Easter in Ordinary

Image courtesy of PingNews.com  (CC 2.0) Throughout the media, I have been reading retrospectives on the "Financial Crisis of 2008," occasioned by the 10-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers. It strikes me as odd that the touchstone event is so removed from those most adversely affected by the calamity. While I did not know it at the time, the seeds were sown many years prior. The first harvest of destruction was felt by America's vulnerable communities long before the earthquake on Wall Street. Beginning in 2001, I was an associate pastor at St. Stephen Parish in South Bend, IN. Fr. David Porterfield, C.S.C. and I had great hopes for how we could serve South Bend's west side. Gregorio Chavez approached me about opportunities to acquire abandoned properties adjacent to the parish through the county tax sale. Properties that had fallen behind on taxes were available through auction. Year by year, the lists became longer, growing as a many-paged su...

Wrestling with inequality shapes much of current political discourse, it seems, at home and abroad. If you pay attention, you have heard a great deal about growing pay and wealth disparities, the Gini coefficient , and other sundry items, in a growing number of articles and books. The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Affects the Way We Think, Live, and Die by Professor Keith Payne of UNC-Chapel Hill is an important contribution to this growing bundle of literature. Angus Deaton's The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality  established a powerful set of insights around income and life-expectancy, that health and wealth are two measures of quality of life, from the perspective of the economic sciences. Payne adds immense depth from his personal research and that of others in the field of psychology and neuroscience. Both Deaton (a Nobel Prize-winner) and Payne are fine scholars, and these two books are both eminently readable. Both have important scholarly ci...

As 2015 draws to a close, I am filled with gratitude for the opportunity to share books and articles from others that have prompted reflections and thoughts, as well as sharing experiences from the my own journey here. While my weekly collection of "Four Articles and a Poem" draws a certain readership, I have excluded them from this list. Hence, many posts in this list are commentaries and reviews of books. I am especially grateful for the ways that readers have interacted with what I have posted here. Conversation is at the heart of he time that I put into this blog. So, I share a series of my ten favorite posts from the year, posts that help engage us in what I believe to be significant conversations. 50 Ideas for Making Laudato Si' part of Parish Life . My top post of the year is my most viewed and a post that has been subsequently published elsewhere. Pope Francis' Laudato Si' was such a landmark work, I enjoyed writing these  ideas on how to live the ...

Weekly, I post four articles that I found significant and a poem accompanied by some comments about what we can learn from them. Our lives are enriched by seeing better. Each week, one article comes from the world of photography, a discipline that is about seeing. Another article comes from the world of technology, hence seeing something of the future. Another article takes up an aspect of our life together, seeing more clearly the other. Another article refers to faith, seeing the unseen. Finally, the weekly post concludes with a poem, because poetry is about seeing words whose arrangement allows us to see anew. One of the regular criticisms in Pope Francis' challenge to the world is of what he calls a " throwaway culture ." Today, I'd like to ask us to take another look at those who are so easily thrown away and how we might challenge that. Halawa Correctional Facility Makahiki Ceremony 2015 . Kai Markell photographed the inmates at the Halawa Correctional Fa...

This fine book, An Alley in Chicago: The Life and Legacy of Monsignor John Egan , tells an important story of the Church in Chicago before, during, and after the Second Vatican Council through the life and experience of one of the city's more notable inhabitants, Jack Egan. (An earlier, 1991 edition is available for free here .) Simply put, I loved this bittersweet book. Jack Egan , a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, led a life that is difficult to summarize: priest, pastor, community organizer, and activist are but a few words. A teacher once told me, "To tell me who you are, tell me who your friends are." This book, populated by Egan's many friends, tells us a lot about who he was. Many of the names were known to me, certain names were people whom I had met, and a select number of them are people that I have known well, and a few are still with us. The story is bittersweet for three reasons: first, for those recalled in the book who have gone on to their et...

Weekly, I post four articles that I found significant and a poem accompanied by some comments about what we can learn from them. Our lives are enriched by seeing better. Each week, one article comes from the world of photography, a discipline that is about seeing. Another article comes from the world of technology, hence seeing something of the future. Another article takes up an aspect of our life together, seeing more clearly the other. Another article refers to faith, seeing the unseen. Finally, the weekly post concludes with a poem, because poetry is about seeing words whose arrangement allows us to see anew. Thank you, again, for reading this post. I am grateful to those readers who find my weekly reading suggestions interesting or even helpful. I also appreciate your feedback. If you want to include a comment below about the article that most strikes you or how it touches you, I would find that helpful. This week, we look to the new presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church...

