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To Everything, There is a Season…

Friday, April 8th, 2011

Like most things natural, biological, and liturgical, there are definitive seasons to the Church’s work for Justice and Peace…. we have just this month come off a time that we affectionately call our “busy season”…from January through March, our Office – like most offices across the nation like our own whose responsibility it is to promote Catholic social teaching and advocacy for the inherent dignity of every human person – is abuzz with activity: whether its scheduling and preparing for meetings in Washington and Albany to bring the concerns of our Bishops to those whose position requires them – or ought to require them – to be concerned about the most vulnerable among us, or soliciting parishioners to participate in events such as the annual Public Policy Forum held in early March in Albany giving them the opportunity to give voice to their values, or answering the many inquiries regarding these events that we receive, or coordinating the transportation that brings our participants to and, especially … hopefully, back from these events – the early, dark, cold months of the winter pass by here like a whirl-a-gig, occupying our hands, our hearts, and our minds so totally that we almost don’t notice April’s soft rains and blessedly lengthening days until we emerge at the other side of this flurry of activity. (As the son of a Certified Public Accountant, it doesn’t escape my notice that the “Social Justice” busy season loosely corresponds to the “Tax” busy season…not sure why that odd juxtaposition occurs…but grateful that ours ends just a bit sooner – and hopefully not as painfully for those involved!)

The events of the past few months have not only been moving startlingly fast in “micro-sense” within Catholic social justice circles, but also of course in a “macro-sense” worldwide as well. I needn’t recount events in detail here, but since this past January, we inhabitants of this planet that we call the Earth have experienced: youth-inspired revolution and roiling turmoil across the Middle East and Northern Africa fueled by digitally generated clarion calls for democracy and dignity, economic dislocation across the globe and government stalemates and showdowns at home, disaster upon disaster in Japan, and – for we Americans – a third theatre of military action within which our country is involved in a Muslim-majority country – this time Libya. The pace of change and challenge has been so astonishingly fast that its difficult to stay on top of any one of these given situations…let alone giving each the attention that they deserve. On a personal level too, the events of the past few months have been filled with difficult goodbyes: in early March, I lost my beloved Godmother after several weeks of her hospitalization, and a good friend – whom I have blogged about in previous posts – completed his studies here in the United States and returned to his home to what I am sure in many ways he will find is a changed Middle East.

I began this post discussing the vicissitudes of early 2011 not so much as a way of excusing away the fact that I haven’t written a post in a while (something for which I humbly ask indulgence) but instead as an explanation: for you see – through the wonders of modern technology – I have received several gracious messages in my personal Facebook account, supportive of some previous things written as well as urging me to keep up my commitment to writing. (Such is the reach and power of Facebook – as I’m sure the former leadership of Egypt could tell you!) While these messages in my Facebook in-box have not quite accomplished anything as revolutionary as toppling a government, their patient encouragement has shaken me out of my writer’s block and gotten me to sit down, put pen to paper, and jot down some thoughts…

Recalling the past few months has also got me reflecting on life and the successive changes that every life is composed of – life’s “seasons” if you will. Much of what has transpired worldwide is not remarkable individually in and of itself: it is instead the rate of these changes that I believe people have found so jarring. So much of life is about change and our reactions to it. As for “life’s seasons”, it certainly doesn’t escape me that I write this blog post during the liturgical season of Lent – a time that the Church asks us to set aside our “business as usual” and intentionally recall – through acts of personal sacrifice – the events in Jesus’ life that led up to His Crucifixion and death on the Cross of Calvary on Good Friday. Lent – as a period of self-sacrifice – lasts 6 weeks and corresponds to the 40 days that Jesus spent in the dessert to prepare for his public ministry. The Church – in encouraging us to prepare ourselves spiritually for the Death and Resurrection of Our Lord at the Easter, asks Catholics during this period to undertake personal acts of penance including increased prayer, alms-giving and fasting from both foods and festivities. Mindful however that 6 weeks of unbroken sacrifice could lead some to an un-Christlike dour disposition, the Church in her wisdom deemed the 4th Sunday of Lent Laetare Sunday – a day intended to remind the faithful of the joys of this life and– much like the rose colored candle that is lit in the Advent wreath on the 3rd Sunday of Advent – to encourage the faithful in their course through the season of penance, and remind them that even during times of trial and adversity, it is the Christian way to always maintain hope.

This past Sunday – Laetare Sunday 2011 – was the actual day that I sat down to draft this post; I did so right after I had returned from the magnificent Church of the Blessed Sacrament over on West 71st Street, only a few blocks west of Central Park in Manhattan. I was over at this parish at the invitation of its pastor, Msgr. Robert O’Connor and at the request of Catholic Relief Services, to give brief reflection after Communion at several of the Masses there on the good work of Catholic Relief Services on the day that the collection for CRS was taken up. Giving testimony on behalf of CRS was not difficult; some of you may recall that I had the honor this past September of traveling to the countries of Tanzania and Ethiopia with Catholic Relief Services to witness some of the life-saving work that the CRS staff and their partners do there day in/ day out, throughout the year, year after year. Much like Catholic Charities does here domestically, Catholic Relief Services acts as an agent of hope all over the world, making manifest Jesus’ commandment that we love – and help in a concrete way – the least of our brothers and sisters.

As I reflected further on the work that Catholic Relief Services does in some very difficult circumstances – and the total appropriateness of speaking in support of this organization on the Sunday in Lent when the Church tries to remind us of the necessity of maintaining hope even in the midst of adversity – I though some more of some of the situations that I reflected on briefly earlier in this post: of the multiple calamities that are still befalling the people of Japan, of the on-going struggles in the Middle East, of the difficulties encountered by the fledgling democracies of the world, of the three wars that our nation is now involved in, of the on-going public policy struggles to support the lives and dignity of the vulnerable in concrete ways both here and abroad, and even the challenges posed by the loss of loved ones through migration or death. Each of these situations present multiple – and in some situations, almost insurmountable – difficulties to those who are experiencing them. And yet, if we – the Catholic Christian community – take seriously the words of Jesus, it is our Christian responsibility, individually and collectively, to reach out and become agents of hope for those struggling with the vicissitudes of life. We all may be called to this struggle in different ways – whether it is through supporting organizations such as Catholic Relief Services and Catholic Charities who assist the vulnerable here and abroad, or through personally advocating on behalf of human life and dignity on a national, state or local level, or even through being a comforting listener to someone who has lost someone dear to them no matter the circumstance – but each of us as Christians are called to bring the Hope of Christ to the marginal and suffering, reminding them through our actions that no matter what the adversity, if we do the right thing – just as Lent is followed by Easter – love will prevail.

