Those who publish this information claim to be telling us what is happening in the world, but in our wiser moments we remember to question whether they are offering us the truth.

From experience, we know that the loudest voices belong to persons and institutions whose enormous wealth lets them fill the pages of newspapers, or radio and television channels.

Their stories enhance their own image and increase their profits.

Truth and lies

The daily news may give us the basic facts about a plane crash or a court trial, but when it comes to the truth about why a war is being fought, or about global warming, we need to be more cautious.

In fact we can identify several areas where the mainstream media in our "western" nations consistently distort the truth about our world.

Lie number one

One basic lie which is quietly promoted is that "White" people are of more value - are more important - than "people of colour".

More column-space and air-time is given to the death of a few "White" people than the death of hundreds or even thousands of Blacks, Asians or Palestinians.

Refugees from those populations are seen as a problem, usually treated callously.

They're not usually treated as the victims of wars provoked by our "White" nations, or of famines resulting from the global warming caused by centuries of our industrial activity.

We assume that we have a right to plunder "Third World" resources, as we earlier took the land of non-Whites.

We even justify that theft, whether it happened in North America during colonisation, across Australia after 1788, in Africa during the 19th century, or in Palestine since 1948.

In the latter case, mainstream media mostly ignore or conceal the genocide which now is completing that land theft, and demonises those - such as tertiary students - who dare protest against it.

Lie number two

Another fundamental untruth almost completely overlooked is that the "growth" of every nation's GDP cannot continue.

This is because every resource on earth - fresh water, iron, oil, gas, forests; even our capacity to capture sunlight - is limited.

Although some resources - coal - are more abundant than others, our civilisation will not survive unless we change to a world economy based on genuine re-cycling.

Lie number three

A third basic lie spread by (most) media is their denial of the rapidly approaching but unpredictable "tipping points" that will soon be triggered by the heating of our planet.

Resulting from several centuries of our burning fossil fuels and building cities, these tipping points may come in various ways.

They may involve the irreversible melting of ice-caps and glaciers; the sudden extinction of inter-dependent species - including rain forests; or the altered flow of ocean currents and jet-streams.

Although national leaders talk together regularly, and politicians make promises, none has so far had the will to stop the ruthless greed of fossil-fuel merchants.

They won't even admit the elephant in the room, the disaster that is rapidly approaching.

The Holy Spirit

But at Pentecost we reflect on the Holy Spirit, which is mentioned hundreds of times in the pages of the New Testament.

This Spirit moves people to speak in prophesy - Zechariah, Elizabeth, Simeon, Anna, John the Baptist.

The Spirit overwhelmed the adult Jesus at his baptism, driving him out into the desert and then leading him on his mission.

By the Spirit's power he healed people and drove out demons.

He told his followers that they can call on the Spirit within them when they were attacked for speaking the truth.

John's later gospel calls it the Spirit of Truth (14:17, 15:26, 16:13), and reflects how we can each receive this divine Spirit.

At our present time of grave world crisis, it must be obvious to anyone believing in God, that God's Spirit is not the exclusive property of any one faith tradition or clergy.

On the contrary, we each need urgently to call on this tremendous gift within us, using the Divine power it gives to unite our human family and to heal our fragile planet.

• First published in Finding the Treasure
• Peter Murnane O.P. is a Melbourne-based Dominican Friar, author and political activist. (Originally, CathNews was in error, saying Peter was New Zealand based.)

The fires and floods in the Northern Hemisphere have emphasised the threat of climate change to people's lives throughout the world.

They foreshadow the future.

Less dramatically the gradual unrolling of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has also revealed its threat to the livelihood of many white collar workers and its potential for blurring the distinction between reality and illusion.

It is one of many developments in technology with the potential to reshape human life. Experience tells us that any negative effects will fall most heavily on people on the edges of society.

For that reason those concerned with building a more just society will need to reflect more deeply and broadly on social justice.

The Catholic Church, among many other institutions, has a long tradition of such reflection, having responded initially to the world shaped by the French and the Industrial Revolutions.

The latter and the laissez faire economic assumptions that accompanied it disempowered and alienated workers and disrupted their personal and religious relationships.

