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Friday, March 29, 2024

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Commentary

Language — veiling or unveiling moral truth?

To sanction or encourage certain wrongful actions, it is often necessary to manipulate language. The plain meaning of words can get in the way of convincing others they should tolerate or participate in wrongdoing, or otherwise embrace situations of evil or injustice. Verbal obfuscation becomes necessary to veil evident moral truths.

St. Christopher, Martyr

St. Christopher is a highly revered saint even though the information about his life is more legend than fact. For centuries he had a prominent place on the General Roman Liturgical Calendar with a feast day on July 25, but it was removed in 1969 because there is not enough credible historical evidence to support it. St. James the Greater, apostle and martyr, is celebrated on July 25, while an optional memorial to St. Christopher is allowable on the same day. The Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates St. Christopher’s memorial on May 9.

I hear the cries of pain

As a Catholic deacon, police chaplain and former teacher, I have worked or lived — as a homeowner or apartment dweller — in every police precinct in Minneapolis (except downtown) over the years since 1969.

Being a prophet in difficult times

Information transfer is at its peak performance — good, bad or indifferent. All that glitters or glooms, that sharpens or dulls, that passes or stays is right here before you and your family.

Online or in-class: Catholic schools meet the need

In the eight days between March 15 and March 23, Catholic schools in this community — and across the country — bundled up their faith communities, their values-based instructional practices, and their rich, historic cultures and redeployed them in the homes of the children they serve.

How Catholic organizations are weathering the pandemic

It is no surprise that Catholic dioceses, parishes, schools and organizations have been profoundly affected by the coronavirus pandemic. With unemployment impacting so many Catholic families, as well as the canceling of Masses and their offertory collections, many Catholic institutions and the communities they serve are in precarious shape.

Canceling Padre Serra

I have just received word that, after voting to remove a large statue of St. Junípero Serra that stands in front of their City Hall, the government of Ventura, California (which is in my pastoral region) is now considering removing the image of Padre Serra from the county seal. This entire effort to erase the memory of Serra is from a historical standpoint ridiculous and from a moral standpoint more than a little frightening.

Spiritual lessons from the pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic has left many of us with a great deal of uncertainty: uncertainty about how contagious the virus is and about the best way to treat it; uncertainty about how long our personal immunity will last after we get infected and whether a vaccine will ever be developed; uncertainty about the future of the economy and whether jobs will still be there for the 40 million newly unemployed; uncertainty about how long the public quarantines should continue; uncertainty about what will happen to ourselves, our businesses, our families and our friends.
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