Copy Desk Daily, Aug. 11, 2020

Recommended for you today, from the NCR/GSR/EarthBeat copy desk:

Catholic discourse on Black Lives Matter must amplify women founders: Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi and Patrisse Cullors have actively and consistently condemned the violence and oppression affecting our country's most marginalized, the very evils our church calls on us to condemn. Read the commentary article by Olga Segura.

Indigenous activists are confronting what they deem as California's racist past, calling for the removal of colonial-era monuments, including statues of Fr. Junípero Serra. Years after his controversial canonization, Serra's name has reappeared in headlines, amid national protests of systemic racism and the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement. Since June, several prominent statues of Serra have been defaced or toppled over by protestors in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento, echoing past incidents with statues in Monterey, Santa Barbara and Mission San Gabriel. Read about who supports the controversial Fr. Junípero Serra. (And, more importantly, why.)

In 2018, Pope Francis ordered a report on how the former cardinal (Theodore McCarrick) was promoted again and again. This February, we heard it was nearly ready. We are reaching the point where continued delay becomes unexplainable. What's going on? Read our latest editorial: It's past time for Vatican report on McCarrick's shameful rise.

I read about a lot of tragic things (and learn how Catholic sisters and others are helping). I see lots of very difficult photographs. For some reason, the picture of the home where a grandmother was raising two boys, 4 and 14 years old, in one of Nairobi's slums ... brought me to tears.  Read this column by Sr. Jackline Mwikali Mwongela about her work there.

The sisters Pie Discepole del Divin Maestro (Pious Disciples of the Divine Master) was founded by Blessed James Alberione, who encouraged the sisters to dedicate themselves to embroidery, painting and sculpture and undertake studies in engineering, architecture. "So what I am doing is a part of our mission," said Sr. Vimala Joseph Thottumannil. "Our congregation has many sisters who are architects, artists and sculptors in various parts of the world." Read the full interview with her here.

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