Like others, Catholic thinkers worked to advocate for just economic and political relationships between workers, employers and governments asking how they ought to be shaped if they are to contribute to decent human living.

Climate change: a new threat to human flourishing

The reach of reflection on social justice then expanded to meet new situations and ideologies.

Increasingly devastating wars, economic depression, the rise of totalitarian regimes, the challenge of preserving peace, decolonisation, population growth, inequality and neo-liberal economic assumptions have all involved complex changes in social and economic relationships.

They have demanded constant reflection to ensure that people who are most disadvantaged are protected and supported.

Under Pope Francis, the scope of Catholic reflection on Social Justice has expanded beyond the focus on the economy, migration and war to include the environment.

It responded to the threat of climate change.

The development recognizes that human beings can flourish only if our personal and institutional relationships to the environment of which we are part are respectful.

For this reason any commitment to social justice through policies and programmes needs to take into account the effects of climatic change on people who are disadvantaged.

This expansion of social justice to include the environment has prompted the adoption of the term Integral Justice.

The threat of climate change, however, is of a different order than the previous challenges to human flourishing.

Threatening human relationships and future generations

In the first place, if it is unchecked it will threaten the delicate network of relationships that constitute our human environment, and as a result will threaten human life as we know it.

It is a crisis that extends beyond the shape of relationships between human beings to affect their very possibility.

It is therefore integral to reflection on the justice of all those relationships. As with other sets of social relationships people living on the margins will be the canaries in the mine.

Second, the decisions and social structures which we now implement or neglect to make in response to climate change will inevitably and irrevocably shape the lives of our descendants.

If we put our profit and comfort above reducing emissions our children and grandchildren will pay the price.

Thinking about social justice and the relationships between social groups then needs to think about the effect of what we do on future generations and especially on the marginalised. Social justice must also be intergenerational.

The urgency of the challenge of climate change may seem to be far higher than that posed by the initial development of Artificial Intelligence. Appearances, however, are illusory.

Public concern about AI has so far focused on its economic effect on employment in industry, planning, in creative work and in publications.

It may also affect human flourishing, however, through its effect on planning and implementing ideas, on physical presence to others in work and in recreation, and on the privatisation of truth.

When it is joined to the project of a metaverse in which brains are adapted to computers in a virtual world of the user's choice, the pressures on people who are marginalized will be incalculable.

Society's disadvantaged will be increasingly vulnerable

AI is only one of many technologies with the potential to affect human flourishing. Advances in genetic and nano technology also have the potential to alter human lives according to our choice.

We can imagine the power of genetic engineering to prevent hereditary illnesses, to create designer babies, to create human beings and hybrids in a laboratory and to introduce genetic modifications into human beings with incalculable results.

All these developments, and the profit that stands to be made by the large companies which fund them, pose important questions about what it means for us to be social beings accountable to one another.

Communal reflection and regulation of these developments, which have potential for good as well as for harm, are threatened both by massive inequality that enables those who develop the technologies to do so for further profit and also by a popular culture that privileges individual choice over the common good.

In such a world, people who are disadvantaged will be increasingly vulnerable to deprivation of agency, of sociality and to be seen as objects to be dealt with by new technologies.

For this reason, reflection on social justice must include in its remit the effects of new technologies on persons and their economic, political and environmental relationships. Read more

• Andrew Hamilton SJ is writer at Jesuit Social Services in Melbourne (Australia) and consulting editor of Eureka Street.
• First published at Eureka Street. Republished with author's permission.

The concern follows media exposure of numerous shameful examples of migrant workers coming to New Zealand and finding themselves without work, money or suitable accommodation.

On Monday, INZ said it had received 711 complaints against accredited employers, with 154 being investigated for criminal offending.

Of these, INZ said 52 employers are being assessed to have their accreditation revoked. By mid-last month, six had already been revoked and five suspended.

Steve Watson, INZ's general manager of immigration compliance and investigations, said 151 of those complaints have been referred to INZ's compliance department as they relate to migrants working in breach of visa conditions.

Employment New Zealand is examining another 406, as these were about breaches of employment law and migrant exploitation.

Migrants exploitation - the many ugly faces

Multiple investigations over migrant exploitation are underway.

