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25 Jul 2010 - Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

ASKING FOR HELP is a curiously difficult thing to do. Once we're no longer kids, we take a distinct pride in being self-sufficient. Back in college I remember signing a lease on a basement apartment for the summer. It was a bargain: only 12 dollars a week. But it came with a plumbing problem: Each time it rained, the water flooded up to my knees. Needless to say, the mold was acute. Mushrooms grew in the bathroom. But I would not complain to the absent landlords nor would I dream of asking my parents for a bailout. I was going to live with my choices, even if the consequences were insanely undesirable. We joke about being unable to ask for directions while hopelessly lost. We allow debt to grow over our heads but refuse to call the financial counselor. Our marriages chill to the point of freezing but we don’t seek the assistance of Retrouvaille. We're lonely but won't leave the house. We know we're drinking too much but won't visit AA. We're unwell but won't see a doctor. We sin and don't go to Confession. Pride keeps us from taking a single step out of the misery in which we find ourselves mired. So we can understand how the folks in Sodom and Gomorrah got in way over their heads and didn't have the sense to cry for mercy. Abraham, who didn't even live in those cities, was the only person willing to make the case for their pardon, for the sake of the innocent. He asked and asked, bargaining God down on the number, and God relented each time. Abraham, however, never asked for fewer than ten innocents. He relied on the goodness of others too much, and so two cities wound up in ruins. If only someone in Sodom had been asking, too! If only one person on each block would seek mercy for our modern cities, perhaps fewer of them would suffer social degradation and ruin. Maybe we should have designated Prayer Watch reps in each neighborhood to guarantee the safety of the populace. Ask, Jesus says, and you will receive. The problem lies in that too many of us refuse to ask. Pride won't allow us to admit there's a problem or that it's our problem and not someone else's. Pride won't take the risk of appearing weak, foolish, or wrong—yet mortality ensures that we're frail, lacking in knowledge, and error-prone. We deny our nature when we deny these things, and we put ourselves in jeopardy—and the people we care about most in jeopardy, too—when we refuse to ask for the help we need. Don't settle for a snake when what you really need is a fish. Related scripture links Actually, God will save eight: 2 Pet. 3:20 God doesn't sleep: Ps. 121:3-4 Thy will, not my will: Mark 14:35-36; Matt. 26:39-42; Luke 22:40-42 What's above, what's below: Col. 3:1-3; Phil. 4:8 Pray unceasingly: Eph. 6:18; Phil. 4:6; Col. 4:2; 1 Thess. 5:17 Catechism links Justice: CCC 1807; 2411-2412 Sin: CCC 1846-1869 Forgiveness: CCC 601-618; 654; 1441-1442; 1474-1477

Authors Alice Camille

ask for help sodom and gomorrah Mercy Pride Abraham

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The not-so-general welfare

08 Feb 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In this Sunday's readings Job laments his "months of misery, and troubled nights," while the psalmist tells how the Lord "sustains the lowly." Though economic misery is a fact, how those in distress will be sustained is another matter. Despite soaring unemployment and the worst economic crisis in decades, 18 states cut the number of people receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the main cash welfare program for families and children. Back in 1996, critics of the move to "end welfare as we know it," in President Bill Clinton's famous words, predicted this result. The trends raise questions about how well the revamped welfare system involving a great deal of state discretion is responding to growing hardships. Michigan cut its welfare rolls 13 percent, though it was one of two states whose October unemployment rate topped 9 percent. Rhode Island, the other, had the nation's largest welfare decline, 17 percent. Of the 12 states where joblessness grew most rapidly, eight reduced or kept constant the number of people receiving TANF. The program, which mostly serves single mothers, ended a 60-year-old entitlement to cash aid, replacing it with time limits and work requirements and giving states latitude to discourage people from joining the welfare rolls. While it was widely praised in the boom years that followed its creation, skeptics warned it would fail the needy when times turned tough. Even some of the program's staunchest defenders are alarmed. "There is ample reason to be concerned here," said Ron Haskins, a former Republican Congressional aide who helped write the 1996 law overhauling the welfare system. "The overall structure is not working the way it was designed to work. We would expect, just on the face of it, that when a deep recession happens, people could go back on welfare. "When we started this, Democratic and Republican governors alike said, 'We know what's best for our state; we're not going to let people starve,' " said Haskins, who is now a researcher at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "And now that the chips are down, and unemployment is going up, most states are not doing enough to help families get back on the rolls. Source: An article by Jason Deparle for the New York Times

states recession temporary assistance for needy families tanf welfare bill clinton unemployment ron haskins

