Talk about the need for wisdom this week! The U.S. bishops are meeting, and may cut the budget for the anti-poverty efforts of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. The Southern Baptists are meeting, and may kick out churches with women pastors. North American Anglicans – and at least two Catholic Cardinals – insist on a male-only priesthood. Theologians began meeting this week to develop the Instrumentum Laboris for the Synod.
Later this week, Pope Francis will meet with Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Whoopie Goldberg among a hundred or so comedians. Jews will not be meeting today — to observe the Week of Weeks, or Shavuot, (and we offer a feature item, “How Monotheistic Israel and Pagan Rome Gave the World Its Weeks).
We pray for a possible cease-fire this week in Gaza, and for all leaders everywhere who need wisdom for making decisions this week.
We point out again that opinions and columns represent the views of opinion writers and columnists.
USCCB and CCHD
Here is a report from National Catholic Reporter, and an open letter to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, regarding fears of budget cuts affecting the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, published in the Black Catholic Messenger.
Pax Christi Award
Ralph McCloud will receive the Eileen Egan Peacemaker Award from Pax Christi USA. The longtime administrator departed the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in April as the highest-ranking lay African American in the Catholic Church.
The Rev. James Lawson Jr., an apostle of nonviolent protest who schooled activists to withstand brutal reactions from white authorities as the Civil Rights Movement gained traction, has died, his family said Monday. He was 95. Lawson was a close adviser to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who called him “the leading theorist and strategist of nonviolence in the world.”
The Synod
- Around twenty theologians from around the world have arrived in Rome to begin work on theInstrumentum laborisfor the Second Session of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.
- Columnist Thomas Reese (a keynoter at the AUSCP Assembly starting June 24) says the U.S. bishops’ report on the Synod on Synodality enumerates tensions but finds hope.
Priests and Pastors, Men and Women
- At an Anglican theological conference in January, UK priest and political commentator The Rev. Calvin Robinson stirred up a long-simmering controversy when he called women’s ordination a “slippery slope” akin to a “Trojan horse” and to “cancer.” Nearly 300 North American Anglicans and a Texas diocese called June 6for a male-only priesthood.
- Just like “a man cannot become a mother and a woman cannot become a father,” it is only men who are called to the priesthood, Cardinal Gerhard Müller said,(“Priester repräsentiert in seinem Mannsein.”) The report comes from translation of the German language partner of the Catholic News Agency.
- At the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting this week in Indianapolis, representatives will vote on whether to amend the denomination’s constitution to essentially ban churches with any women pastors — and not just in the top job. That measure received overwhelming approval in a preliminary vote last year.
- Religious News Service examines the significance of the meeting of Southern Baptists.
- Is it time for the many LGBTQ bishops, priests, deacons, brothers and sisters of the Catholic Church to come out? That’s a question asked at National Catholic Reporter, after news that Pope Francis warned Italian bishops to “keep your eyes open” when considering candidates to their seminaries, and to reject anyone that might be gay.
Cultural Issues and the 2024 Election
If surveys help you make decisions, or if you seek to understand the views of others, this link to Pew Research will give you a treasure chest full of survey results on immigration, gender identity, racial diversity and other views of a changing society. On most – but not all – of these issues, voters who support Joe Biden and Donald Trump have starkly different views. Yet there are differences among supporters of each candidate on many issues, too.
Catholic Trump voters
Heidi Schlumpf, at National Catholic Reporter finds that many Catholics see no choice in upcoming election — even after Trump’s conviction.
Trump and African American voters
The Associated Press reports that Donald Trump seeks to make inroads with African American voters in his third run for the White House, while fresh allegations are surfacing about his disrespectful behavior toward Black people on “ The Apprentice,” the hit reality TV show that launched his political career.
Project 2025
Warning about the far-right Project 2025 agenda for a Donald Trump White House, a group of House Democrats has launched a task force to start fighting the proposal and stop it from taking hold if the Republican former president returns to power. The report from the Associated Press.
Gaza
On Tuesday, an Official briefed by mediators said that neither Hamas or Israel has yet given a formal response to a US-backed plan. A place to find news day-by-day, and at times, hourly, is the Guardian.
Horrors of war in Guatemala
Details of genocide, murders of Catholic religious, are emerging in a Guatemala trial
Guns and Violence
- Should offenders get Jail time for leaving a gun in an unlocked car? Cities are nudging states on firearm laws, according to the Christian Science Monitor.
- Documents reveal horror of Maine’s deadliest mass shooting. Thousands of pages of documents were released by the Maine Department of Public Safety Friday. They include detailed descriptions of the chaos and carnage surrounding the state’s deadliest mass shooting.
Pope’s ‘School of Prayer’
Pope Francis visited with families from St. Bridget of Sweden Parish in Rome’s Palmarola neighborhood on June 6. This was the Holy Father’s third event with the “School of Prayer,” an initiative promoted by the Vatican within the framework of this Year of Prayer and in preparation for the Jubilee 2025.
Pope to meet prominent comedians
Household names such as Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, Conan O’Brian, Chris Rock, and Whoopi Goldberg, will be among the comedians Pope Francis will meet on Friday, 14 June, as he welcomes a group of international comedians and comic artists to the Vatican.
The pope’s summer calendar
The Pope’s current calendar has him taking a break from public liturgies from July 8 to Sept. 1. Prior to that, he is expected to preside over at least three events on his liturgical schedule.
Michael Sean Winters
“New book examines conservative Catholics, and it isn’t pretty.”
Shavuot
- Today is part of the Jewish Feast of Weeks, celebrated every year on the 6th of Sivan. That date is seven weeks after Passover – hence the name – and falls in May or June of the Gregorian calendar. The holiday lasts one day in Israel and two days in the Diaspora.
- A follow-up to an earlier offering: How Monotheistic Israel and Pagan Rome Gave the World Its Weeks. A rivalry between the Jewish numerical and European pagan-astronomical nomenclatures for the seven-day week has played out over millennia across the world. You may have to register to read the full article in Mosaic Magazine,
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