Tags: Africa, Albany, Catholic Charities, Catholic Relief Services, Catholic Social Teaching, democracy, Digital media, Facebook, Japan, Laetare Sunday, Lent, Libya, Middle East, peace, Public Policy, Public Policy Forum, Washington
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Do they Know its Christmastime?” – You bet..Do we?

Thursday, January 6th, 2011

I think that I may have said this on this blog sometime before, but Christmastime is just about my favorite time of year. Especially in New York – with all of the wonderful preparation for the Holiday including the World’s most famous Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, all the stores up and down Fifth Avenue decorating their windows in clever and festive Holiday motifs, and of course the majestic splendor of St. Patrick’s Cathedral itself, festooned with evergreen branches, poinsettias and a life size crèche – there is no place on Earth that I think could boost my spirits more as the city that Pope John Paul II dubbed the “Capitol of the World”, dresses up in her finest to await the birth of the King of Kings. It is unfortunate this beauty is so short-lived however as practically no sooner has the sun set on December 25th than many people here begin to dismantle all the elaborate decoration as much as to say “well – the party is over…its time to clean up now”. Nothing is sadder than walking through the streets of Manhattan the few days after Christmas and seeing pile after pile of discarded Christmas trees laying prone in the street along with the garbage, awaiting pick up by the Sanitation Department. This year, the situation was made worse by the fact that a post-Christmas blizzard – locally dubbed here our “snowapocalpse” – delayed this pick-up, so the trees sat even longer, half covered in dirty snow. I know many people who make a similar comment about these depressing post-Christmas scenes, noting that at this dark and cold time of year we certainly don’t need such visual stimulation to bring on the post-holiday blues. It always strikes me odd that folks dismantle their Christmas decorations so quickly today; in talking to my parents, they both have noted that when they were growing up, the Christmas tree was almost never put up before Christmas Eve, and at that, never taken down until after the Feast of the Epiphany that we celebrate today. Also known as “Three Kings Day”, today is the day when the Church commemorates the visit of the Three Wise Men from the East to the infant Christ-child in Bethlehem, symbolically stressing that Jesus’ saving actions and message was not for the Jewish people alone, but was meant to be for the peoples of the entire world. The period of Christmas – the joyful celebration welcoming Christ into our world and our lives – only begins on December 25; it extends for 12 days (hence the popular Christmas Carol “The 12 Days of Christmas”), and closes with the Epiphany of our Lord to Casper, Melchior and Balthazar – and yet for many people today, the holiday is already over practically before its begun. It makes you wonder if people here really know it’s still Christmas Time at all…..

The last sentence is actually written a bit tongue in cheek: for you see there is another contemporary Christmas Carol – written by the British pop performer Bob Geldof entitled “Do They Know It’s Christmas” (recorded by a broad collection of British pop artists) and first released in 1984 in an attempt to raise funds to combat the terrible famine that had struck the people of Ethiopia at that time. This song – and the “Live-Aid” concert that grew out of the effort – raised millions of dollars for Ethiopian famine relief. I have always liked this song, but this past September the song took on particular significance for me; as readers of this blog may recall it was then that I had the good fortune to have the opportunity to go to Africa with Catholic Relief Services and was able to visit the region of that country – Dire Dawa – that was most hard hit by that famine. While there, we were able to observe the actual famine relief facilities that were initially funded by the funds raised by the “Live-Aid”/ “Do They Know Its Christmas” record promotion and fundraising. Today, the facility – which houses at least a dozen airline-hanger sized food storage and distribution centers full of such staples as rice, grain, corn and cooking oil – is administered by Catholic Relief Services which works with other major international food relief programs to ensure that in this still very food insecure region of the world a famine like the one that ravaged the country in 1984 does not take another devastating toll in the future. You can see some of the photos that I took of these food storage facilities below:

Now that I have been to Africa, I think that I might answer the question “Do They Know It’s Christmas” that is likewise the title of the song a little bit differently. Back in 1984, the presumed answer to the question of whether the Ethiopians knew it was Christmastime was no: presumably because of the famine, but additionally – according to the song – because “there won’t be snow in Africa at Christmastime” – as if snow is what makes the holiday so special! No, now that I have been to Africa – have met and witnessed the faith of the people not only in Ethiopia but also in Tanzania and the other places we visited, I believe that “they” do totally understand that it is Christmastime – perhaps even better in some ways then we do here in the United States, where the mad, commercially-driven rush to December 25th sometimes obscures the real meaning of the holiday, which of course is “Emmanuel” – quite literally “God is with us”. The Incarnation – that God loved us so much that He came down from heaven, was born of the Virgin Mary on Christmas and became human like us – is the key. It is because of the Incarnation that we Catholics can say with confidence that every human person – no matter how old, how rich or poor, healthy or sick, able-bodied or not, regardless of race, sex, class, religion education or orientation, born and unborn, all of us – is made in Image and Likeness of God and possesses such immense dignity that God himself became human to show us how to live, to love and to give. This is in fact why Catholic Charities domestically – and Catholic Relief Services internationally – engages in all of the life-saving work that they do: because every human person deserves a life of respect and dignity. They really get this in Africa, in a way I can only hope that we can begin to appreciate on some level here.

For Christmas as one of my presents this year, my Mother gave me some Christmas decorations for my small (Manhattan studio-apartment sized) tree: they were three beautiful ornaments of African wildlife – a zebra, lion and giraffe – given to me this year to commemorate the life-changing trip I took to Ethiopia and Tanzania this past autumn. When I returned to my home the day after Christmas, I took these three ornaments and put them on a privileged spot on my tree. In years to come, I know that when I hang these cherished ornaments on those trees, I will recall not only my wonderful trip to Africa – but more importantly I hope the incredible lessons in human dignity that I learned while I was there. And rest assured, those decorations – the tree that they are on and the Christmas Crèche that sits on my mantle – will not be coming down until January 6th!

