Distinctly Catholic

This news item makes you want to cry. A teacher at a Catholic high school lost her mother. in the obituary, the teacher's longtime partner was mentioned. So, as if the grief of losing one's mom was not enough, in their inscrutable desire to demonstrate that Jansenism is alive and well, the school fired the teacher. When will they learn to be human?

The still new blog Millennial continues to post some great articles. This one from Christiana Peppard examines the way America's idolatry of liberty contributes to the alienation and violence of the culture. Powerful stuff. There is a book in this subject as well as a blog post.

Last week, after the authorities in Boston released the photos of the two suspects in the Marathon bombing case, a black friend of mine stopped by. “Thank God they are Caucasian,” he said. If you are in America and you are black, an instance of violence triggers the fear that the still-current prejudice against you and your race might get a fresh jolt of ugly enthusiasm if the perpetrator of the violence is black.

The Franciscan Action Network (FAN) applauded the Senate proposal on comprehensive immigration reform. "We especially welcome the inclusion of a path to citizenship, with a special provision for Dreamers, and several provisions which promote family unity," the group said in a press release. "In our initial and incomplete assessment, FAN has several concerns about the legislation, including stringent and costly border enforcement measures, the very long path to citizenship, and the elimination of the family sibling category."

Over at Politico, Anna Palmer and John Bresnahan on "How the NRA won." It is clear that the key senators whose votes will need to shift come from states that are culturally conservative and/or largely rural. Here is where the churches must come in. If the country is ever to get progress on gun control, the faith community will need to galvanize an alternative narrative from that be put forward by the NRA.