Fratelli Tutti: Respect for Others

Pope Francis, #191 in the encyclical

191. At a time when various forms of fundamentalist intolerance are damaging relationships between individuals, groups and peoples, let us be committed to living and teaching the value of respect for others, a love capable of welcoming differences, and the priority of the dignity of every human being over his or her ideas, opinions, practices and even sins. Even as forms of fanaticism, closedmindedness and social and cultural fragmentation proliferate in present-day society, a good politician will take the first step and insist that different voices be heard. Disagreements may well give rise to conflicts, but uniformity proves stifling and leads to cultural decay. May we not be content with being enclosed in one fragment of reality.

192. …When a specific policy sows hatred and fear towards other nations in the name of its own country’s welfare, there is need to be concerned, to react in time and immediately to correct the course.

Fratelli Tutti: Dialogue

Pope Francis, #198 in the encyclical

Approaching, speaking, listening, looking at, coming to know and understand one another, and to find common ground: all these things are summed up in the one word “dialogue”. If we want to encounter and help one another, we have to dialogue. There is no need for me to stress the benefits of dialogue. I have only to think of what our world would be like without the patient dialogue of the many generous persons who keep families and communities together. Unlike disagreement and conflict, persistent and courageous dialogue does not make headlines, but quietly helps the world to live much better than we imagine.

Time for meeting others

In Nazareth Home, there is an independent living wing where I live and the general wing which provides nursing and living care that might be needed. The general wing has a variety of activities, and when they had an ice cream tasting event, I went over to join in. It was enjoyable–eight flavors of good ice cream–and I got to meet some new people.

An Old Friend

When I got back to Nazareth Home, one of the staff asked if I knew a deaf man had been admitted. I found out it was John. I first met him 50+ years ago when he was a student at the Kentucky School for the Deaf. He became an active member of our Catholic deaf group and I had the wedding ceremony for him and his wife. It was wonderful for both of us to see each other again.

A Bad Week

Jan, a reader of my website, commented:

The more I watched the video that day (of Dick Van Dyke dancing at 100 years of age) the sadder I became. I even cried. I cried serious tears. I felt a very heavy dark cloud lingering around me. I finally realized that I was crying for the innocence I once had. I was also crying for the innocence I once saw in my fellow human beings. I am sad for our country, humanity in general and for what I once thought we were as a country.

Pope Leo, the day Jan wrote, commented on the need for the church:

to open up to the world and to embrace the changes and challenges of the modern age in dialogue and co-responsibility, as a church that wishes to open her arms to humanity, to echo the hopes and anxieties of peoples, and to collaborate in building a more just and fraternal society.

Anne Lamott, spiritual writer, wished:

I wish us praying people could pray a fast turnaround—Remember Flip Wilson saying, “I’m about to pray. Anybody need anything?” This isn’t how it works. How it works is each of us doing one small good thing, every day.

ICE Out demo

Saturday saw a pop-up ICE Out demonstration in Louisville, one of the many that took place across the United States.

It was a cold, windy, and rainy day in Louisville.
There were few speakers. It was mostly a matter of presence and visible opposition to government policy.
Two women ministers from a Presbyterian church placed the event in a gospel context.
My family and friends were well represented.

Rip Van Winkle?

Rip Van Winkle, in Washington Irving’s short story, is a Dutch American in the pre-Revolutionary War period who falls asleep after drinking with some shadowy figures in the Catskill Mountains. He sleeps for twenty years and wakes up in a setting that is vaguely familiar but radically different from what he knew before.

I don’t drink and didn’t sleep away my 40+ years in Asia, but I can relate to the feelings of confusion and wonder that must have accompanied Rip Van Winkle upon his awakening. When I left Cambodia, I was returning home but it’s not the home I left in 1983!

So much has changed:
• communications are so different,
• politics are chaotic and without the civility and care for the common good of another era,
• landmarks and establishments on the streets have disappeared,
• even in the church, parishes have been merged and closed and 1/3 of the priests are from other countries.

And those are just some of the changes I’ve encountered. It’s going to take a bit more time to adjust to the American way of life today.