A Blessed Epiphany to you all!

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Thy Kingdom Come….

Wednesday, December 15th, 2010

I’m sure that I am not the only one who has noticed that recently the news – except for the ongoing cyber-drama of the Wikileaks and its unconventional (to use a polite word) founder Julian Assange – has been a buzz with all things royal. Whether it was the announcement of what in many ways is THE “main event” of the upcoming year – the pending April 29th nuptials of Prince William of Great Britain to the lovely and decidedly middle-class Kate Middleton , to the consternation expressed by certain well-healed New Yorkers that they would have to recuperate from surgery along with the general population over at New York Presbyterian Hospital/ Weill Cornell Medical Center because 86 year old King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia had block-booked every single room of the VIP floor of the hospital in order to recover surgery for a slipped disc and blood clots , to the run for the money that the recent film “The King’s Speech” (about the relationship between the stuttering British monarch King George VI & his speech therapist Lionel Logue) is giving the favored film “The Social Network” for this year’s Oscar nomination, to the “hot leadership” advice available in the recently published book “Cleopatra: A Life” shining new light on the life of everyone’s favorite Queen of Egypt . It seems that everywhere, the mention of “things royal” still captures the popular imagination here, even though its been some 234 years since the American colonists won their independence from Prince Williams Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great Grandfather in 1783.

I have to admit, I certainly share some of this curiosity – a fact I am sure would undoubtedly make both my Irish-Republican and yankee New York ancestors do somersaults in their respective graves. I remember that I too got caught up in all the hoopla surrounding the death and funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales all those years ago, and have to admit that I still get a chill when I listen to the playing of “Hail to the Chief” as a sitting President walks into a room (itself an homage to the ceremonial – almost royal -role our own Presidency plays in our democratic system of governance). And, living after the conclusion of the bloody 20th Century, we are able to realize – perhaps better then our Founding Fathers could have imagined – that while a constitutional government founded upon self-evident and inalienable human and natural rights like life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is preferable to rule by a hereditary monarch, rule by a king or queen is perhaps not the worst form of government there is. After all, in the years following the end of their respective monarchies, the peoples of Russia, Spain, Germany, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece all found themselves living under dictatorships. In the words of author Jeremy Paxman writing of the phenomenon of rule by royalty: “Better the crown is worn by a dullard than by someone who thinks he has a mission”. In addition, as a Roman Catholic, I of course have tremendous respect for the role that tradition can and must play in society, and appreciate the beauty that ancient practices still possess. All of this adds up to the fact that (I am almost embarrassed to say) you can count me among the folks who drive the medias insatiable drive to report on the comings and goings of the rich, privileged and powerful.

In thinking about it, I realize that this fascination with the lives of royalty has been with me since the time I was a young child; some of this I am sure can be blamed on two sources: the fairytale stories read to me by my mother and grandmother when I was a boy – full of kings, and queens, princes, princesses and knights and the more exotic creatures that populated that magical landscape; as well the concrete circumstances of my own life and upbringing: for you see, I too do indeed have a real King that rules my life – although, truth be told, a decidedly different sort of one. Unlike William, Prince of Wales, whose birth was news around the world, the birth of my King–the Prince of Peace – was shared with only a small circle: the big news at that time was a worldwide census, and the only ones “in the know” were a handful of local shepards and a few foreign astrologers. In fact, so under the radar was His birth that – unlike King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia who had probably a dozen empty rooms at his disposal to recuperate in – His parents had absolutely no place to deliver Him, and so He was born – for all practical purposes – outside in a space fit only for sheltering animals. And although I have never heard a recording of Him, unlike King George VI I am pretty sure that he never stuttered; He was –in fact- quite proficient at public speaking, beginning His first public speech by proclaiming: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” . As far as leadership advice goes, His differs considerably from Cleopatra’s – where Cleopatra traveled on a gilded barge with purple sails amid a cloud of incense attended by Ethiopian slaves, the Prince of Peace was the original practitioner of “servant leadership” before it was hip – admonishing his followers that in His Kingdom “the last shall be first”.

The Advent Season that is upon us is a season of paradox: the bright lights on short, dark days, warm festivities in the frosty weather, lions laying down with lambs, a virgin giving birth, and the King of all kings spending his first night on Earth sleeping not on the finest of linen dressed in a magnificent receiving gown of silk, but instead wrapped in strips of cloth and laying in a bed of straw in a trough from which animals had eaten. I know that this may sound cliché, but during this busy season – as we run from social functions, to shopping, to visiting with our family, friends and neighbors – lets us please not forget the reason for the season, and in anticipation for the birth of the Prince of Peace in less then two weeks, do some things that truly acknowledge this paradox: stop and talk with the homeless man we quickly pass by everyday and ask how their day has been, learn about the religions and cultures of our neighbors and coworkers – and deepen the knowledge of our own, ask a child what they hope for, and an elder about their memories of Christmases long ago – and really, really listen, consider the perspective of a person very different from our self, mend an old argument, pray for peace . In this way, we can be sure to prepare an appropriate warm and inviting place in our hearts where the King of kings can truly rest – both this Christmas and throughout the coming year!

A Blessed Advent to All!

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The Good War

Thursday, October 28th, 2010

Despite all the diversity that their hometown seems to afford them, New Yorkers – those transplanted from other places as well as the born and bred variety – tend to have a fairly insular outlook on things. Many believe that just about anything that is important – in life, in the arts, in fashion, in finance, indeed in the whole world – finds it’s epicenter in the heart of the city in which they reside. After all – it’s not for nothing that Times Square is called the “crossroads of the world”, and as we learned in the recent financial fiascos of the past two years “as goes Wall Street, so goes the world”, and on a lighter note there is a particular fan of one of our hometown baseball teams here at Catholic Charities who shall go nameless who makes a particular point of asking the rhetorical question of “why do they call it the World Series when it is always played in the Bronx.” – (except, sadly, for this year!). In a little bit of self-revelation, I have to admit that I too sometimes fall prey to this “New York Centric” view of reality; for good – and sometimes for ill – it does seem that things that happen within the confines of the 5 boroughs of New York have an outsized effect on the rest of the world– none as profound as the events of September 11, 2001 and the subsequent “war on terror” that proceeded from it. Many commentators on that day, and the days that came after, stated that “everything changed” on that dreadful day, and in many ways this has proven prescient: Ground Zero remains an open wound in the psyches of many Americans – a marker of our vulnerability from which we have not fully recovered.