It is just three weeks since 115 workers from India and Bangladesh on accredited employer work visas (AEWV) were found living in crammed and unsanitary conditions. They said they had had no income for months.

In May, the Herald reported hundreds of Nepalese may have paid up to $30,000 for visas to non-existent jobs.

Up to 250 migrants from South American countries paid large amounts for visas to come here on a false promise of residency-leading jobs.

There are ongoing concerns too, that not enough is being done to tackle worker exploitation in the alcohol industry.

Newshub's Nick Truebridge found 40 migrants "holed up" at a Papakura house without food.

He says the migrants were subjected to these conditions after trying to find a better life under the Accredited Employer Work Visa Scheme.

RNZ's Lucy Xia tells migrant exploitation stories too. She speaks of migrants allegedly exploited and left all but destitute after being told they were heading into decent jobs.

Immigration Minister Andrew Little says migrant exploitation has resulted in over 200 offshore migrants' visas being cancelled.

He says 10 migrants were stopped, turned around at the New Zealand border and their visas were cancelled.

INZ confirms the Minister's comments in this respect, but says he's mistaken about INZ cancelling the visas of 193 offshore migrants caught in a scam.

They haven't been cancelled.

"These individuals have border alerts so we can ensure they do not board a flight and come to New Zealand until such time as their employment has been verified," INZ national manager Peter Elms says.

He also confirmed INZ had not cancelled any accredited employer work visas of offshore migrants whose employers have had their accreditation revoked.

1News says INZ investigations are focusing on "five to six" accredited employers who had about 400 visas issued to them, and on their mistreatment of 115 Indian and Bangladeshi workers.

Source

• RNZ
• NZ Herald
• 1News
• NZ Herald
• CathNews NZ

In 2004, CPAG explained what was so wrong in a publication called Cut Price Kids and has been campaigning to fix WFF ever since.

After the WEAG report in 2018, the Government began its widely anticipated WFF review. We participated in good faith along with many other NGOs. Our recommendations are found here.

The main part of the WFF is the per child per week Family Tax Credit that goes to all caregiver in low-income families on the same basis. This is the best tool to ensure income adequacy.

The second component, confusingly named the ‘In Work Tax Credit ' is added to the Family Tax Credit weekly payment, but only when parents are eligible on paid work criteria.

While fixed hours of work no longer have to be met, if there is any benefit or part benefit paid, then the children of those parents cannot have any of the In Work Tax Credit.

As a result about 200,000 of the worst-off children in New Zealand miss out on a substantial part of WFF - at least $72.50 a week.

The reasoning has been that paid work is the only way out of poverty and therefore their parents need an incentive to work.

In the review of WFF, cabinet approved as the starting point these two key deeply contradictory objectives:

• to make work pay by supporting families with dependent children, so that they are rewarded for their work effort
• to ensure income adequacy, with a focus on low and middle-income families with dependent children to address issues of poverty, especially child poverty

Parents are not on benefits for fun.

Their children are four times more likely than other children to live in poverty — that means going without the basics … not enough money after rent to pay for school uniforms, and the power bill let alone nutritious food.

Many of these families are sole parents, many have disabled children, or there is sickness in the family, few job opportunities and lack support of all kinds.

Even if they manage a part-time job, their part benefit makes their children ineligible for the In Work Tax Credit.

When a payment to a caregiver is designed to be enough to address child poverty but it is withheld from the worst-off families who are on benefits to create a work incentive, the result is deeper child poverty not more parents off-benefit.

Phase one of the WFF review decided to focus on the second objective, and in the 2022 budget, increases were announced to the Family Tax Credit.

This was largely a delayed inflation catch-up implemented from 1 April 2023, and was soon eroded in the cost of living crisis.

Most unfortunately, as part of the same package, low-income families in paid work lost their Working for Families more quickly as the rate of clawback (or abatement) rose from 25 percent to 27 percent for each dollar earned over the very low fixed threshold of $42,700.

So much for work incentives!

Thomas Coughlan had previously outlined in the NZ Herald how serious thought had been given pre-budget 2023 to fixing flaws in the WFF design. He reported that in the WFF review

"Anti-poverty groups said this tax credit "should be paid to all families and not just those who are off a benefit and in paid work".

