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This link will keep 'parishioners-at-large' in touch with current creative liturgy sources and resources that respect a variety of 'traditions' within the Church.

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A 'movement' of lay Catholics 'inspired' by the abuse scandal calling for greater accountability of bishops to 'Catholics in the Pew.'

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Daily Scripture

+ 7th Week of Easter

“Parting is such sweet sorrow.”

Readings: Acts 20:17-27 Psalm 68:10-11, 20-21 John 17:1-11

I am in the world no longer, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. [John 17:11]

Shakespeare ‘penned’ the phrase quoted above. I didn’t understand it as a student of Shakespeare in high school but I began to understand it when I waved goodbye to my family as I sailed off to Italy on September 21, 1963 for a three-year stretch in Rome. In fact, it has multiple meanings and applications that I appreciate now more than ever before.

There is another phrase that perhaps gives credence to my thoughts so poorly expressed and it’s this: “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” Ah, that’s it. At times we need to separate from ‘the source’ in order to appreciate how important it is to stay connected.

The farewell speech of St. Paul in Acts and the farewell ‘prayer’ of Jesus in John’s gospel were more likely composed by the authors of these texts along the lines of the farewell speeches of great leaders of their times in order to attract the attention of Jesus’ followers.

The departure of Jesus and later that of Paul created ‘fallow’ time in the hearts of the neophyte believers that was absolutely necessary if they were to grasp the significance of Jesus’ message and the teachings of St. Paul.

We are once again in ‘fallow’ time as we prepare for Pentecost. It’s a time of discernment during which we are invited to ponder the words and deeds of Jesus so that in his absence, we may come to know his presence in the Spirit that remains within us and around us.

As we ponder, it is important to reflect on the gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and reverence of the Lord. And the fruits of the Holy Spirit are qualities that are characteristic of a community living in Christ: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty self-control and chastity.

There is much to ponder as we wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.

Guest Editorial - Op Ed

Friday February 24, 2012

Website Editorial Note: At the risk of the accusation of politicking, I am posting this editorial as published on…Read full entry

Guest Editorial - Op Ed

Thursday February 9, 2012

It is time for the Obama administration to admit it overstepped a boundary when it issued a mandate requiring coverage…Read full entry

Guest Opinion worthy of Note

Tuesday November 8, 2011

I thought this ‘reprint’ from the National Catholic Reporter was worthy of your attention. Among the man ‘erudite’ commentaries on…Read full entry

Editorial - Op Ed

Tuesday September 21, 2010

It won’t go away until it’s fixed ... and it’s more than a matter of conversion. There is a…Read full entry

Editorial - Op Ed

Sunday September 5, 2010

As i watch the media coverage of the proposed construction of the mosque two blocks from the site of the…Read full entry

Guest Editorial

Sunday June 6, 2010

A Pattern of Missteps, an editorial from COMMONWEAL Magazine. June 4, 2010 Apart from such political blunders, recent pastoral failures within the…Read full entry

Editorial - Op Ed

Monday September 7, 2009

Prophecy has its privileges but it also has its risks! Most of those who know me, also know that I am…Read full entry

Editorial - Op Ed

Saturday August 29, 2009

Bishop decries ‘combative tactics’ of a minority of U.S. bishops Published on National Catholic Reporter (http://ncronline.org) Albuquerque, NM A majority of U.S. bishops…Read full entry

The Grace of Good Friday

Friday March 21, 2008

Jesus is dead! Banks are closed. No mail delivery today. Off to Nassau and the islands for a break? or instead to Disneyworld? Color Easter…Read full entry

Open Letter to US Bishops

Thursday June 21, 2007

Last Sunday in observance of the fifth anniversary of the meeting of the US bishops in Dallas to hear the…Read full entry

Editorial - Op Ed

Sunday June 3, 2007

I have been thinking about drafting an ‘editorial / op-ed’ piece entitled, ‘The Catholic Wink.’ It’s a glib term…Read full entry

Editorial - Op Ed

Monday March 19, 2007

It’s a matter of conscience For several weeks in succession, I repeated the ‘pulpit’ announcement at the conclusion of Mass at…Read full entry

Tomorrow's Priests - a 'guest' editorial

Saturday January 13, 2007

November 3, 2006 / Volume CXXXIII, Number 19 EDITORIAL – COMMONWEAL Magazine The Catholic priesthood in…Read full entry

Unanswered Question Linger...

Tuesday January 9, 2007

Boston Globe on the Fifth Anniversary of Disclosure By Steven Krueger | January 7, 2007 It couldn’t be stated more…Read full entry

Guest Editorial - Op Ed

Friday February 24, 2012

Website Editorial Note: At the risk of the accusation of politicking, I am posting this editorial as published on the COMMONWEAL Magazine website, a respected liberal lay Catholic publication. Notwithstanding its liberal bent, COMMONWEAL has not been reticent to engage liberals as well as conservatives in a healthy debate about issues vital to our Church and our nation. I have stated it on more than one occasion on this website that I am a radical centrist. I believe in true dialogue. There is a greater chance that a new truth will emerge when good people engage in open and sincere dialogue. The new truth may not be mine or yours; it may emerge as God’s truth.

