Franciscan Mission Service – new missioner Michael Redell in Bolivia. Feet on the ground and beginning the journey – http://ow.ly/97pXg

My Franciscan brother, Dan Horan OFM, posted this interesting piece over at his blog: Dating God.  You can read the post here. Within Dan’s post, there is a link to Fr. Richard Malloy’s piece:  “You are Worthy: Helping Young Adults Learn to See Themselves as God Sees Them.” in American Magazine. Both are worth the read.

“He shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp” (Lev 13:46) – frightening and dreadful words.  Spoken to a people in the wilderness, a people on the Exodus betwixt and between the slavery of Egypt and the promised land of Palestine. These are words spoken about brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers.

Can you imagine being on this long journey to freedom in which your entire life is comprised of the people with whom you travel.  There are no others. They are your life. The ones on whom your depend to carry the burdens of the encampment – searching for firewood, mending clothing, tending the livestock, repairing the tents, finding and hauling water, and the list goes on. They are the ones upon whom you depend for safety, for hunting. The one with whom you sit around the fires at night telling the stories of the Exodus, the time of slavery, time of Father Abraham and Mother Sarah. The stories of who you were and who you are.  There are no others. They are your life. Continue reading →

Sixth Sunday – Gospel insights: “Jesus, the Leper and God’s Desire for Us” by Dan Horan, OFM
http://ow.ly/92m91

There is perhaps no single theme which embodies – at least in one word – the life of St. Francis of Assisi.  But Francis was not born to a simple way of life, rather he was born into a world emerging from the feudal period of European history in a time when the merchant class was rising in power in the new era of trade and the novel notion of money.

What was it that made Giovanni Bernardone, son of wealthy cloth merchant Pietro, eventually become the one known to history as Francis of Assisi? It is a story of a movement from the trends and standards of the society around him to one in which he began to refound his life upon the Gospel – to take the values of the Word of God as the guide to life – his entire life and then be converted. Continue reading →

HHS has finalized its rules regarding the requirements for organization to participate in and provide health care insurance/coverage for its employees.  As noted in the news and from press releases by the US Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB), the Church has registered its strong objections to the mandate to provide elements of health care coverage that are against the moral teaching of the Church. The regulations require the church and church-affiliated organization to provide coverage in the area of artificial birth control and abortion services.

The rules are now in place and require the Church to comply. One might ask, “Surely there is a exemption clause provided in the regulation?”  And there is – any institution that does “religious work” is exempt.  The problem is the new regulations define what constitutes religious work. Under the regulations “religious work” is that done by a recognized religious organization by it members for the primary purpose of its members. The work of a Catholic hospital does not qualify for an exemption – nor would virtually any Catholic school, university, soup kitchen, local Catholic Charity service, or any other Catholic social service agency. There are serious questions whether the Diocese of St Petersburg qualifies for an exemption. Continue reading →

In the world of the current political conservatives, there is a fondness of the political philosophy of Edmund Burke the Irish-born member of the English parliament who is remembered for his support of the cause of the American Revolutionaries, and for his later opposition to the French Revolution. Burke was praised by both conservatives and liberals in the 19th century. Since the 20th century, he has generally been viewed as the philosophical founder of modern Conservatism. Continue reading →

From Gary Gutting – How to Argue Politics (from NY Times opinion section)

“In particular, there is a basic tension between the two main elements of the conservative view: Christian ethical values and the free enterprise system. Christian morality is a matter of love for others and self-sacrifice on their behalf. A market economy assumes that all agents (employers, workers, buyers, sellers) act in their own selfish interests. The problem is evident in the New Testament’s unease with the wealthy and sympathy for the poor; see, for example, Matthew 13: 22, Mark 10: 23-25 and James 5: 1-3. Continue reading →