"These stakeholders argued that the payment was discriminatory or unfair, particularly given children were unable to choose whether their parents were working.

"They also emphasised the need to value other contributions people make, such as caring for children or voluntary work,"

So now we have part two of the WFF review.

May be this is Labour's way of putting that tortuous review to bed.

They announced yesterday (13th August) that if elected the In Work Tax Credit will be increased by $25 a week from 1 April 2024 creating an even bigger gap between children in families on benefits and other low and middle income families in paid work.

The threshold stays fixed at $42,700 and there are no automatic indexation provisions. However, the threshold will rise to $50,000 by 2026, just in time for the next election. The rate of abatement stays at 27 percent.

The worst-off 200,000 children get nothing- they remain invisible and left further behind - Cut Price Kids indeed.

• Susan St John CNZM QSO is an economist from New Zealand. She is a lecturer at the University of Auckland and spokesperson for the Child Poverty Action Group. St John graduated with a Master of Arts in Economics from the University of Auckland in 1979.
• First published in The Daily Blog. Republished with permission of the author.

Starting with only $10 in the bank, the transformed Housing Trust now manages 31 rental spaces, housing 110 individuals across 41 households.

It also owns its first property.

Emboldened by their mission, the Trust rented a property privately and subleased it to a tenant in need, all with the owner's knowledge.

The success of the Trust is attributed to high-quality tenancy management, an efficient maintenance team, cost-effective operations and a dedicated volunteer board, all committed to the belief that housing is a basic human right, reports NZ Catholic.

"The Trust offers a financial and emotional cushion for tenants during difficult times, preventing them from falling back into homelessness," a Trust spokesperson told NZ Catholic.

According to NZ Catholic, the Trust excels at transitioning people from temporary to permanent housing while minimising the financial burden for its tenants, who typically struggle with low incomes and historical debt.

With its well-established reputation, the Trust has garnered more opportunities to manage rental properties and has secured a contract with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, providing transitional housing and enabling it to hire staff to manage the properties.

While the Upper Hutt Housing Trust's approach centres on the principle of 'housing first' followed by continued support services to maintain secure, affordable and sustainable housing, it now also assists its tenants with job opportunities and work experiences.

As part of a comprehensive range of wrap-around services, the Trust offers and encourages independence and assists tenants with job opportunities, work experiences and chances to move into paid work.

As the Trust continues to provide housing services successfully, it aims to become a community housing provider and is considering managing a seven-day emergency shelter for the most vulnerable.

Trust membership has also expanded to include neighbouring Catholic and other Christian parishes and groups, and currently includes:

Source

• NZ Catholic
• Upper Hutt Housing Trust

Laudato Si' is medieval Italian for "Praise be to you."

It is a quote from St. Francis of Assisi's beautiful Canticle of the Creatures: "Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs."

Pope Francis, who took his papal name from St Francis, continues to be deeply inspired by this patron saint of ecology. So much so, that in 2015 he wrote the first ever environmental encyclical letter titled "Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home."

"St Francis of Assisi reminds us," writes the pope, "that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. …

"This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will."

Pope Francis explains, "Each year hundreds of millions of tons of waste are generated, much of it non-biodegradable, highly toxic and radioactive, from homes and businesses, construction and demolition sites, clinical, electronic and industrial sources. The earth, our home, is becoming increasingly like an immense pile of filth."

The Holy Father then weighs in on climate change.

Ignoring the weak scientific claims of those who deny the climate is changing and that the earth is warming - due principally to human pollution. He writes, "A very solid scientific consensus indicates that we are presently witnessing a disturbing warming of the climatic system."

Indeed, the scientific consensus is very solid.

According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), "97 percent or more of actively publishing climate scientists agree: Climate-warming trends over the past century are very likely due to human activities."

"The problem is dangerously aggravated by a model of development based on the intensive use of fossil fuels" - that is coal, oil, and gas.

The pope urgently calls for global conversion from the use of these fossil fuels to "clean renewable energy" - wind, solar and geothermal.