As an undergraduate, a wise Jesuit told us, "Whenever you hear it said by the church, 'As the Church has always taught,' hold on to your wallet." This wise priest was suggesting that, whenever the institutional Church, feels the need to reassert the continuity with doctrine, something new is emerging. I am not at all uncomfortable with that. Looking over Church history and the many councils, they have always introduced something new. If they were not, there would be no need to say anything. It is to bring a new understanding into our present moment. The development of doctrine , as articulated by Blessed John Henry Newman and others, helps us to understand theologically this movement. To be honest, I do not intend to offer a protracted  theological analysis of the synod at this point. I have not read as closely as I would like the important documents. I have not heard from important participants. I am just writing about what I hear happening a continent away. ...

Weekly, I post four articles that I found significant and a poem accompanied by some comments about what we can learn from them. Our lives are enriched by seeing better. Each week, one article comes from the world of photography, a discipline that is about seeing. Another article comes from the world of technology, hence seeing something of the future. Another article takes up an aspect of our life together, seeing more clearly the other. Another article refers to faith, seeing the unseen. Finally, the weekly post concludes with a poem, because poetry is about seeing words whose arrangement allows us to see anew. Today, we will review the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, take another look at school shootings, see how ten photographers view inequality, hear from an archbishop at the Synod, and remember Rosa Parks in poetry. Have a great Saturday! How can the development goals be achieved? Last month, the United Nations approved a new set of goals to replace the...

Weekly, I post four articles that I found significant and a poem accompanied by some comments about what we can learn from them. Our lives are enriched by seeing better. Each week, one article comes from the world of photography, a discipline that is about seeing. Another article comes from the world of technology, hence seeing something of the future. Another article takes up an aspect of our life together, seeing more clearly the other. Another article refers to faith, seeing the unseen. Finally, the weekly post concludes with a poem, because poetry is about seeing words whose arrangement allows us to see anew. Among many notable events and articles this week, I have culled four, as usual: a short biography piece on Jake Olson, a favorite photographer from Nebraska, an interview with Angus Deaton, a reflection on our food choices, an article that speaks about how Pope Francis envisions cities in bringing about change. Jake Olson's Dramatic Recovery . Jake Olson, a Nebraskan...

Weekly, I post four articles that I found significant and a poem accompanied by some comments about what we can learn from them. Our lives are enriched by seeing better. Each week, one article comes from the world of photography, a discipline that is about seeing. Another article comes from the world of technology, hence seeing something of the future. Another article takes up an aspect of our life together, seeing more clearly the other. Another article refers to faith, seeing the unseen. Finally, the weekly post concludes with a poem, because poetry is about seeing words whose arrangement allows us to see anew. This week, in technology, we will look at a new metric for relationship compatibility: the credit rating. In our life together, we shall look at a graphic detailing shifts in immigration to the U.S. In faith, given the shooting in Oregon, we'll revisit some words of the Holy Father regarding arms. In photography, David duChemin offers some lovely images and reflection ...

Weekly, I post four articles that I found significant and a poem accompanied by some comments about what we can learn from them. Our lives are enriched by seeing better. Each week, one article comes from the world of photography, a discipline that is about seeing. Another article comes from the world of technology, hence seeing something of the future. Another article takes up an aspect of our life together, seeing more clearly the other. Another article refers to faith, seeing the unseen. Finally, the weekly post concludes with a poem, because poetry is about seeing words whose arrangement allows us to see anew. This week has been all Pope Francis, all the time. With windows for reading and a very few other activities, I have been watching and listening to the Pope's visit. It would be very easy to present the full course of this week through the lens of the Holy Father's visit. Pope Francis Is Not ‘Progressive’—He’s a Priest . While much is made of trying to in...

I just came across an article from The Washington Post , Why Pope Francis’s silence on black America may soon end , and, while it breaks new ground, I would suggest re-focusing some of its conclusions. Take a minute, go read the article, and come back, please. I have been struck in recent months by the challenges before us, as a nation and as a Catholic Church in the U.S., around the issues of race. I was out of the country until the end of March. I watched from abroad as events unfolded in Ferguson, MO. Living in Chile these last years, I perceived anew some of the warped ways that we attend to race in the U.S., ways that are peculiar to our history. Also, in recent months, I have been reading Bryan Stevenson , Michelle Alexander , john a. powell , and Ta-Naheisi Coates . Increasingly, issues around race, structural racism, and implicit bias have been a growing concern for me. The Pew Research Center recently ranked Catholics as among the most racially diverse faiths in the ...