Living and working in such close proximity to the place where the world changed forever gives one the opportunity to reflect on where we began this current journey, and where we find ourselves now. Of course, in the days and months that followed that terrible day, those of us effected – and indeed all people of good will around the world – were outraged at the senseless slaughter of thousands of innocent people in an act of unprecedented terrorism. When our nation responded to those tragic events by undertaking military action in Afghanistan to bring to account the perpetrators and planners of the terrible acts committed in New York, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania – and their protectors in the Afghani government – there were few who questioned the justice of this cause, nor the obligation the United States had to defend the common good against mass terrorism. As a nation attacked, the United States had the moral right to respond to the unjust aggressor, to kill or capture Osama Bin Laden and the leadership of Al-Qaeda, and to insure that their protectors in Afghanistan did not allow such a cancer to grow in their country again. Many in the media in fact were using the traditional language of the “just war” teaching in Catholic social thought to justify these actions, assuring us that if ever there could be a “good war”, the military intervention in Afghanistan was one.

Today, as we look back over the 9 years that have passed, much of the clarity of the actions of that time have been lost in the fog of not one but two active wars that continue still; the intervening years have included not only those two wars, but also: two administrations, almost 5,000 American war dead, 30,000 wounded veterans, over 150,000 Iraqi deaths (80% of which are civilian casualties) and an as of yet uncounted number of Afghani war dead, as well as over $1 trillion dollars of our nation’s treasure in combined combat operations. In retrospect, perhaps a more careful reading of Catholic teaching on war and peace might have prevented some of the consequence of the decisions to go to war that we are still dealing with today http://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a5.htm#III. After all, although the Catholic Church’s teachings of the requirements that must be met before any military action is undertaken – including provisions that military action for legitimate defense must always be undertaken as a last resort, that there is a serious prospect for success, that the use of arms must not produce evils greater then the evils to be eliminated, and that non-combatants must be protected – is known as it’s “Just War” doctrine, we should recall that the Catechism of the Catholic Church includes these provisions in the section having to do with “Safeguarding Peace” and “Avoiding War”. In analyzing conflict, it is sometimes this tremendous presumption against the use of armed intervention that is overlooked and not given its proper weight. Even back at the time that the Afghanistan War began, in the aftermath of the events of September 11^th when the desire to right the terrible injustice done to our nation that day was most strong, our American Bishops in their pastoral message “Living with Faith and Hope after September 11^th” http://www.nccbuscc.org/sdwp/sept11.shtml cautioned that “true peacemaking can be a matter of policy only if it is first a matter of the heart. Without both courage and charity, justice cannot be won.” While in their statement they acknowledged the “right and the duty of a nation …to use military force if necessary to defend the common good by protecting the innocent against mass terrorism”, they additionally acknowledged the equally important work of “maintaining and fortifying our efforts to do everything possible to address the long-standing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan”, to address the incredible need in what still remains after almost 10 years of intervention one of the world’s poorest countries http://www.unohrlls.org/en/ldc/related/62/ .

To some, such advocacy of increased development may seem dreadfully naïve, or at the worst completely impossible given the inept and corrupt Afghan government and a resurgent Taliban. But to me it seems that this was very good advice, almost prophetic for the time. In the intervening years since the war in Afghanistan began, I have had the opportunity to travel to the developing world with Catholic Relief Services and to witness for my self some of the struggles that people living there – in my case, Sub-Saharan Africa – encounter on a daily basis. The people that I encountered were from a different culture then I was, spoke a different language then I did and many were of a different religion as well -yet overwhelmingly while on these travels, I have to say that those I encountered were tremendously grateful for the assistance that they received in their struggles – be it food, water, medicine, or shelter – through the good offices of Catholic Relief Services, USAID and other charitable groups acting on behalf of brother and sisters from across the ocean. Despite the external differences between us, it was our unity in one human family made manifest through concrete assistance that broke down potential barriers of mistrust and replaced them instead with social cement of mutual esteem. It’s my belief a similar effort could work wonders with the Afghani people as well.

Several weeks ago, Msgr. Kevin Sullivan’s guest on the JustLove radio show was Professor David Cortright , the Director of Policy Studies at the Kroc Institute for International Peace at Notre Dame University; on the show he and Msgr. Sullivan iscussed prospects for peace on the approach of the 9^th Anniversary of the United States military campaign in Afghanistan on October 7^th. The conversation was lively – as always – and well worth a listen, but what I was most struck by was Prof. Cortwright’s statement near the end of the discussion that war – once begun – is a monster that will devour everything around it. I have to be honest and say that I had never quite thought about war in those terms before, but this graphic description seems very apropos for the situation in which we find ourselves. Perhaps this is why the Church in the wisdom of her social teachings discusses the use of military action for legitimate defense – or “just war” doctrine – as less of a tool to justify the force, then as an enclosure to contain it. For it seems that once the beast that is war is set loose, it is not too long before it sets its fangs upon its masters as well.

Tags: Afghanistan, Africa, Catechism of the Catholic Church, Catholic Relief Services, Catholic Social Teaching, Iraq, Just War Teaching, JustLove, JustLove Radio, New York City, peace, September 11, war
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“A Smile on my Soul”

Friday, October 1st, 2010

For many who work here at the Catholic Center at 1011 First Avenue and 56^th Street to describe last week’s commute as a “challenge” would be an exercise in understatement. Every year at this time – because of the opening of the United Nations’ General Assembly – the area of the city were we work, known unofficially as “midtown east”, becomes a car-free zone for almost all but the important (or self-important) who are here in the city for the opening ceremonies; First Avenue transmogrifies into a corridor where the powerful, the famous and sometimes the infamous are ferried down past our building to the United Nations’ compound in Turtle Bay to the sound of blaring sirens and the honks of horns. All in all, to the native New Yorker – especially those who work in the general vicinity of the United Nations – the occasion is about as pleasant as root canal.