Francis astutely observes that living comfortable lifestyles far removed from the poor, often leads to a "numbing of conscience" and to a cold, impersonal analysis.

"At times this attitude exists side by side with a ‘green rhetoric.'

"Today, however, we have to realize that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor."

Observing the connection between the degradation of the environment and war, Francis writes, "It is foreseeable that, once certain resources have been depleted, the scene will be set for new wars."

The earth and humanity are in trouble.

The dangers of climate change and accompanying global warming are nothing to take lightly. The scientific evidence is overwhelming. We don't have much time left to wake up.

Therefore, this all makes Laudato Si' Week a week that should not be ignored. Let's commit to celebrating it as soon as possible.

Watch the moving film featuring Pope Francis called "The Letter: A message for our Earth"

Share Pope Francis' Laudato Si'.

Pray with the Laudato Si' Prayer Book.

Become a Laudato Si' animator.

Pick up the challenge: read the encyclical. It will inspire.

• Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated Catholic social justice and peace columnist. He is available to speak at diocesan or parish gatherings. Tony can be reached at tmag6@comcast.net.

The article highlighting their plight has been pulled from the NZ Herald's website.

On Wednesday, Wellington NZ Herald reporter, Georgina Campbell, reported that migrant bus drivers have been brought to the Capital and are being put up without the bare essentials.

The migrant bus drivers lack basics like beds and mattresses, heaters, kitchen utensils, washing machines and fridges.

Campbell was responding to an appeal by a Wellington woman posted on a community Facebook page, saying she is helping 18 Filipino migrant bus drivers.

The woman says the drivers have been in the city for around three weeks and need help as they head into winter.

Daran Ponter, the Greater Wellington Regional Council chairman, confirmed he had received a screenshot of a Facebook post in a community group.

Ponter says he passed the Facebook screenshot on to the Regional Council's public transport arm, Metlink.

The post asked if anyone could lend household items.

"We are bus drivers here in Wellington. We are new here. Happy to pay if they are selling cheap. (sic.) Very much appreciated. Thank you," the post said.

Commenting on behalf of NZ Bus in Wellington, Russell Turnbull said all new drivers to the country employed by the company received settlement support during their first four to six weeks here.

This included accommodation provided by NZ Bus, Turnbull said.

However, the level of care is being questioned by neighbours of one of the migrant driver groups.

"They're new to the country and don't even know how to get rid of their rubbish," one man told CathNews.

The man who wished to remain anonymous said he shouted these migrants a roll of City Council rubbish bags and explained how the rubbish system worked.

"Their English was good and once they knew what to do they were fine."

Quick to retort, "But I'll shout them another bag again next week if I need to."

Before his neighbourly intervention, rubbish was left in black bags and not collected at the gate.

"It's really basic stuff and very unfair," he said.

CathNews contacted the man again on Thursday, asking if he noticed any change.

"Yes," he laughed.

"The City Council have visited and left a notice in all the residents' letterboxes saying that rubbish put out in black bags won't be collected."

Raising his eyebrow, he sighed, "Very helpful."

However, Wellington Regional Council Transport Committee chairman Thomas Nash told the NZ Herald that the well-being of drivers is important.

Nash said that the council is making every effort to ensure the migrant drivers are looked after and have a good experience.

He also acknowledged it wasn't easy coming to a new country.

"It's expensive, there are always set-up costs, and it's always helpful when employers, friends, family, community groups and neighbours help out.

"To everyone who is doing that for any new workers who are coming into Wellington, we are very grateful," he said.

The Wellington Regional Council is hiking rates by a massive 17.8% in part to attract bus drivers and further decarbonise its bus fleet.

The Capital is struggling to get on top of its shortage of some 125 drivers, which causes buses to be cancelled.

Bus cancellations also threaten the highly controversial multi-million dollar "Let's get Welly Moving" campaign.

Sources

• NZ Herald (Last accessed 19 April 2023)
• Reddit
• I Love Karori (Private Facebook group)

Hip-hop has almost always prioritised the knowledge, experience and artistic expressions of the poor and disenfranchised, he says. Read more

Primarily targeting Catholic educators, "Aroha and Diversity in Catholic Schools" is the opposite of so many policies which have harmed students and upset school communities in recent years, Shine comments.

