Wisdom Wednesday | September 4

Welcome to the first Wednesday in September following the first Monday of the month when we observed Labor Day. (Easier to determine than Easter!) American bishops called for honoring “human dignity of all who labor” and specifically for protection of working moms. In early September, Wisdom Wednesday finds a bountiful harvest of political news – and political views – for your almost autumnal pondering, and we note that October will bring the second session of the Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod on Synodality. And wait till you read what Tom Reese has to say about women deacons!

Labor Day 2024

• What US Catholic Bishops said on Labor Day: Honor “Human Dignity of All Who Labor.’” They pointed to the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard in Matthew 20:1-16.
• The century-old Rerum Novarum is still a guide to just labor, according to US Catholic. “Our society still hasn’t implemented the just labor principles laid out in this encyclical from the 1800s.”
• A staff writer at the National Catholic Register offers his thoughts, concluding, “In Our Labor, We Participate in God’s Plan for Creation.” Peter Laffin says “Our work forms us. It strengthens our character and cultivates our integrity. It deepens our love and gratitude for all that we receive from the grace of God.”
• Labor Day may be in the past, but there is a lot of work ahead to do – especially for parishes, dioceses and other institutions to push for policies that put Catholic labor teaching into practice. From National Catholic Register.
• The US bishops are urging Senate passage of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and “social policies in ways that are pro-woman, pro-family, pro-worker and, thus, authentically pro-life.”

Travels with Pope Francis

• After arriving in Jakarta on Tuesday morning for the first leg of his apostolic visit to four Pacific nations, Pope Francis was welcomed by children and migrants on the eve of the official Welcome Ceremony at the Presidential Palace.
• In a background story on the pope’s journey, National Catholic Register notes that Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, where the pope seeks to promote religious harmony and interfaith dialogue between Christians and Muslims.
• From Vatican News: Interreligious dialogue is at the heart of Pope’s visit to Indonesia. The story quotes an Indonesian priest, who is an official at the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, who speaks of the significance of the Pope’s 45th Apostolic Journey abroad.
• Read today’s Vatican news about the pope’s travels and other matters, at Vatican News.

Synod, soon

The Vatican has published the pope’s schedule for October liturgical celebrations. The Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff highlights the opening and closing celebrations for the second session of the Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod on Synodality and a Mass with the canonization of Blesseds.

Catholic Voting in 2024 – Your Conscience, Your Vote

• Religion News Service offers “Platforming religion: The Dems’ and GOP’s official positions compared“. The article covers “What the parties have to say — and not say — on the subject as the 2024 campaign heads into the homestretch.”
• Viewpoint: An advocacy group says Project 2025 clashes with principles of Catholic social teaching.
• Viewpoint: Anti-Trump evangelical Christians make the case for Harris. The group is trying to help religious conservatives see Harris as the more biblically faithful of the two candidates.
• Analysis: “Russian foreign policy experts express zero enthusiasm for another Donald Trump presidency, should he win the upcoming election.” The Christian Science Monitor concludes that “one term of Mr. Trump in the White House . . . was the worst four years of [Russian] lives. The widespread view in Moscow now seems to be that U.S. hostility to Russia is hardwired, and unlikely to change regardless of whoever becomes president.”
• News report: The Harris-Walz campaign has hired the Rev. Jen Butler, longtime activist, to lead faith outreach. A familiar face among Washington’s faith-based activists, Butler said she brings “a broad set of relationships that I think can help, very quickly, pull a broad coalition together” in a foreshortened Harris campaign.
• Opinion from Phyllis Zagano: “Harris promises a new way forward. Would that the pope would do the same.” Zagano says “the Democratic convention brought more hope, especially to women, than Pope Francis.”
• Report from Heidi Schlumpf at NCR: Catholics at the DNC conclude “You won’t go to hell for voting Democratic.”
• The Democrats went back, according to an opinion published by Religion News Service: Democrats need to be done with the Death Penalty. “We are not going back,” goes the Democrats’ passionate rebuttal to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign . . . . MAGA is in actuality MAWA: ‘Make America white again.’ But as the festivities finished up in Chicago, the Democrats quietly removed abolishing the death penalty from the party platform, a move that certainly will not help them distinguish themselves from Trump and win this election.
• Pew research offers three quick reads:
  • 10 facts about Democrats in the U.S.
  • 10 facts about Republicans in the U.S.
  • Third-party and independent candidates for president often fall short of early polling numbers.

Women and the Diaconate

• Opinion from Tom Reese: If women cannot be deacons, we should stop ordaining men deacons.
• Editorial stance of National Catholic Reporter: Pope Francis, it’s time to release the women deacons report

Also in the news

• Pope Francis condemns Ukraine’s ban on Russian Orthodox Church. “Churches are not to be touched!” Pope Francis said after Ukraine approved a law banning churches tied to Russia.
• Georgia has unveiled a statue of John Lewis. It stands on symbolic ground.

Other faiths in practice

• U.S. Latinas are embracing spiritual practices outside traditional religion. Many U.S. Latinas have turned to sound healing while seeking spiritual practices outside of traditional religion.
• Brazilians marched for Eshu, an Afro-Brazilian deity, to protest Christian intolerance in their country. The march in honor of the orisha Eshu drew some 150,000 people in São Paulo recently, considered a rebuke to the rise of evangelical Christians’ political power.
• Brazilian Christian groups oppose a bill punishing abortion similarly to homicide. “Being against abortion, however, cannot be confused with the desire to see the woman who practices it behind bars,” said one statement from a group of Catholic priests.
• AME Church delegates name six new bishops while retaining same-sex marriage ban. In a joint address, AME bishops called for the creation of “accountability measures for every elected and appointed leader within our church.”

Memorial service today for military chaplain

With his canonization cause open, Servant of God Father Vincent Capodanno’s heroic and virtuous life is remembered every Sept. 4 with a memorial Mass in the Crypt Church of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, will celebrate this annual Mass, which EWTN will broadcast live on Wednesday, Sept. 4, at 6:30 p.m. Eastern.

Just for fun

Here are three of 101 church signs collected by a company that sells signs, and a link to the rest.

1. God recycles. He made you from dust.
2. Always remember that Hell is really un-cool.
3. Jesus is God’s selfie.

Read the rest!