While I certainly share some of my fellow New Yorkers’ annoyance at this annual inconvenience, I have to admit that this year I feel just a little more tolerant of all the commotion caused by the visiting dignitaries; this is primarily because this year the United Nations dedicated its opening session to evaluating the world’s progress in meeting the Millennium Development Goals: 8 specific 15 year goals dedicated to alleviating the suffering of the poor – including reducing hunger and cutting poverty in half, reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, providing universal primary education to all and reducing by ½ the number of people without drinking water - that the developed nations of the world agreed to pursue back at the start of the new millennium, and the gathering at the United Nations this year was the world’s 10 year on “report card” on meeting these goals.

As someone who tries in his professional life to encourage the living out of the principles of Catholic social teaching (including a preferential option for the poor and vulnerable), I can hardly imagine the global body undertaking more important work, but all the more so because I have just recently seen with my own two eyes how policy vehicles like the “Millennium Development Goals” can have a real impact on the lives of our brothers and sisters in the developing world. You see, last week I returned home from just about one of the most incredible journeys I have ever been on – a 10 day visit to Africa with Catholic Relief Services to observe the work that they and their partners do in the countries of Ethiopia and Tanzania. The trip was extraordinary – not just for the breathtaking physical beauty of both the African flora and fauna (although they are beautiful!) – but more importantly for the people we encountered there: the fact that we were traveling with CRS gave us unprecedented access to meet the men, women and children in the villages and centers where CRS and its local partners do their work. Unlike the dignitaries that I mentioned earlier who hurry down avenues of power to their designated meetings, the roads that we traveled with CRS were pathways of solidarity – our destinations: embodiments of dignity whether we were visiting with Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity at the homes for the destitute and dying that they run in Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa, Ethiopia, meeting with villagers at a Maasai Boma (encampment) in the Diocese of Same, Tanzania, or speaking with health care providers at an AIDS Relief Project in the Babati region of that same country. What I witnessed in those places wasn’t just “a lot of talk” as those who assemble in that building in Turtle Bay down from our Offices are sometimes accused of; instead – though the hard work of CRS staff, their local partners and the people themselves – what I witnessed were the Millenniums Development Goals come to life, particularly in the provision of safe drinking water – overwhelmingly the most significant problem confronting the parts of Africa I visited and the thing that those we met requested the most – as well as assistance for those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

One of the things that was most striking about those that we met on our trip – indeed about almost all of the people that we encountered in our travels – was the overwhelming friendliness and welcoming spirit of the African people. Whether we were traveling in the big cities of Arusha or Addis Ababa, or the rural villages of Dire Dawa or Same – in both the countries of Ethiopia and Tanzania – as you traveled down the road and waved at those that you passed by, adults and children alike, invariably your gesture would be returned with a broad smile and hearty wave. It was for me one of the most striking images I took away from my trip, perhaps because I hail from a place where everyone basically walks very quickly and avoids eye contact at almost all costs. So deep was this impression of welcome on me that when our hosts at CRS asked us on our last day to sum up our impressions of Africa a picture of a group of beautiful smiling children waving heartily formed in my mind and remains with me still, putting not only a smile on my face but – more poignantly and indelibly – on my soul as well.

Me in the Diocese of Same, Tanzania in the Maasai Region

Tags: Catholic Relief Services
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Blessings of the Fourth

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

Hi readers, and welcome to the summer! Glad that you are all checking back – from my last post update you know that recently I have been busy assisting our Executive Director Msgr. Kevin Sullivan with his weekly radio broadcast “JustLove” on the work of the Church in the world on the Catholic Channel on Sirius/XM Radio. Over the past couple of weeks we’ve done some terrific shows on both the tragedy of the continuing oil spill in the Gulf, as well as a different kind of tragedy – a moral one – in the continued use of the practice of torture for last week’s observance of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. I’ll have more to say on both these topics in posts to come, but for now I’d like to share with you a bit about what we discussed on this week’s show which we dedicated to the observance of Independence Day. On this week’s show we had two guest – the eminent Federal Senior Circuit Judge John Noonan, who sits on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, as well as Dr. Patrick Griffin, Professor of American History at the University of Notre Dame. Judge Noonan spoke eloquently of what he referred to as “the luster of our Country” – the legacy of religious liberty that we American’s enjoy as a consequence of the First Amendment of our Federal Constitution – and Professor Griffin discussed some little known facts regarding the American Revolution – including the contribution of Catholics to the cause of American Independence.

While doing some of the background research for the show, I have to be honest and admit how astonished I was at the level of bigotry that existed against Catholics among the population of what was then the 13 colonies of the nascent United States: at the time of the Revolutionary War, only three of the original 13 colonies allowed Catholics to vote; all New England Colonies except Rhode Island and the Carolinas prohibited Catholics from holding office; Virginia would have Catholic priests arrested for entering the colony; and Catholic schools were banned in every state save Pennsylvania. In the late 1760s and early 1770s, colonists routinely celebrated “anti-Pope days”, an anti-Catholic festival derived from the English Guy Fawkes Day (named for a Catholic who attempted to assassinate King James I and blow up the entire British Parliament http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes) – and these “festivals” included mock hangings and burnings of effigies of the Pope, as well as cartoons and orations linking the Pope to the devil and his minions. In fact, a little known action of the British Parliament in 1774 helped fuel some of this anti-Catholic sentiment and caused tremendous anxiety in the populace of the 13 colonies: in that year, the Parliament passed the Quebec Act – an enlightened law that let the Catholic Church remain the official Church of Quebec. This action on the part of Parliament appalled and terrified many American colonists, who assumed that this was a British attempt to subjugate them religiously by allowing the loathsome Catholics to expand into their colonies. In fact, no less of an American patriot then Alexander Hamilton said of this action of Parliament that “Does not your blood run cold to think that an English Parliament should pass an Act for the establishment of arbitrary power and Popery in such an extensive country?…Your loves, your property, your religion are all at stake!”

Thankfully, the great man George Washington rejected this Catholic bashing – though mostly for practical, not philosophical, reasons: he was one of the first to recognize that a revolution based upon “liberty” would need to encompass a new approach to religious freedom. In addition, as Commander in Chief, Washington had to contend with the fact that Catholics were among the volunteers who were members of the Continental Army. Because of this fact, on September 14, 1775 Washington banned the burning of effigies of the Pope on “Pope Day”; and in fact, the practice of burning the Pope in effigies disappeared as a result of this decree. As a result of this tolerance, Catholic soldiers shed blood for the American cause: the Maryland militia was brimming with Catholics who helped thwart British raids from Virginia, and among the soldiers who had gone to aid Boston in its hour of need were Catholics from Maryland and Pennsylvania.