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Justice denied

05 Apr 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In this Sunday's gospel narrative of the Passion, we hear how members of the Sanhedrin used questionable tactics as they tried to obtain testimony against Jesus. Amid allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, the U.S. Justice Department this week asked a federal judge to toss out the conviction of former U.S. senator Ted Stevens of Alaska on corruption charges. The request caps the controversial prosecution of Stevens, who requested an early trial to clear his name but was convicted just days before he lost a reelection bid. Stevens' attorneys had argued that prosecutors with the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section withheld key pieces of evidence and mishandled witnesses. Since the conviction, the department has disclosed a memo written by an FBI agent who complained about many of the same things. In February U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan held three prosecutors in contempt for failing to comply with a court order. Six members of that prosecution team withdrew from the case in matters dealing with allegations of misconduct. A new team of prosecutors then began to review the case. In a statement Wednesday, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said he and other justice department lawyers had reviewed the case and "concluded that certain information should have been provided to the defense for use at trial." "In light of this conclusion, and in consideration of the totality of the circumstances of this particular case, I have determined that it is in the interest of justice to dismiss the indictment and not proceed with a new trial," Holder said. Source: An article by Del Quentin Wilber for the Washington Post

ted stevens alaska us justice department conviction public integrity section emmet g sullivan evidence attorney general eric h holder jr

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Alaska’s final frontier feeling the heat

20 Feb 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In encouraging his followers to go the extra mile and do the right thing even when harmed, Jesus explains in this Sunday’s gospel that the sun rises and the rain falls on all the children of the Creator. The harm from global warming falls on all of God’s creation as well, and in few places is that impact being felt more dramatically than in Alaska’s prized network of national parks. Thawing permafrost in Denali, Kenai Fjords, and other Alaskan national parks is triggering mudslides on roads used by sightseers, while bushes newly sprouted on the warming tundra are blocking panoramic views. Glaciers are receding from convenient viewing areas and their fast summer melt poses new flood risks. A rapidly warming climate also has led to a proliferation of invasive plants and fish, greater frequency and intensity of wildfires, and declines in wildlife populations that depend on sea ice and glaciers, according to a recent National Park Service report. Since the mid-1970s Alaska has warmed at three times the rate of the lower 48 states, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. And with nearly two-thirds of U.S. national parkland located in Alaska, the issue of climate change is especially pressing there, officials say. An article by Yereth Rosen for Reuters

global warming alaska national parks

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Religious community wins right to sell caskets

07 Aug 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The psalmist’s prayer this Sunday serves as a suitable plea for anyone facing their own death of that of a loved one: “Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.” Also facing people at such a time are decisions concerning the final disposition of the body. The Benedictines of St. Joseph Abbey in St. Benedict, Louisiana want to offer their handcrafted caskets to the public and sued in federal court for the right to do so. Last year the monks had asked a federal judge in New Orleans to overturn a Louisiana law allowing only licensed funeral homes to sell caskets to the public. Several weeks ago, the court agreed. U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval of the Eastern District of Louisiana found no rational relationship between the prohibition on coffin sales and the public "health and safety" concerns that were advanced to justify it. "It appears that the sole reason for these laws is the economic protection of the funeral industry,” Duval said in striking down the law. At stake, the monks had argued, was the their ability to engage in free enterprise through the sale of the caskets, which range in price from $1,500 to $2,000 but which are considerably less expensive than many of those sold to bereaved families by funeral home operators. The monks have made the coffins for decades to bury brother members of their community, but public interest in the caskets began in the early 1990s and has grown over the years. At least three other monasteries in the U.S.--St. Meinrad Archabbey in St. Meinrad, Indiana; New Melleray Abbey in Peosta, Iowa; and Mount Michael Abbey in Elkhorn, Nebraska--have casket-making operations and sell their coffins to the public. Sources: Articles by Peter Finney, Jr. for Catholic News Service and Martha Neil for abajournal.com

louisiana funeral homes caskets st joseph abbey benedictines stanwood duval

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Sizzling summer fatal to fish

