reconciliation

You Have Heard of the "Dear John" Letter? Well, this is my “Dear Sean” letter. It’s a perfect inversion. Instead of being about break-ups, it’s about reconciliation. And leper kisses. That part is important. Dear Cardinal Sean O'Malley, Archdiocese of Boston:

Last year, a lesbian couple in Wyoming, married in Canada, and mothers of three, got a surprise in the mail. At the request of their bishop (David Ricken), their pastor informed them by letter that they were no longer welcome to take Communion.

Their sin, the pastor made clear, was not their lesbianism per se. In fact, they regularly attended Mass and their family picture had appeared in the parish directory. What brought them down was the Smudge. On Ash Wednesday, they appeared (complete with forehead ashes) in an article in which they protested an anti-gay marriage amendment then pending in the Wyoming legislature. This exposure culminated in their being refused communion.

Pax Christi NJ, a region of Pax Christi USA the national Catholic peace movement (www.paxchristiusa.org), announced that Bishiop Thomas Gumbleton will be the keynote speaker at its upcoming conference on migration and global solidarity entitled “We Suffer and Rejoice with Our Brothers and Sisters” on Saturday April 19th at St. Patrick’s Church and School in Jersey City. The event is being co-sponsored by the Haiti Solidarity Network of the Northeast (HSSNE).

Bishop Gumbleton is the retired auxiliary bishop for the diocese of Detroit. A longtime national and international activist in the peace movement, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton is a founding member of Pax Christi USA and an outspoken critic of violence and militarism. He has appeared on numerous radio and television programs, and has published numerous articles and reports. His weekly homilies appear in his column in the National Catholic Reporter under the title “The Peace Pulpit”.

This is my first blog entry.
I am not a writer, but when I read this article this morning and noted one of the Cross Left Bloggers was affirmed I thought you would all want to know.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0712/S00174.htm

Advocacy, Intellect, and Common Sense
Wednesday, 12 December 2007, 2:15 pm
Column: Jim Miles
Advocacy, Intellect, and Common Sense

by Jim Miles

Ramzy Baroud's current article [1] on the despair of writers and the role of the intellectual in presenting information has proven to be very thought provoking personally. I would not be doing what I am doing now without his support and conviction, yet as with the writer in the article, I have often wondered why do I keep doing this when nothing seems to change. Further, am I preaching only to the converted, or is there perhaps someone out there who has read the material and actually transformed their thinking because of that?

"Keep Hope Alive"

 
 
 
 

Ever since I returned to America on July 28, 2007, I have been haunted by the memories of Palestinian children who only know Israelis through the barrel of a gun or through their bullet proof glass tombs at the hundreds of checkpoints in Palestine. That is, until I received an email from...