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Young Voices
Thanksgiving in a post-communal age
by Jamie L Manson on Nov. 20, 2009Just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday, Hollywood offers us two big-budget disaster films that are sure to fill us with the spirit of the season.
Both "2012," which opened last weekend, and "The Road," which opens on the eve of Thanksgiving, are two of the latest cinematic forays into a world ravaged by apocalyptic catastrophes. Where extreme special effects of "2012" may be more reminiscent of the graphic destruction depicted in "The Day After Tomorrow" and "I Am Legend," the weightier contemplation of the erosion of humanity in "2012" is more in line with 2007's "Children of Men." (Both films are the cinematic realizations of contemporary literary gems, penned by Cormac McCarthy and P. D. James, respectively.)
A new theology of divorce
by Mike Sweitzer-Beckman on Nov. 12, 2009Tom Roberts, NCR editor at large, recently wrote about an upcoming document from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops on marriage, and the threats to marriage . The threats ranged from cohabitation to same-sex partnerships, to birth control pills, condoms and other forms of artificial contraception. There is a lot to question here given what sociology, biology and 21st century experience contribute to the dialogue. The threat to marriage that I would like to think more about is divorce.
Sell the Vatican. Feed the world?
by Kate Childs Graham on Nov. 05, 2009A few weeks ago, a video by comedian Sarah Silverman went viral. Well over 600,000 people viewed the official You Tube video and countless others viewed the video via Facebook and other sites.
The subject of this viral video? The Vatican. And world hunger.
In the video, Sarah suggests that the solution to ending world hunger could be to sell the Vatican.
Not counting women and children
by Nicole Sotelo on Oct. 29, 2009Sosan's husband tried to electrocute her. He tried to poison her. She escaped to one of the six shelters in Afghanistan. But in a country where women are not allowed to live without a male, she could not leave the shelter until she married again, according to a recent United Nations report. Shelters are full and the rise in domestic violence cases is not solely due to cultural beliefs and governmental policies but is also tied to U.S. aggression.
Misogynist? Homophobic? We’ve got the church for you!
by Jamie L Manson on Oct. 22, 2009On Friday, Oct. 16 the most e-mailed article on The New York Times Web site was the story of Pat Bond’s fight to receive financial support for the terminally ill son that she conceived with a Franciscan priest over 20 years ago.
Four days later, the eighth most e-mailed Times article told of the Pope’s new initiative to welcome larger numbers of Anglican priests and seminarians, regardless of marital status, into the Roman Catholic clergy.
Chicagoans win their Olympic bid
by Mike Sweitzer-Beckman on Oct. 15, 2009I know that many Chicagoans felt bitter disappointment when Chicago was nixed from the 2016 Olympic bid. In the end, Rio de Janeiro out shone Tokyo, Madrid and Chicago and will become the first South American city to host the Summer Olympic Games. However, I think there are many Chicagoans who are quite relieved that their city will not play the host. They would not have welcomed the crushing impact on an already congested public transit system, the massive budget that Mayor Daley wanted taxpayers to shoulder, and the deportation of the least of our people in order to "clean up" the city for its few weeks in the international spotlight.
Thank you, sister
by Kate Childs Graham on Oct. 08, 2009Last January, the Vatican launched an investigation of communities of women religious in the United States. From those I’ve spoken with -- lay folks, women religious, priests and so on -- the reactions are mixed. Some see the investigation as an opportunity to look inward and revamp less-than-just practices that have been structurally ingrained in communities of women religious for hundreds of years. Others see the investigation as an unfair attack on these communities. Still others are worried about the fate of communities of women religious as a result of this non-transparent process.
Jesus' health care plan
by Nicole Sotelo on Oct. 01, 2009Jesus was perhaps one of the world’s first health care reformers. During a time in history when Greeks and Romans often traveled to a temple with offerings in exchange for healing, Jesus and his early followers healed free of charge wherever they encountered the sick, often at great peril to themselves.
'Wisdom hidden from the wise'
by Jamie L Manson on Sep. 24, 2009The more I read the gospel, the more I am struck by the idea that God loves a good scandal.
The gospels give us narrative after narrative of unlikely heroes, people who live on the margins of society who become model disciples. Those who hear God's word and see God at work in the world are almost always those that you would least expect. It's likely that the ancient communities who first heard these stories were very much aware of how radical they are. How did we come to forget this vital lesson?
Making the hometown home again
by Mike Sweitzer-Beckman on Sep. 18, 2009In this column last month, I wrote about the idea that Jesus is not welcome in his hometown. Jesus expresses this sentiment in all four Gospels: Luke 4, Matthew 13, Mark 6, and John 4. It's a common reference made in theology school when someone is returning home for a couple weeks or a couple months before transitioning to some new career or mission adventure.
