The red heifer ceremony flows out of our deepest human spiritual instincts. Rituals that combine land, power and wholeness, where mystery is greater than clarity. Lakota Catholic spirituality helps us to understand.
In Botticelli's painting, Jesus as an infant holds up for us the promise of a forthcoming sweetness in the symbol of the pomegranate. Will we receive it, or will we look away?
Indigenous land reclamation is happening in many ways. Still lacking in the Catholic Church, however, is a truly systemic approach. Part of the solution could be reconfiguring the U.S. bishops' Black and Indian Mission Office.
The near-total lack of U.S. Catholic decarbonization commitments is a failure to live the church's evangelical mission. It is a social sin of omission that compromises moral commitments, including to protect human life.
Forests are at the heart of U.S. climate resilience and are among our most effective climate solutions. The proposed forest plan amendment could better protect these forests if the final amendment stops commercial logging of old growth.
Church leadership's avoidance of hot-button topics not only withholds the moral guidance many seek (and that pastors are responsible for offering), but also denies opportunities for collective intercessory prayer.
