“A worthless statement” is how Franciscan theologian Daniel Horan characterizes the 2018 Bishops’ pastoral “against racism.” Immediately, a pang of guilt; in this blog I said it was “pretty good.” I also called on the bishops to defend it in the public sphere as vigorously as they defended some other pro-life issues, and on parishes…
Read more

If you are a homeowner in Great Britain, you are entitled to live under the English Common Law Principle of “Ancient Lights”, i.e. you have the “right to unobstructed passage of light and air from adjoining land if you have had uninterrupted use of the lights for twenty years.” The Irish author, John Banville, put…
Read more

Did you think about “chauvinism” when hearing about the murder of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin? One definition is “an irrational belief in the superiority or dominance of one’s own group or people.” We used that word for decades about men. Now we think of two men – one charged with murder, one who dishonored…
Read more

Before this past weekend, I had sent in a totally different post for today’s The Table.Then I watched my own city ravaged by an understandable, justifiable, and yet horrificanger. I do not know how to express how sorry and sorrowful I am. I think Shannen Dee Williams, assistant professor of history at Villanova University andauthor…
Read more

Step by step the longest march can be won, can be won Many stones can form an arch, singly none, singly none And by union what we will can be accomplished still Drops of water turn a mill, singly none singly none https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnRlNfpCt8o This labor song by Waldemar Hille and Pete Seeger uses lyrics from…
Read more

Recently I became a vegetarian. Big deal, you might think, especially if you have been vegetarian or vegan for a long time or all of your life. Oh no, you might think, not one of those people especially if you’ve been a lifetime devotee of the ‘food chain’ justification of meat-eating or just continued enjoyment…
Read more

Having just called my 95 year-old cousin with COVID-19 in a rehab facility in New Jersey, I am especially appalled by this comment from Cardinal Timothy Dolan to President Donald Trump, described in Crux: The New York cardinal said he was “honored to be the lead-off batter, and the feelings are mutual sir,” noting that…
Read more

I am writing during “Laudato Si’ Week”, the fifth anniversary of Pope Francis’ encyclical letter: “On Care for Our Common Home”.  This particular encyclical made me proud to be Catholic (instead of a confusing mixture of semi-lapsed, semi-faithful) and grateful to have a Pope, if only to give us someone as a world-recognized spokesperson with…
Read more

In the women’s supplement to the May issue of L’Osservatore Romano, Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet calls for more women in seminaries! But it’s not for the good of the women, though I would be happy if more academic jobs were made available to women theologians. No, this is for the good of the seminarians. I’m…
Read more

Sometimes I am at a loss about what to write. Either I’m at that emptied out phase or too full to even process everything storming at us and through us. So many others I’ve talked with seem to feel the same. What is there to say? About our world?  About our lives?  Even about women’s…
Read more