Simply Spirit: In a group called "Believers for Biden," I did not expect to be so deeply moved by praying together and witnessing that our shared faith requires us to help the most vulnerable and to promote the common good.
From Where I Stand: Where other countries have made a distinction between pathological individualism and the common good, we are still burying our dead, closing our schools, straining our hospitals and destroying our economy.
From Where I Stand: Since honesty as a prerequisite of character has apparently ceased to be an issue for the electorate at large, have we, as a moral nation, already collapsed? Do we have only lies to live by?
Simply Spirit: The Vatican's recent instruction on parishes restates a male-celibate-priest-controlled vision that is already moribund. St. Paul reminds us of a better way of mutuality in ministry: the example of Aquila and Prisca.
From Where I Stand: Accountability, example, equality, adaptation, care and a personal sense of responsibility direct the leader's leadership style. They're not the values taught in business schools maybe. But they make human beings of us all.
Commentary: We need a health care and insurance system where cost doesn't stop people from seeking treatment, especially as our nation tries to get COVID-19 under control.
Simply Spirit: The Catholic Church should not be vilified for accessing a greatly needed government program that protects its employees. But it can get tricky.
From Where I Stand: The conquest and enslavement of whole peoples is a seedbed of white shame that has lasted for decades, for centuries, and must finally be weeded out now.
Simply Spirit: It is not easy to be "put to the test." Which is why Jesus instructs us to ask for God's help in a world too often seduced and corrupted by the power of evil.
From Where I Stand: We had nothing to do with this racism thing, we say, and we're not going to apologize for something that happened centuries ago. But it's in our DNA. It's what we do. Generation after generation.
Simply Spirit: Two months ago, I was privileged to accompany a remarkable group of people touring ancient Christian sites in Greece, with some impressive female leaders traveling right alongside us.
From Where I Stand: We have lost a taste for solid gold leadership and accepted the gold-plated lookalike. We have bought into the emptiness of soul that takes a nation into the clutches of political subservience.
Simply Spirit: We remembered Jesus as we broke bread and raised our cups of wine in front of our webcams. No one could accuse us of attempting to say Mass. But there were many priests around our virtual table.
From Where I Stand: The question is what kind of basic truths — principles — must drive us if we are to endure and survive the kind of despair that threatens a national moment like this one?
Simply Spirit: The third FutureChurch pilgrimage to the Greek sites where women helped found Christianity brought to light the strength of the faith and the work women do for it today.
Simply Spirit: There is much good news for our world in Querida Amazonia. But much is lacking, for Amazonian Catholics and also for Catholics like me, who long to return to the practice of the early church.
Simply Spirit: I had the pleasure of taking my niece and grandnieces to see the movie "Little Women." Growing up, Louisa May Alcott's classic was my all-time favorite book. Love is central to the work.
From Where I Stand: Honesty, verity, authenticity and factuality are the underpinnings of good, effective government. But facts alone are not its gold standard.
