When you think about the mechanics of Sunday Eucharist, it’s difficult to imagine a system better designed to spread contagion. Parishioners of all ages are crowded into a confined space, they hug or shake hands, they receive bread on the tongue or in the hand from a minister whose hands are not gloved, they share Read more
It is seriously funny that animals and birds roam free while we humans sit in cages. What is the Earth telling us? I haven’t the faintest idea. But I do sense the whisper of the Divine Presence with this pandemic. Some of us are being called back home to the love from which we came. Read more
While church lockdowns remain the norm in much of the country, parish management and ministry professionals say now is the time for parishes and dioceses to find ways to creatively keep the faithful engaged when the coronavirus hibernation ends, for a post-virus Church. “This moment in crisis needs to be approached not as a short-term Read more
I was not blessed with a quiet mind. It’s a switchboard of extemporaneous ideas, thoughts, memories and questions that is always on, always lit up, always busy. Did I plug in the slow cooker? I wonder how many calories I’ll burn if I keep swinging my leg like this. College Dropout was definitely Kanye’s best Read more
Religions are inherently optimistic. That is why, despite the mess in the world, they proclaim an order, and celebrate it with repeated rituals. Even in a pandemic, religions see a world where “the facts are friendly”. Christians, along with Jews and Muslims, see the Creator as infinitely – and quite literally so – greater than Read more
There are numerous uncertainties surrounding these days of Covid-19 in Aotearoa-New Zealand and across the globe. From a social work perspective, it is hard to know where to begin, with the burdens carried by social workers in the present, or with the possibilities facing the planet in the longer run. Whichever we chose, there is Read more
“An Easter of Solitude”: This is how Pope Francis, standing alone in an empty St. Peter’s Basilica, described what the holiest day of the year would look like for many Catholics as the coronavirus pandemic forced churches to close and their members to stay at home. As the pope was speaking, Mariana Scavo, 32, ate Read more
When the coronavirus epidemic passes, Americans can’t simply return to their old habits, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio has said. “We won’t properly absorb the lessons from the coronavirus crisis if we fall back into the traditional Republican and Democratic model of politics. We need a new vision to create a more resilient economy,” the Florida Read more
As the human race joins the rest of the planet in a struggle for survival, the church is also trying to find its footing. Why? Clericalism. For too long — say, 800 to 1,000 years — the sacramental life of the church has been under priestly lock and key. Around the 10th century, the custom Read more
The outbreak of plague in Europe between 1347-1352 CE – known as the Black Death – completely changed the world of medieval Europe. Severe depopulation upset the socio-economic feudal system of the time but the experience of the plague itself affected every aspect of people’s lives. Disease on an epidemic scale was simply part of Read more