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 The
sick call: The healing power of presence
The young
woman shared her difficult history, her crippling grief. Then she asked,
"So what's a chaplain again?"
Hospitals, especially
hospital emergency rooms, are one of those few places in our increasingly
divided society where haves and have-nots still end up together when they
encounter the business end of life. Even the most expensive SUV is no
defense against a drunk driver--especially when the driver is piloting
the SUV--and ice and steep stairs, not to mention heart attacks and
strokes, defer to no human privilege. Read
more.
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 50
years ago in U.S. Catholic: What makes
Peanuts run?
In this month's trip to the U.S.
Catholic archives, one author takes a look at Charlie Brown
and Violet, Schroeder and Lucy, plus Linus and his blanket.
The popularity of Peanuts in the
crowded comics field is due not to the inherent humor of the strip, but
to the manner in which it is interpreted by its readers. Charles M.
Schulz, the man behind the Peanuts
drawing board, has created a strip which appears to deal--at its simplest
level--with a group of ingenious cherubim who say and do things in an
innocent, yet adult, way. Read
more.
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A Catholic schoolteacher takes
on a new role: Activist
From another in a line of forced resignations of gay
and lesbian teachers emerges a foundation to end discrimination.
A lifelong Roman Catholic,
Mark Zmuda took a job as a teacher at Eastside Catholic School in part
because he believed he could be a good Catholic role model. He was
dismissed in December from his job as a vice principal and swim coach,
precisely because he did not measure up as a Catholic model: Zmuda, who
is gay, married his male partner. Read
more.
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 Should
laypeople have a role in choosing their bishops?
It's time for
the flock to have their say when it comes to selecting the shepherds of
the church.
Pope Francis says that he
wants a special kind of bishop for our church--he wants "shepherds
who smell of their sheep." Let us take our Holy Father at his word:
Who knows how the sheep smell better than the sheep themselves? No one.
So then why not let the sheep make a modest proposal and ask that we
laypeople have a significant say in the choice of our bishops. Read
more.
What do you think? Should
laypeople be consulted when new bishops are chosen? Or are the pope and
other church leaders in a better position to pick shepherds for the
flock? Be sure to take
our survey and let us know what you think.
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 Brazil's
simple solution to ending poverty: Give people money
Does the South American country offer us a way to
cash in on ending poverty?
Sometimes, the answer
sounds too simple to actually work. Like this headline from
the Washington
Post Wonkblog: "Want to end poverty? Brazil's
answer: Give people money." The piece discusses the Bolsa
Familia cash transfer program in Brazil that gives cash to people in
poverty--no strings attached, except for the strict condition that any
children must be attending school. Read
more.
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 Read:
Zealot
By Reza Aslan (Random House, 2013)
Reza Aslan's Zealot: The Life and Times of
Jesus of Nazareth has stirred up plenty of controversy.
Some critics fault Aslan for offering an unoriginal and one-sided view of
Jesus' life. Others, most infamously Fox News, claim his religious
background disqualifies him from writing about Jesus. Aslan attempts
to dispel these controversies in the book's opening and closing pages. Read
more.
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