At the end of his life, Moses delivers some final words to the Israelites, who are finally about to enter the Promised Land. Deuteronomy 26:4-10 concerns the proper way to offer the first fruits of their future harvests. Setting their offering before Yahweh’s altar, they’re to say, “My father [Jacob] was a wandering Aramean who went down to Egypt with a small household and lived there as an alien. But there he became a nation great, strong and numerous.”
Today, the praying assembly hears the vocational experiences of Isaiah, Paul and three of Jesus’ first disciples, Simon, James and John. In three very different encounters, these believers heard and heeded God’s call, and in that moment, their lives changed course and took a direction they had not planned.
The role and function of the magisterium continue to be a source of controversy in many corners of the Catholic church today.
We say: What the church finds deserving of its wrath in light of what it will tolerate to preserve the clerical culture is increasingly inexplicable to anyone outside that culture.
Mission Management: The Catholic Medical Mission Board implements critically important programs that make health care available to thousands of people.
Oblate Fr. Tissa Balasuriya, a noted theologian, economist and human rights activist, died Jan. 17 in Sri Lanka. He was 89.
He founded the Centre for Society and Religion in Colombo in 1971 with the aim of fostering interreligious and interracial action for justice and peace. He was also instrumental in founding the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians in the mid-1970s.
THE NEW RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE: OVERCOMING THE POLITICS OF FEAR IN AN ANXIOUS AGE
By Martha C. Nussbaum
Published by Belknap Press, $26.95
Intolerance appears to be in vogue. From 2012-13 congressional intransigence to the horrifying spate of recent mass shootings, Americans appear to be less willing to compromise and more likely to act on their fears. Worse, they convince others to share those fears.
Soul Seeing: A workshop on suffering gave one man a realization he won't soon forget.
Religious leaders urged tough measures against gun violence the day before President Obama announced gun control proposals that largely matched their pleas.
Even before President Barack Obama released details of his plan to reduce gun violence, governors and state legislative leaders were taking action on their own.
New York became the first state to change its gun laws since the Dec. 14 shooting in Newtown, Conn.
Sign up to get NCR updates by email. Existing users: change your preferences here. Enter your email address in the box below and click “Go.”
Not all of our content is online. Subscribe to receive all the news and features you won't find anywhere else.