In considering this little known but critical part of our own Nation’s history, I thought of how funny it was that despite how much some things change, other things remain the same. Folks who may be reading this in other parts of the country may not be aware, but in the past few months there has been a lot of intense opposition to the Muslim community here in New York City building houses of worship for their members – both in the Brooklyn Diocese as well as here in the Archdiocese of New York in lower Manhattan and in Staten Island. In voicing opposition to these plans, some opponents have cited traffic concerns, but the overwhelming amount of objections have focused on more intangible and frankly volatile issues including: fear of terrorism, a distrust of Islam generally and a linkage between these two concerns in protesters minds. The recent case of the Times Square bomber has only exacerbated the situation. In response to these situations and the concerns that they raise, Archbishop Dolan wisely wrote in his blog that there are “legitimate and understandable concerns…about security, safety, the background and history of the groups hoping to build…(but) what is not acceptable is to prejudge any group, or to let fear and bias trump the towering American (and for us Catholics, the religious) virtues of hospitality, welcome and religious freedom”. http://blog.archny.org/?p=725

I have to be honest that on reflecting on these situations, I have a personal history that very much effects my position on these matters. Frequent readers may recall that I have several Muslims among that great community of people that I call my friends; in fact there is a particular person in that community whom I consider one of my closest friends. I have mentioned him in a previous posting here before http://blog.archny.org/onearth/?p=75 , and in fact – coincidentally – it was at a party on the Fourth of July I first met him. As with every human relationship be it at home in our families, at work or at play, our friendship has had its ups and downs. In fact – right at the moment – our friendship is going through a rough patch, the roots of which are – as with disagreements between friends – poorly chosen words, misunderstood actions, and hurt feelings. Added to that are some particular challenges and difficulties that come from being from two different places with different languages, cultures and customs. Still, difficult and challenging does not equal impossible. When it comes to arguments with family and friends, its always been my belief that the best thing to do is to extend to the other person “the benefit of the doubt” – for me, the relationship is almost always more valuable then the conflict that threatens it.

In a funny kind of way, this is exactly I think where some of the difficulties I discussed above have both their origin and at least some possible solution. I am almost certain that many of the people who oppose the Muslim community building a mosque in their neighborhood do so out of a place of fear and unfamiliarity, many – if not most – I’m sure do so with vivid memories of the horrors that our city endured on September 11, 2001 fresh in their minds. I share those memories as well. I also however share other memories: memories of good times shared with good friends – friends who are good people who may pray differently then I do, but who share a belief in a God who is Father to us all. I am mindful that the same prejudice that my good friends must endure today because of the unconscionable actions of 19 young men who were raised in the same faith that they were is of a kind with the prejudice that my ancestors in colonial New York may have encountered because of their faith as well. We should not forget that much of the prejudice that the non-Catholic, mostly Protestant population of the 13 colonies felt towards Catholics was born out of memories of religious persecution and wars that raged all over Europe in the 16^th and 17^th centuries http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_wars_of_religion – at the hands of both Protestant and Catholic forces. There is a reason that the Rolling Stones, in their Rock and Roll anthem “Sympathy for the Devil” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX7pINBoXRc, put the line “I watched with glee while your kings and queens fought for ten decades for the gods they made” in the voice of Satan; no theologians they, Mick Jagger and his band knew that God – the loving Father of the whole human race – would never countenance killing in his name.

As regards my friend and the difficulty that we recently encountered in our friendship; it is this day one of my sincerest hopes that he and I can extend to one another the “benefit of the doubt”, mend the fences that were broken, and resume to enjoy the great times, conversations and laughs that we enjoyed in the past; in a similar way, I believe it would be a wonderful thing if we collectively could – in this season of Independence Day – follow in the footsteps of George Washington, and in the spirit of the “Father of Our Country” extend to another community that worships God a bit differently then ourselves the “benefit of the doubt”, mindful of the wonderful spirit of religious liberty and tolerance that truly gives a “luster to our Country”.

Tags: Archbishop Dolan, First Amendment, Fourth of July, George Washington, JustLove, Muslim, Religious Freedom, September 11, Tolerance
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Confessions of a Digital Immigrant

Friday, June 11th, 2010

In this post dear readers – a post that is admittedly way l-o-n-g- overdue – I am going to begin with a profound confession: to the wonderful world of media technology in which the blogosphere is only an island in a vast digital sea, I am only a very recent immigrant. You see, I was born into probably what was the last generation that could not be considered “digital natives”: when I was a kid, our family’s idea of a video game was the original Atari table-tennis (whose on-screen ball moved so slowly from the left of the screen to the right that were the white dot that it represented to be an actual ping-pong ball, it would’ve had to defy all the laws of gravity to stay afloat), and when I went to law school, the assignments I was given had to be completed on an actual typewriter (although admittedly the electric kind with the indispensable “auto-correct function” where the tape would “magically” erase your mis-strokes from the page). I was reminded recently of my “non-native” status when a good friend of mine – who at 30 is most definitely a full-fledged digital citizen – gave me an iPod Touch for my birthday because “ it really is long past the time you should have one”. Growing up in fact, the media technology that I was regularly familiar with was fairly limited: my little black & white TV, the VCR (that’s a videotape recorder for those non-historians), cassette tape player, stereo that played vinyl albums (again for those non-historians, those flat black disk shaped objects) and of course – the radio. Of all those types of media in fact, it was the radio that was ubiquitous in my life: whether in the family room on the “stereo-system”, in my hands on my “boom-box” or later in my car, the radio was a near constant companion .It was the first thing I heard upon waking up in the morning on my stereo-alarm clock, and the last voice I’d hear before falling asleep at night, and in that fact I actually find some comfort, for you see radio is a technology that actually spans the generations: it was the technology that my grandparents used to keep updated on world events as they gathered around it during Depression and is the still what my goddaughter listens to as she travels in the car with her parents today (albeit that the signal that she listens to is delivered by satellite or MP3).

