Wisdom Wednesday | May 4th

AUSCP NewsMay 4Roundup

Who is in charge here? Instead of Father, can it be Miss or Mister, Brother or Sister? Yes, it can! says Pope Francis. Reform of Church governance starts June 5, and ordination is not required. Hang on!

But first we take a look at the Supreme Court draft leaked out Monday and confess that items this week were selected Tuesday and may be outdated on this Wednesday morning. Politico broke the news that a Supreme Court draft opinion indicates that Roe v. Wade will be overturned.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/02/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinion-00029473?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20220503&instance_id=60270&nl=the-morning&regi_id=62737968&segment_id=91101&te=1&user_id=3f9ab1bf5e560050ae772907b2034587

Among outlets following up was the Associated Press.

https://apnews.com/article/roe-wade-supreme-court-leaked-draft-opinion-c6a923f6e370672f4a5ccfd3be325786?user_email=82aedef706c090b79757fac5e3c26c8bd857aa8b736f3bc36a8dec58b5b58d99&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=May03_MorningWire&utm_content=A&utm_term=Morning%20Wire%20Subscribers

The U.S. bishops have not responded to the report, but have long provided the Catholic position, such as this fact sheet from the Committee on Pro-Life Activities, on human life and dignity.

https://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/abortion/respect-for-unborn-human-life

The other Abrahamic traditions have multiple positions. For example, Muslim law forbids abortion, but there are exceptions.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/islamethics/abortion_1.shtml

Among others, the view of the National Council of Jewish Women is clear.

https://www.ncjw.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Judaism-and-Abortion-FINAL.pdf

A last word on this topic. Check out Walking with Moms in Need, one way Catholic communities “walk in the shoes” of local pregnant and parenting women in need.

https://www.walkingwithmoms.com

Vatican Reform: Who is in charge here?

The Second Vatican Council did not settle the question. Nor did the revised 1983 Code of Canon Law, but Rome has spoken: the power of governance in the Church does not come from the sacrament of Orders, but from the canonical mission, says Austen Ivereigh.

https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/rome-mission?utm_source=Main+Reader+List&utm_campaign=7287748369-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_03_16_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_407bf353a2-7287748369-92568831

MassimoFaggioli examines the reform of the Curia by Pope Francis and concludes that what Francis has just carried out can only be understand in historical perspective.

https://international.la-croix.com/news/signs-of-the-times/curia-reform-something-old-and-something-new-and-whats-yet-to-come/15869

Faggioli also examines episcopal collegiality and the theology of the laity as part of a reconciliation between Catholicism and democracy. He says this reconciliation is now in danger of ending, or least being seriously disrupted, in our current age of political and ecclesial anger — and globalization.

https://international.la-croix.com/news/signs-of-the-times/a-shifting-world-and-the-political-loyalties-of-a-globalized-vatican/16005?utm_source=NewsLetter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=3May22mailjet

On the topic of church leadership, Christopher White reports that women religious are blazing new trails in roles of authority at the Vatican.

https://www.globalsistersreport.org/news/religious-life/news/women-religious-blaze-new-trails-roles-authority-vatican?utm_source=NCR+List&utm_campaign=06c9b8d581-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2022_04_29_09_28&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6981ecb02e-06c9b8d581-230583134

The sisters’ Superior Generals are meeting this week, discussing vulnerability and synodality.

https://www.globalsistersreport.org/gsr-series/uisg-2022-plenary/stories?utm_source=NCR+List&utm_campaign=06c9b8d581-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2022_04_29_09_28&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6981ecb02e-06c9b8d581-230583134

The Synodal Process

In a keynote address delivered at a conference for and with a group of U.S. bishops March 25-26 in Chicago, Archbishop Hector Miguel Cabrejos Vidarte, president of the Latin American bishops’ council, or CELAM, reflects on the deepening of ecclesiality in a synodal framework.

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/latin-american-synodal-conversion-process-lessons-learned-challenges-and-hopes?utm_source=NCR+List&utm_campaign=8fc981327b-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2022_05_02_10_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6981ecb02e-8fc981327b-230583134

LGBTQ ministry

James Martin, S.J., has been serving the marginalized ever since he joined the Society of Jesus. He has worked with street gangs, the sick and dying, refugees in East Africa and prison inmates and people experiencing homelessness. “So the L.G.B.T. work just sort of made sense,” Father Martin, editor at large for Americasaid in a recent interview.

https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2022/05/02/outreach-catholic-lgbt-242917?utm_source=piano&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2928&pnespid=6KJ2UyRMLKlEw6SepjPtCY2DtheqWJhqLvmsxOc5ogBmQiLxhDUwEPp2T48IzEgZTaPfLZ8U

