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The Catholic Church in Cambodia.
Last October, when I was in California visiting Jim and Roberta McLaughlin, returned Maryknoll Lay Missioners who had worked with me in Cambodia, Jim introduced me to the workings of the St. Vincent de Paul Society food pantry in their home parish of St. Columba. I learned a lot in my time at St. Columba.
Today I had the opportunity to visit a comparable SVDP operation in Louisville at the invitation of Ken and Diane Golliher who volunteer there. And again I learned a lot.
Laudato Si’ challenges us to “hear the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” through ecological conversion, changes in lifestyle and society, and strong political action. What are Catholic Christians to do? Here are some suggestions:
4. DISCERN what you can do to change your own way of living to one that is more sustainable for the whole community. This includes reducing water usage, reducing use of plastics and eliminating Styrofoam, switching to LED lighting, planting trees and native plants, and by becoming an eco-consumer doing eco-investing.
In an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, historian Richard Rhodes spoke about a certain kind of dying: “the deaths caused not by microbe or misfortune but by policy—by war, by neglect, by privation deliberately imposed. Artificially induced famine. The willful dismantling of the infrastructure that keeps the poor alive. Rhodes gave the thing a name. He called it public man-made death….”
Two reports were quoted. One in The Lancet said: “… in the single year since USAID was destroyed, on the order of seven hundred thousand human beings have already died who would otherwise be alive. The Lancet study calculated that the agency had saved some ninety-two million lives over the previous two decades.”
From a commentary by Msgr. Arthur Halquin.
Laudato Si’ challenges us to “hear the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” through ecological conversion, changes in lifestyle and society, and strong political action. What are Catholic Christians to do? Here are some suggestions:
Laudato Si’ challenges us to “hear the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” through ecological conversion, changes in lifestyle and society, and strong political action. What are Catholic Christians to do? Here are some suggestions:
2. LEARN by reading Laudato Si’ for free at: http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html
The St. Thomas Seminary class of 1966 (the last class to graduate from high school there) gathered today for a monthly event and it was special because attending was Bill Medley (R), a classmate who was appointed Bishop of Owensboro sixteen years ago. Today was also Bastille Day, and Jane Browne (standing) who has had a fixation on Bastille Day and other things French since her high school French class, brought a cake and a gift bag of French items for the fourteen people who attended. Jane is my sister and she married class member David Browne (L).
Laudato Si’ challenges us to “hear the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” through ecological conversion, changes in lifestyle and society, and strong political action. What are Catholic Christians to do? I offer the following suggestions:
1. REFLECT on the miracle of the natural world and your place in it and PRAY that you might be intentional in her care.
Meeting reporters outside his villa in Castel Gandolfo Nov. 18, 2025, Pope Leo said, “No one has said that the United States should have open borders,” adding: “I think every country has a right to determine who and how and when people enter.”
However, immigration policy should “look for ways of treating people humanely, treating people with the dignity that they have.”
Today I had mass at Mary Queen of Peace parish and it was delightful. First, I bicycled there, about 9 miles, partly to test how uncomfortable I would get in the really warm weather we’re having. I forced myself to go slower than usual and it turned out OK. Second, Mary Queen of Peace is in the area of Angela Merici High School where I taught and two sisters–twins–who were in my class there introduced themselves. Meeting the former Angela Merici High School girls, now grandmothers, has been one of the joys of my return. These sisters had learned sign language and rode with me to the Kentucky School for the Deaf.
Here is a wonderful example of how we can use our gifts and talents in wonderfully creative ways to counter the evils in people and programs that seem so overwhelming in our society today. [The link and photo are from Religion News Service]