Weekly, I post four articles that I found significant and a poem. Our lives are enriched by seeing better. Each week, one article comes from the world of photography, a discipline that is about seeing. Another article comes from the world of technology, hence seeing something of the future. Another article takes up an aspect of our life together, seeing more clearly the other. Another article refers to faith, seeing the unseen. Finally, the weekly post concludes with a poem, because poetry is about seeing words whose arrangement allows us to see anew. This week, I will forgo the article on photography as I would like to draw our eyes to something else. We have significant choices before us: a deal with Iran, a presidential election, what we will eat today, all with consequences, even if we are oblivious to them. I admit that I am constructing a "straw man" here amid newsmakers of our day, concluding with a familiar poem, while suggesting an unfamiliar interpretatio...

Weekly, I post four articles that I found significant and a poem. Our lives are enriched by seeing better. Each week, one article comes from the world of photography, a discipline that is about seeing. Another article comes from the world of technology, hence seeing something of the future. Another article takes up an aspect of our life together, seeing more clearly the other. Another article refers to faith, seeing the unseen. Finally, the weekly post concludes with a poem, because poetry is about seeing words whose arrangement allows us to see anew. Here in the U.S., it is Labor Day Weekend. We have some additional time to renew ourselves, to spend some time with family and friends, but also to read. Teaching With Documents:Photographs of Lewis Hine: Documentation of Child Labor . I sometimes ask myself: "What story do my collection of images tell?" In honor of Labor Day, I would like to direct your attention to Lewis Hine , a New York City teacher and photographer, ...

A recent article from the Associated Press bears the headline: " Minority of US Catholics Know Pope's Climate Views ." Frankly, I am disturbed by the articles contents. After the initial tide of articles and comments and news reports, I am alarmed that so many Catholics, especially American Catholics, remain uninformed, unmoved, and uncommitted. Also alarming is how only 23% of Catholics said that they heard about it at mass. In other words, many of our priests are neither preaching about it nor lifting it up in one way or another. The Associated Press explains that the encyclical Laudato Si' "had a rollout unlike any other." Pope Francis has done the heavy lifting. The rollout was unprecedented. He speaks of the encyclical at home (at the Vatican) and abroad (his visit to Latin America and, no doubt, during his upcoming visit to the U.S.), but, so far, few hearts and minds have been changed. We need to do our part . It is not enough to leave it in th...

Mature, public conversation about issues that matter is foundational for democratic society. I am delighted that Mark Zuckerberg's " A Year of Books " offers such an opportunity. To contribute to that dialog, I will offer commentary on each of the readings proposed by Zuckerberg. Let me begin with a confession: in the Spring of 1989, I took "Introduction to Biotechnology" as a first-year student at the University of Notre Dame. I vaguely recalled that I may have taken the course, but only examination of my transcript confirmed it for me. I recall none of the readings. My transcript also alerts me to the fact that I did not put the necessary effort into the class. My only consolation may be to see how far human knowledge has advanced from 1989 via Matt Ridley 's excellent 2000 book: Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters , although I would love to see how Ridley might update the book to reflect our learnings in the past 15 years. Oxford e...

Weekly, I post four articles that I found significant and a poem and some comments about what we can learn from them. Our lives are enriched by seeing better. Each week, one article comes from the world of photography, a discipline that is about seeing. Another article comes from the world of technology, hence seeing something of the future. Another article takes up an aspect of our life together, seeing more clearly the other. Another article refers to faith, seeing the unseen. Finally, the weekly post concludes with a poem, because poetry is about seeing words whose arrangement allows us to see anew. Tomorrow, August 9, is the 72nd anniversary of the death of Franz Jägerstätter , and it is the 70th anniversary of the bomb on Nagasaki . It is also the anniversary of Michael Brown's death in Ferguson, MO. We would do well to pray for peace. U.S. Mayors Say Ferguson Could Happen To Us . According to Politico.com, nine out of ten mayors surveyed expressed concern about ...