Many high school students have reported experiencing mental health challenges during the coronavirus outbreak, according to recently published survey findings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). High school students who are gay, lesbian or bisexual, as well as girls, were especially likely to say their mental health has suffered during the pandemic.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/04/25/in-cdc-survey-37-of-u-s-high-school-students-report-regular-mental-health-struggles-during-covid-19/?utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&utm_campaign=65d52fd913-Weekly_2022_04_30&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3e953b9b70-65d52fd913-401042030

Three-parent IVF

Australia has become the second country after the United Kingdom to legalize a fertility procedure that mixes genetic material from three people. It works like this: The nucleus from a donor egg is replaced with the nucleus from the mother’s egg, leaving the donor’s healthy mitochondria intact while keeping nearly all of the mother’s DNA. The combined egg is then fertilized with sperm through in-vitro fertilization and transferred to the uterus of the mother so she can carry the pregnancy. The procedure is often referred to as “three-parent IVF,” because the baby has DNA from three biological parents.

https://www.wired.com/story/australia-moves-ahead-cautiously-with-3-parent-ivf/?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=wired&utm_mailing=WIR_Daily_050222_FastForward&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&utm_content=WIR_Daily_050222_FastForward&bxid=5bd6713f2ddf9c6194390005&cndid=24531570&esrc=bounceX&source=EDT_WIR_NEWSLETTER_0_TRANSPORTATION_ZZ&mbid=mbid%3DCRMWIR012019%0A%0A&utm_term=WIR_TopClickers_EXCLUDE_Transportation

 

Death Penalty

Melissa Lucio, a Texas woman sentenced to die for the death of her infant daughter, has been granted a stay of execution following pressure from local government officials, national celebrities, and the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. The order was handed down on Monday (April 25) by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which called for a review of Lucio’s case in light of evidence that the 53-year-old mother of 14 might in fact be innocent.

https://www.blackcatholicmessenger.com/melissa-lucio-stay-of-execution/

Is it working now? Two executions that were planned for a single day last month reveal the pitfalls of lethal injection,

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/lethal-injection-carl-buntion-texas-death-row/629735/

Laudato Si’

Thanks to Marilyn Antonik for a link to the upcoming Laudato Si’ Week, May 22-29.

https://laudatosiweek.org

Laudato Si’ Week 2022, to be held May 22-29, will mark the seventh anniversary of Pope Francis’ landmark encyclical on creation care.

https://catholicclimatecovenant.org/news/laudato-si-week-2022

The Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development offers resources to promote this observance.

https://www.humandevelopment.va/en/news/2022/lancio-della-laudato-si-week-lsw-2022.html

Muslims mark Eid al-Fitr holiday with joy, worry

This year, Muslims around the world are observing Eid al-Fitr in the shadow of a surge in global food prices exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.

https://religionnews.com/2022/05/02/muslims-mark-eid-al-fitr-holiday-with-joy-worry/

Ramadan came back to mosques this year, but home prayer rooms are here to stayDuring the pandemic, many Muslim families set aside special areas in their houses for prayer and decorated them accordingly.

https://religionnews.com/2022/05/02/ramadan-came-back-to-mosques-this-year-but-home-prayer-rooms-are-here-to-stay/

 

Pssst! Wanna read a banned book?

Daily Kos has launched a book club to hear directly from authors being targeted by right-wing extremists. The first book is All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson.

Sign up at this link.
Add your name: I read banned books!

How can preachers break through the noise of today’s world?

Readers of U.S.Catholic weigh in on the homilies that inspire them—and the ones that put them to sleep.

https://uscatholic.org/articles/202204/what-makes-a-good-homily/

God. Grit. Gotham.

Here is a link to a podcast from two women, Roxanne Stone and Katelyn Beaty, who capture what happens “when purity culture meets hookup culture.” Not for everybody.

https://religionnews.com/saved-by-the-city/

Life after Babel

In the Book of Genesis, we are told that the descendants of Noah built a great city in the land of Shinar. They built a tower “with its top in the heavens” to “make a name” for themselves. God was offended – and you know what happened! Author Jonathan Haidt says the story of Babel “is the best metaphor I have found for what happened to America in the 2010s . . . .  We are disoriented, unable to speak the same language or recognize the same truth.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=atlantic-daily-newsletter&utm_content=20220502&utm_term=The%20Atlantic%20Daily

You can’t make this stuff up

Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene says Satan is in charge of the U.S. bishops. Bill Donohue of the Catholic League says, ‘She is a disgrace.’

https://religionnews.com/2022/04/28/marjorie-taylor-greene-feuds-with-conservatives-catholics-over-satan-remarks-border-bishops-satan/

 

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We hope you have enjoyed this roundup of recent news about faith, politics, and culture. We will return next week with another edition of Wisdom Wednesday.

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