12 Aug 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Elijah nearly perished in the desert before God saved his life by providing food and water that refreshed him. Hundreds of thousands of fish in the Midwest are perishing in drought- and heat-stricken areas where water is scarce and hardly refreshing—some 40,000 sturgeon died last week in Iowa when water temperatures reached 97 degrees. One fishery biologist said he’d never seen anything like it. Nebraska fishery officials said they've seen thousands of dead fish of various species in the Lower Platte River, including endangered ones. Biologists in Illinois said the hot weather has killed tens of thousands of fish. "It's something I've never seen in my career, and I've been here for more than 17 years," said Mark Flammang, a fisheries biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. "I think what we're mainly dealing with here are the extremely low flows and this unparalleled heat." The fish are victims of one of the driest and warmest summers in history. The federal U.S. Drought Monitor shows nearly two-thirds of the lower 48 states are experiencing some form of drought, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has declared more than half of the nation's counties—nearly 1,600 in 32 states—natural disaster areas. More than 3,000 heat records were broken over the last month. Source: An article by Grant Schulte for the Associated Press

fish illinois midwest drought rivers nebraska iowa
Conduct unbecoming of an officer

14 Apr 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The Sanhedrin functioned as the court where Jewish religious disputes were settled. We hear in this Sunday’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles how its members were none too happy that the apostles had ignored their wishes and “filled Jerusalem” with their teaching about Jesus. The White House and U.S. Defense Department have been hearing from lawmakers who are none too happy with an Air Force officer’s decision to set aside a guilty verdict in a sexual assault case.On Monday Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel recommended military commanders be stripped of their ability to reverse criminal convictions of service members. Hagel will seek legislation requiring that cases go through the U.S. Court of Military Appeals. The change requires congressional action, but lawmakers have already begun looking into the matter in response to the furor over a recent Air Force sexual assault case.Lt. Gen. Craig Franklin, commander of the 3rd Air Force at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, overturned the conviction against Lt. Col. James Wilkerson, a former inspector general at Aviano Air Base in Italy, who had been found guilty last November of charges of abusive sexual contact, aggravated sexual assault, and three instances of conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman. The incident had involved a civilian employee.Wilkerson was sentenced to a year in prison and dismissal from the service, but after a review of the case Franklin overturned the conviction. His decision triggered outrage among senators and calls for a new look at the military justice system."This decision has turned the military on its ear," said Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri during a hearing last month. She added that Franklin's decision sets the Air Force "all the way back to Tailhook." The 1991 Tailhook scandal rocked the military when Navy pilots were accused of sexually abusing female officers at a Las Vegas convention.Homily hint: The letter of the law is never enough; it is the spirit of the law that must be respected, as Jesus taught many times as he both fulfilled and went beyond Jewish Law. Encourage those in attendance always to let the spirit of justice be their guide as they navigate the ethical challenges they meet and choices they must make. Source: An article by Lolita Baldor for the Associated Press

chuck hagel claire mccaskill craig franklin james wilkerson sexual assault

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Smoke? Screen!

04 Aug 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

This Sunday's psalm offers a sobering testament to our mortality, reminding us that God turns us "back to dust" and that our bodies are "like the changing grass, which at dawn springs up anew, but by evening wilts and fades." While medical technology can't offer immortality, screenings and early detection can forestall some of the many premature deaths caused by smoking. A U.S. panel of doctors which advises on government health-care policy decisions recommended Tuesday that older smokers get screened every year for lung cancer with a low-dose computerized tomography (CT) scan.The latest guidance from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is an update over its 2004 guidelines for lung-cancer screening. At that time the panel said there wasn't enough evidence to recommend a CT scan for smokers who aren't showing symptoms. The panel's recommendations are often used by insurers when determining coverage. CT scans can cost anywhere from $100 to $400.There are some downsides to frequent CT scans, which have been linked to an elevated risk for radiation-induced cancers. The panel reviewed existing studies, however, and concluded the benefits of screening outweigh the potential harms.Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. Lung cancer in particular is the third leading cause of death in the country: Nearly 159,500 people are expected to die of the disease in 2013, while another 228,200 people will be diagnosed, according to the National Cancer Institute. “The evidence shows we can prevent a substantial number of lung cancer deaths by screening, about 20,000 a year,” said a panel spokesperson.Homily hint: We´ve come a long way since the days when the word "cancer" was not uttered in polite company. Still, a stigma remains, along with tremendous fear of the disease, which may keep away people who should be getting regular checkups anyway. Might your faith community sponsor a health fair or find some other way so that parishioners could have a safe arena to discuss their health concerns with professionals? Jesus was a healer—let's do our part as well. Source: An article by CBS News

smoking lung cancer us preventive services task force ct scans

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