With all my affection for the medium of radio, you can all imagine my delight when earlier this year I was asked to assist our Executive Director at Catholic Charities, Msgr. Kevin Sullivan, with the JustLove Radio Program that he conducts over on the Catholic Channel at Sirius XM Satellite Radio (Sirius channel 159, XM 117 http://www.sirius.com/thecatholicchannel) every Wednesday at 1 p.m. in the afternoon. JustLove is a nationally broadcast one-hour weekly interactive discussion exploring the Catholic community’s impact on American society. It features interviews with social ministry leaders, thinkers and doers and investigates the ideas that shape the Catholic social mission and explores deeds that puts that mission into practice around the nation and the world! In the past few month, the conversations on JustLove have included: on-going discussion with staff of Catholic Relief Services on the ground in Haiti on the devastating earthquake that struck the island in January and its aftermath, the recent troop increases in Afghanistan and prospects of peace in Iraq, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, the on-going struggle for comprehensive immigration reform, and the continuing tragedy of the oil spill in the Gulf. Some of the guests we have spoken to on the show have included: Cesar Chavez’s son Paul discussing his father’s life and legacy on the Cinco de Mayo show, the Rev. Jim Wallis, author and President of Sojourner’s Magazine on the moral crisis that lies behind the current economic crisis, and Richard Barnes of the New York State Catholic Conference on effective Catholic advocacy in the public sphere. Through the wonders of modern technology you can listen to some recent podcasts of the JustLove show on the web at http://www.catholiccharitiesny.org/just-love/

As you can well imagine, preparing to produce a show of this caliber is exciting and rewarding and sometimes a challenge! Each show requires quite a bit of planning and editorial preparation to create a show that is timely and coherent and which incorporates themes and topics that can help to highlight the Church’s teachings regarding the important social issues discussed. To be honest, my recent concentration and emphasis on JustLove has caused my blogging here to lag a bit (a situation some of my more regular readers have not too gently but appropriately reminded me of), but in doing some of the production work for JustLove, it has occurred to me how very similar as forms of media blogging and radio really are: the format of each – as far as technical production goes – is not too complex, and yet for all their lack of complexity each is very versatile. I was reading recently an article online at The Economist that compared radio to blogging; it said the essential similarity between each – and the reason that each succeeds as a form of communication – is that the listener or reader respectively realizes that at the other end of the technology there is someone alive – speaking or typing, taking calls or responding to comments. The author noted that the German root for the word radio is derived from the verb “Funken” – the verb “to spark” and that it is this “spark” at the other end that both readers and listeners respond to.

As a consequence of living in the digital age that we do today, thanks to our more or less continuous connection to media be it television, radio, wifi, 3G, internet, telephone or text, all of us – to a varying degree – are perpetually multi-tasking. Some of us – generally the “digital natives” at the younger end of the spectrum– are more successful at navigating these new technologies then others, but this perpetual multi-taking can take a toll even on them. In fact, in a recent New York Times article, Dr. Gary Small – Professor of Psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, is quoted as saying that the process of never ending multi-tasking can lead to a syndrome where we move from multi-taking efficiently to one where we are in a state of “partial continuous attention”. As a “digital immigrant”, I particularly need to strategize more effectively to negotiate this new terrain, and in the coming summer months that is exactly what I plan to do. Those of you who have been fairly regular readers may have noticed that I tend to be fairly counter-intuitive in a lot of my thinking, so it should come as no surprise that it is exactly as we approach the summer – just when the scholastic year begins to slow down – that I plan on picking up the pace of this blog by posting not just the “traditional” items, but also the guests, topics and conversations that take place on and around the JustLove show. My intention in doing so is not only post more regularly here (although certainly that would be a welcome outcome); more importantly, it is my hope that by posting on the topics dealt with on JustLove – with links so readers can listen to the podcasts as well – we can expose even more people to the quality information and discussion on Catholic social teaching and its impact that takes place there. In addition, I hope that some of this cross-pollination could – like all good media - “spark” responses where readers/ listeners could post their impressions of the show, as well as topics that might interest them for future shows. I am always mindful that neither Catholic radio nor Catholic blogs would exist without the Catholic community, and so I urge you – whether you are a digital native or a recent immigrant like myself – to share your ideas and thoughts with us as we endeavor to share God’s Good News for the world over the airwaves through both sight and sound.

Tags: Afghanistan, Catholic Charities, Catholic Relief Services, Digital media, Gulf Oil Spill, Haitian Earthquake, immigration reform, iPod, Iraq, JustLove Radio, Nuclear Weapons, radio, television, The New York Times, USCCB
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Reflections on a Snowy Lenten Afternoon…

Friday, February 26th, 2010

Greetings readers from a very snowy/slushy Manhattan! As a survivor of this year’s Washington “snowpocalypse”, the storm that stuck our city today – while not an unmitigated disaster – was not the biggest I’ve ever experienced, but it was certainly a whopper – and enough to keep most of us wisely at home and in doors. While we are safely ensconced inside during this first full week of Lent, perhaps we can take advantage of the time indoors by contemplating Pope Benedict XVI’s message to the world for Lent 2010. The Pope’s theme this Lent is “The Justice of God Has Been Manifested Through Faith in Jesus Christ”, and his message – very fitting for a blog concerned for things of Earth as well as Heaven – is a fascinating reflection on the requirements of “justice” incumbent upon us a People of God. The Pope’s discussion of justice is not a rehash of philosophical requirements of justice that we remember from our college reading of the works of Aristotle, Locke, Hobbes and John Stewart Mill on what we are each “due”; instead the Pope’s message on justice calls us to create a “justice” that is more than that which can be guaranteed by law. To live life fully, something more intimate is necessary: the Pope’s prescription calls us to exit our illusion of self-sufficiency and to accept our own need: our need for others and God, for forgiveness, friendship and love. It’s a timely message for these troubled times, and should be read by everyone. The full text of the Pope’s message can be found here, and further resources to help us reflect on and live out God’s Justice this Lent can be found at the United State’s Bishop’s website.

So, while the weather keeps you inside this weekend, why not take a moment and read the Pope’s reflections on Justice, and help to prepare yourself for the glorious feast of Easter, when by the mystery of his sacrifice Jesus fulfilled every cry for justice, now and for all time.