I don’t know about you, but I have had it with the name-calling and the endless defamation of character not only against our president, but of Republican candidates against one another.

Talk Radio/TV on the left or right is not helpful. They simply add fuel to the fire. And the tragedy of it all is that polls indicate that negative campaigning (mud-slinging) is more effective in gaining votes than an honest presentation of what candidates believe.

Let me add that I find the so-called satire presently being broadcast about such vital and sacred issues as abortion or about such personages as the Pope not only disruptive and disturbing but also abhorrent. And as a minority of one, I do not find amusing the satire of either Steve Colbert or John Stewart. Oh, and just for the record, I am ‘pro-life’—pro-life across the entire spectrum. This includes respect for the living, especially children and vulnerable adults who continue to suffer the ravaging effects of sexual abuse. In the words of one respected priest-advocate, they are victims of soul slayers.

As for me, I am far from having made a decision about who will get my vote next November. I hope that I will make a decision based on objective criteria not on one issue but on many issues that impact upon the common good and the wellbeing of our nation and our church. Yes, faithful Catholics can still be Republican or Democrat or even Independent. Integrity is more important than one’s political affiliation. [Fr. Lasch]

“President Other”
Obama as alien
Created 02/24/2012 – 1:08pm
COMMONWEAL Magazine Website
E. J. Dionne Jr.

They say that President Obama is a Muslim, but if he isn’t, he’s a secularist who is waging war on religion. On some days he’s a Nazi, but on most others he’s merely a socialist. His especially creative opponents see him as having a “Kenyan anti-colonial worldview,” while the less adventurous say he’s an elitist who spent too much time in Cambridge, Hyde Park and other excessively academic precincts.

Whatever our president is, he is never allowed to be a garden-variety American who plays basketball and golf, has a remarkably old-fashioned family life, and, in the manner we regularly recommend to our kids, got ahead by getting a good education.

Please forgive this outburst. It’s simply astonishing that a man in his fourth year as our president continues to be the object of the most extraordinary paranoid fantasies. A significant part of his political opposition still cannot accept that Obama is a rather moderate politician quite conventional in his tastes and his interests. And now that the economy is improving, short-circuiting easy criticisms, Obama’s adversaries are reheating all the old tropes and cliches and slanders.

True, some of this is driven by cable television (a venue in which I acknowledge regularly participating). Attacks designed to gin up the conservative base are quickly recycled to gin up outrage within Obama’s own base. Moreover, Obama is not the first president caught up in the rank unpleasantness of this particularly unforgiving political moment. A quick Google search will unearth references to George W. Bush as a “Nazi,” and Bill Clinton’s Republican opponents went so far as to impeach him in a shameful episode of extreme partisanship.

On those Hitler metaphors: Can we please agree to a voluntary cross-party ban on invoking the Fuhrer in the context of American politics? Only dictators who commit genocide against millions qualify for this odious comparison. It trivializes Hitler’s crimes to use Nazi references as everyday epithets.

But there is something especially rancid about the never-ending efforts to turn Obama into a stranger, an alien, a Manchurian Candidate with a diabolical hidden agenda. Are we trying to undo all the good it did us with the rest of the world when we elected an African-American with a middle name popular among Muslims?

In my experience, even Americans who voted against Obama were proud that our nation showed friend and foe alike that we are a special place. We know it’s wrong to judge people by their race or lineage, and we so value religious freedom and openness that we elected a Christian convert who is the son of a Muslim father and an agnostic mother to lead us at one of our most difficult moments.

Yet many in the anti-Obama camp just can’t stop themselves from playing on fears that electing a man who defies old stereotypes was a terrible mistake. Thus did the Rev. Franklin Graham assert Tuesday on MSNBC not only that Muslims regard Obama as “a son of Islam” (because his father was Muslim), but also that “under President Obama, the Muslims of the world, he seems to be more concerned about them than the Christians that are being murdered in the Muslim countries.” Thus is a legitimate concern about the persecution of Christians transformed into a slander.

In the meantime, Republican presidential candidates want to take a disagreement over whether and how contraception should be covered in plans issued under the new heath-care law and turn it into a war against religion itself. “Unfortunately, possibly because of the people the president hangs around with, and their agenda, their secular agenda—they have fought against religion,” declared Mitt Romney.

It’s another breathtaking slander to label Obama’s choice as an attack on religion altogether—and I say this as someone who strongly opposed the president’s initial decision not to offer any accommodation to religiously affiliated institutions on contraception.

And how strange it is that Obama’s critics imply that he’s a Muslim and also condemn him as a secularist. He must be terribly clever—maybe it’s that fancy education of his—to be both.

As for Obama as a socialist, ponder two numbers: 13,005, which the Dow Jones average hit earlier this week, up from a low point of 6,547 in March 2009. Some socialist.

We are blessed with the freedom to say whatever we want about our president. But those who cast Obama as something other than one of us don’t understand him, and don’t understand what it means to be American.

(c) 2012, Washington Post Writers Group

Source URL: http://commonwealmagazine.org/president-other