Hope

Three weeks ago I introduced Pope Francis’ new encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, which in English means “we are all brothers and sisters.” Two weeks ago, we took a look at Chapter 1: Dark Clouds Over a Closed World. Chapter 1 is pretty negative. In it, our Holy Father details the world’s ills, including aggressive nationalism, toxicContinue reading “Hope”

Lockdown, A Poem for the Pandemic

Brother Richard Hendrick, a Capuchin Franciscan monk living in Ireland, wrote a poem entitled “lockdown” and posted it to Facebook on March 13th. I was so touched by it, I wanted to share it here: Yes there is fear.Yes there is isolation.Yes there is panic buying.Yes there is sickness.Yes there is even death.But,They say thatContinue reading “Lockdown, A Poem for the Pandemic”

The Virtue and Responsibility of Hope

In the final chapter of Laudato Si, the Holy Father speaks of hope: Let us sing as we go. May our struggles and our concern for this planet never take away the joy of our hope. It’s easy to feel despondent by the denial of undeniable facts by some in power, by the empty promisesContinue reading “The Virtue and Responsibility of Hope”