Tags: Lent
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Putting on my Sackcloth and Ashes – only Digitally…

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

Dear Readers,

As we begin Lent – a season that reminds us of the importance of repentance beginning our six week journey of preparation for the Resurrection of our Lord, after a lengthy examination of conscience I have a confession to make: I have to admit that over the past several weeks I have been a very bad blogger! Since the beginning of the year, I have been remiss in not adding one single new post to “On Earth as It is in Heaven,” and for this I am profoundly sorry! Now, some of this has had to do with time spent working on other responsibilities, which included time spent down in Washington D.C. during their recent “snowpocalypse” (more on that to come later…); but no matter, I take full responsibility for my recent bad blogging habits, and – in an attitude of appropriate repentance for Ash Wednesday – I am here to promise that this situation is going to change, and that this change begins today!

Today is the 44th Anniversary of Pope Paul VI issuance of the Constitution on Fasting and Abstinence (Poenitemini) which raised up the importance of voluntary, self-chosen penances such as works of charity for the poor to compliment traditional fasting. In contemplating this anniversary, I thought it entirely appropriate to take on as one of my Lenten observances this year – in addition to of course observing the traditional requirements of fast and abstinence – becoming a much more diligent blogger! In this regard in the coming weeks, I promise to post comments on a much more regular basis, sharing the teachings of our Church on the dignity of the human person, and all the good works – both here and abroad – that the Church undertakes on behalf of the poor and vulnerable in our midst. In making this commitment, I am following the good advice that Our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI gave in his message for the 44th Annual World Communications Day (released on January 23rd) which encouraged all Catholics – but especially priests in this “Year of the Priest” – to use all the new media technologies at our disposal to reach new audiences with the message of God’s abundant love.

So please forgive the hiatus dear readers – and a Blessed Ash Wednesday to you all – will be back real soon…..

Tags: Ash Wednesday, Lent
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Helping Santa to do the Right Thing…

Friday, December 18th, 2009

The late autumn and early winter has always been one of my favorite times of year. Although I do miss the dwindling daylight and dread the frigid winds of the deep winter as an undiagnosed sufferer of “S.A.D.” (“Seasonal Affective Disorder” for those non-psychologists among us), the warm glow of the sparkling lights which pop up just about everywhere this time of year always serve to lift up my spirit and bring on some much needed cheer! In fact – just about the only thing I don’t like about this time of year is the proverbial “Christmas rush”. It always seems that no matter who you are talking to, people have about twice as many things to do – from shopping for presents, to visiting friends and family, to planning celebrations – then there are hours in the day. This hustle and bustle, of course, is just about the exact opposite of what the Church is encouraging us to do liturgically at this time of year: rather then the bright colors of red, white and green, the colors of Advent are a somber purple, in place of a myriad of bright lights, the Advent Wreath’s glow emanates from only four candles. Instead of mad rushes and impending deadlines, the words that Scripture speak of at this time are ones of longing and anticipation. When compared with the frenetic pace of today’s “holiday season”, in its liturgies, the Church’s wisely reminds us that these weeks before Christmas should not be “rushed” but instead should serve as a time of preparation for the coming of – not Santa Claus – but instead of the Prince of Peace.

Reminders like these are increasingly important for all of us – especially since it is so easy to get caught up in all of the seductive hoopla that surrounds the holiday; even when you work for a religious organization like Catholic Charities. In fact, when I initially sat down to write the first draft of this post, it was the Monday of the First week of Advent, but with all of the business that comes prior to Christmas Day I am only now getting around to posting it. Sadly, these days many people would not identify with the term “First Monday of Advent” as quickly as they would with another: “Cyber Monday” – a marketing term first created by the National Retail Federation to denote the Monday immediately following the more famous “Black Friday” – itself the name for the Friday that follows Thanksgiving Day in the United States, and which officially starts the Christmas “Shopping Season” when retailers see their balance sheets go from ”red” to “black”. Both of these days have little or nothing to do with spiritually preparing one’s self for the birthday of the Prince of Peace (which ironically is the reason that these two days exist in the first place); instead, they are about “helping Santa” materially fill the space under the tree with more and bigger gifts. That what was originally the season of Advent has been transmogrified into an over-marketed, commercialized, $450 billion orgy of consumption needs no further demonstration – I think – then the fact that an actual death of 34 year old at a Wal-Mart on Long Island last year was blamed directly on the fact that it was “Black Friday”: the man – Jdimytai Damour, a temporary employee of Wal-Mart – was trampled to death helping a pregnant co-worker to safety after frenzied shoppers smashed through the store’s front doors in order to buy a 50-inch flat screen television on sale for $800!

You know, it really doesn’t have to be this way, and saying no to the over-consumption that today marks the run-up to Christmas does not require a Grinch-like renunciation of any gift giving at all. That same First Week of Advent that I was preparing my first draft of posting, we in the Department of Social and Community Development here at Catholic Charities also held our Seventh Annual Catholic Relief Services Fair Trade Christmas Sale, where employees here at the Catholic Center in New York had the opportunity to come and shop responsibly and thoughtfully, using their dollars to provide the benefits of “fair trade” to producers overseas while at the same time giving their loved ones unique crafts and delicious foods! The sale is always quite popular, and every year as we approach Christmas I am continually approached by people in the hallway and on the elevator to ask me when the sale is. I’m not really surprised about that – after all, by purchasing your gifts through fair trade, you not only get to do a good thing for others by buying them great coffee, delicious chocolate and unique items, you also get the satisfaction of knowing you’ve done the right thing in really supporting the producers of those goods at the source. In place of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, we here at the Catholic Center have “Solidarity Thursday” and a “Fair Trade Friday”, where our purchases respect human dignity, promote economic justice, and foster global solidarity! You know, you don’t actually have to attend an actual fair trade sale to purchase fair trade goods, through the miracle of technology you can actually obtain fairly traded coffee, teas, chocolate and great “Work of Human Hands” gift items through the Catholic Relief Services website at: http://www.crsfairtrade.org/products.

So, as Advent draws to a close, won’t you too help Santa do the right thing? Take the time to check out the fairly traded items and foodstuff at the Catholic Relief Services website, and consider helping Saint Nicholas stuff your loved one’s stockings with gifts that really make a difference! Then, slow down a little, experience Advent and prepare yourself spiritually for the coming of the Prince of Peace – after all, let’s not forget that His birthday really is the “reason for the season.”

Tags: Black Friday, Catholic Relief Services, Jesus
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