical practitioners will have to grow in cultural competence.”

Invitation from JustFaith

Join JustFaith today,  Wednesday, July 24 at 12:30pm PT/3:30pm ET for an overview of the newest program Preventing Gun Violence: From Rhetoric to Real Solutions.  JustFaith Ministries staff members will describe the materials, provide a brief experience of the program, and answer questions about the content and getting started.

More about Teilhard

The Catholic Climate Covenant invites viewers to watch the two-hour PBS documentary, Teilhard: Visionary Scientist, and then join an August 13th online conversation (7:00-8:00 p.m. ET) with distinguished Teilhard de Chardin expert, Sr. Kathleen Duffy, SSJ. The French Jesuit priest, mystic, and scientist influenced theology, spirituality, and earth science. His influence can be deeply seen in Laudato Si’.

Teilhard de Chardin documentary

Many assembly attendees saw a new documentary, Teilhard: Visionary Scientist, and met for discussion with the producers, Frank and Mary Frost. The two-hour documentary premiered in May on Maryland Public Television and is now available to the general public. The Frosts hope you will encourage groups to gather and discuss the film.

U.S. Bishops cut social justice staff

The AUSCP has taken a reluctant step, seeking an explanation from the U.S. bishops of how and why staffing was cut by half at the bishops’ Department of Justice, Peace, and Human Development – the department that is focused on social justice. Religion News Service provides the details in a news report, and the AUSCP has issued a news release.

Eucharistic Congress

As many thousands of clergy and lay faithful plan to attend the Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, you deserve an explanation of why the AUSCP will not be present.

Catholic pilgrims are in the middle of a two-month journey on four routes across the United States. They’re planning to converge on Indianapolis in mid-July for a climactic stadium gathering called the National Eucharistic Congress, the first such event in more than 80 years.

The Eucharistic pilgrimage to Indianapolis brings to mind a pilgrimage continuing over more than a thousand years to Santiago in Spain. While it’s traditionally a Catholic pilgrimage, ending at the shrine of the apostle James in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, secular pilgrims today embark on the Camino for all kinds of motivations beyond. A report, from Religion News Service.

Two weeks ago (June 16) in Saudi Arabia, masses of pilgrims embarked on a symbolic stoning of the devil in Saudi Arabia under the soaring summer heat. The ritual marks the final days of the Hajj, or Islamic pilgrimage, and the start of the Eid al-Adha celebrations for Muslims around the world. A look back with Religion News Service.

Slavery in Catholic St. Louis

An assembly participant, in a private conversation, said he just discovered that two schools he attended in St. Louis – DuBourg High School and Kenrick Seminary – were named in honor of slaveholders. A new report details slavery in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Nate Tinner-Williams reports from Black Catholic Messenger.

National Park Service provides an article, “The Slave Trade in St. Louis.”

St. Louis Bishop DuBourg, about a family he “owned” – in a letter to his co-adjutor: “. . . you should always regard [the family of Harry and Jenny Nesbit] as the property of the bishop; but I see in some time to come though the marriage of the children, that this would provide prolific descendants to provide enough workers for the estate of the Bishop of St. Louis and for the seminary.” The story was published in the archdiocesan newspaper.

Reparations: Descendants of slaves that were forced to build St. Louis University say the Jesuit school owes them more than $70 billion in reparations. The figure was calculated by economists, based on 70 people identified as slaves of the Jesuits earning a low wage of $0.05 an hour between 1823 and 1865, and adjusted for inflation, according to a PBS article posted on the website of Descendants of the St. Louis University Enslaved last week (mid-February 2024.] The report is from the New York Post.

Election section – Your Conscience, Your Vote

In the opinion of Michael Sean Winters at National Catholic Reporter, Biden’s debate disaster leaves democracy in peril.

MAGA evangelicals grab all the headlines. But it’s swing state faith voters — Catholics, mainliners and Black Protestants — who will likely decide the election. The report comes from analysis at Religion News Service.

“Let’s Slow the Rush to Dump Joe,” says a writer in Vanity Fair. “Tune out the West Wing fan fiction. Swapping out the president at this stage in the race would be a political—and logistical—nightmare.” Vanity Fair limits free access to its articles.

Viganò in schism

This is not just schismatic; it is bizarre, says Michael Sean Winters about the behavior of the former U.S. Nuncio. “It is one thing to wrestle with this or that teaching of the church, to like or dislike this pope or that. But to so question and undermine the authority of the church itself such that you find yourself charged formally with schism, this is a grave thing.”

Transitions

Bishop Sean Rowe of the Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania and the Diocese of Western New York has been named the next presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, succeeding Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, who concludes a nine-year term later this year.

Mother Mary P. Patterson, who was the widow of a Church of God in Christ presiding bishop and became known for her efforts to preserve the history of the historically Black Pentecostal denomination, died on Monday (June 24).

Meet the Crop of New Leaders in Catholic Higher Education: A report by the National Catholic Register.

According to the official statistics released by the German Bishops’ Conference on Thursday, more than 400,000 people officially left the Church in 2023.

‘Climate catastrophe is here’

The editors of Christian Century conclude, without a doubt, that the Climate Crisis is upon us. Swaths of US land are becoming uninsurable, even uninhabitable. Climate catastrophe is here. Not coming, already here. Not just in the hotter parts of the developing world—though they are certainly bearing the worst of it—but here in the United States. Not just in low-lying coastal areas, but all over. And not just according to scientists and activists, but according to decision makers in the corporate world.

Sports notes

Simone Biles leads Black Catholics headed to the 2024 Paris Olympics. The U.S. Olympic qualifiers for gymnastics and track and field took place this month in Minneapolis and Eugene, Oregon, respectively. The report in Black Catholic Messenger.

The Vatican cricket team takes on England Seniors.

In two matches at the stupendous Wormsley Estate, the Vatican faced off against the England Over 60s. The Vatican batted first in the initial match, and started strongly, but struggled to capitalize on this early success. In the second match, the Vatican gave up a few early wickets, but recovered exceptionally, but England came through near the end. Details from Vatican News.