by Peter Feuerherd
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Editor's note: "The Field Hospital" is NCRonline's newest blog series, covering life in Catholic parishes across the United States. The title comes from the words of Pope Francis: "I see the church as a field hospital after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars! You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else. Heal the wounds, heal the wounds. ... And you have to start from the ground up."
"The Field Hospital" blog will run twice weekly on NCRonline.org along with feature stories and news reports about parish life in the U.S. If you have a story suggestion, send it to Dan Morris Young (dmyoung@ncronline.org) or Peter Feuerherd (pfeuerherd@ncronline.org).
Is your parish facilitating a foreign invasion? If it does refugee resettlement, it probably is, claims Accuracy in Media, a right-wing group. It is particularly angry at Muslims being resettled with U.S. government assistance. Congress needs to investigate, AIM says. No comment here about religious liberty.
A different point of view from Msgr. James McNamara, writing for The Long Island Catholic
Parishes in the Diocese of Fall River, Mass., will now have to kick in 8 to 14 percent of their income to the diocese. Fall River was one of the few dioceses without an assessment of its parishes.
Our Lady Star of the Sea Church in New Orleans recently hosted a celebration of Black Saints. It was done New Orleans style, with music, a procession, and an opportunity for African American Catholics to witness to their faith.
In Ohio, bingo, including those run by parishes, declines because of increased competition for the gambling dollar.
[Regular Catholic press contributor Peter Feuerherd writes from Queens, N.Y.]
