Wisdom Wednesday | November 24th

Wisdom Wednesday today offers a series of quotations to ponder and discuss during your Thanksgiving weekend. We also have an invitation to get involved in the ongoing engagement of Vatican II. We include reaction to the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict, COP26 and the U.S. bishops’ assembly. A critical question comes from reading a Children’s Bible: “Does God love boys more than girls?” And we have a tongue-in-cheek proposal for the U.S. bishops to take up more big questions, like how to use the confessional and the question of whether cats have prevenient grace.

A divinely ordained license to kill.”

Robert P Jones, writing for Religion News Service, offers perhaps the three most powerful words of reaction to the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict: God help us.

Disappointment. Frustration. Hypocrisy.”

If you read about what Los Angeles Archbishop Gomez said to some Catholic leaders in Spain, your reaction likely reflects your own view of social justice movements. Here we offer a view from inside Gomez’s archdiocese.

Mom, does God love boys more than girls?”

If you teach children, or minister to families with children, here’s a new look at the stories in a Children’s Bible.

When I feed the poor, I’m called a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, I’m called a communist.”

You have probably seen this quotation before, from Archbishop Hélder Câmara. today, take a look at Paulo Freire, the father of what is known as critical pedagogy – and how his teaching is intertwined with Liberation Theology.

Disappointing.”

That’s how the outcome of the COP26 Climate summit in Glasgow was described by Bishop John Arnold, who leads the Catholic environment cause for England and Wales. Hundreds of people from many denominations and faiths continued to pray as the UN summit came to a close.

“Our faith urges us to respond to the crisis,” writes Ellen Teague in The Tablet. 

Simply start somewhere, and start somewhere local.”

Robert P. Jones offers 7 things white Christians can do to address white supremacy at church.

Blessed is the bishop who makes poverty and sharing his lifestyle because with his witness he is building the kingdom of heaven.”

Pope Francis shares 8 Beatitudes for Bishops, giving a model for the 21st-century pastor.

I’ve long subscribed to the notion that a sermon is only as good as a preacher’s last pastoral call.”

Peter W. Marty writes from his experience, for The Christian Century.

Eucharist document will quiety go away, but bishops’ ineffectiveness remains.”

That’s from an editorial by National Catholic Reporter.

Also, we have a report about what the bishops did at their general asembly, accordingt o the bishops.

And, finally,

Please [dear bishops] give a ‘strong pastoral suggestion’ against cats being blessed. Cats do not need to be blessed, do not want to be blessed, hate being blessed.”

This request comes from a tongue-in-cheek list of topics proposed for the next big meeting of the U.S. bishops, in America Magazine.

Happy Thanksgiving

We wrap up the week with a hope and prayer for a Happy Thanksgiving, and an invitation from the AUSCP working group with a Vatican II focus.

The working group on promoting Vatican II in the 21st century had our first zoom meeting Monday, November 22, 2021. We discussed three important teachings of Vatican II that we think can have an impact at the present time, namely the People of God image from the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, the Church in the Modern World from the document of that same name and religious liberty from the declaration on Religious Freedom. We are eager to find ways to see how these teachings from Vatican II relate to the present and hence renew interest in the principles and practices of Vatican II.

We were four attending this first session, Gene Pocernich, Bob Bonnot, Kevin Clinton and Louis Arceneaux. We welcome other AUSCP members and Friends to our next session, December 6 at 10 AM central time. If interested contact Kevin by email at Kevin@kevindome.com.