The document clearly shows the bishops' core concern is young people's safety and well-being, not with defending church teaching, he says.

He sees the guideline as exciting "as it provides Catholics worldwide with an opportunity to grow in understanding and to improve pastoral practice."

First, most importantly, the bishops address LGBTQ+ issues primarily through the lens of social justice, Shine says.

"The text stresses repeatedly values like respecting human dignity, advancing solidarity, and promoting the common good.

"At the document's heart is the clear statement, 'How we as a Church treat those members of the LGBTQIA+ community should reflect Catholic social teaching.'"

Shine notes the bishops recognise this commitment to social justice is central for young people.

"Such a social justice-focused approach is different from nearly every other diocesan or national gender policy, which sadly focus instead on upholding orthodoxy and imposing LGBTQ-negative prohibitions."

Second, and linked to the first point, there is a repeated emphasis on the need to end discrimination and curtail bullying, Shine notes.

He says he likes the guideline's practical advice, which includes general principles like:

• "Ensure that school is a safe place - many young people may not feel accepted anywhere else ... school may be their only ... sanctuary."
• "Acceptance of others sets a very ‘low bar' - Catholic schools need to be centres of welcome from all the community. . ."
• "Ensure ... procedures and guidelines on how homophobia, sexism, racism, and other forms of violence are unacceptable and how they are to be addressed ...".

The third point is the role an informed conscience has in handling personal, complex issues like gender and sexuality.

"Catholic schools are called to help form the consciences of the young people in their care, while recognising that parents, caregivers and whanau have a role to play in this area. . ."

Practical suggestions include encouraging staff to educate themselves about LGBTQIA+ people, to develop relevant resources and revise gender-related dress codes. It also provides practical guidelines for young people themselves.

The final section - "Tools for Decision Making" - includes questions on how to hold events or promote resources.

On the minus side, Shine says the document reiterates... a conservative interpretation of church teaching!

"Yet, the document does so in a way that is far more limited than other policy documents on this subject."

Catholic education worldwide can now study the guidelines, he says. By being so focused on localised decision-making, the bishops end up offering universal principles and tools for reflection.

New Ways Ministry has locked horns with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the US bishops for its dissent from Catholic teaching on homosexuality.

Pope Francis, however, has praised its founder in a handwritten letter.

Source

• New Ways Ministry

The Catholic housing trust has been flooded with messages since Smith announced his resignation last month.

It's clear he'll be missed. Big time.

Smith is modest about his involvement with the Trust.

"Empowering the disempowered, housing the homeless and feeding the hungry - surely that's what we should do anyway," he says.

"It just represents our calling as individuals and as members of the Church here on earth."

He says he's loved seeing people gain hope when only experiencing hopelessness, to see whanau once disempowered now empowered to stand tall in their faith, culture and gender.

While he's quiet about his own achievements, he's proud of the Trust's progress.

It's been a hard job, but the rewards so far have been worth the effort.

"It's been wonderful to see unemployed people gain employment, further their education, gain diplomas and degrees, start businesses and become self-sustainable" he says.

"There's also been the occasional whanau who've progressed far enough to buy their own home. All those rewards have kept me going!"

Smith also mentions another major achievement involving a substantial building project.

This involved collaborating with the government to build 31 apartments and Monte's first headquarters - a small office facility.

They will be of lasting use for many years, he says.

"Generations to come will benefit from this work by gaining employment or having a safe, warm, dry home."

Managing homelessness and poverty is everyone's responsibility

Monte Cecilia's outgoing CEO says with growing homelessness and poverty in New Zealand there's too much for one group to try to fix it alone.

"The government cannot resolve this crisis on their own, and nor should they.

"We need partnerships. Collaboration and unity are critical factors. We need to work on this because homelessness and poverty are unacceptable in New Zealand. We all need to get involved!

"Desmond Tutu said 'Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world'."

Messages following Smith's resignation show much he is valued and will be missed.

• "Was saddened to read this, I just wanted to thank you
• "... for being real and talking to me straight all the time ...
• "... for your leadership ... and leading with your heart
• " You and your work have made a huge positive impact
• "I have always valued your perspective, comradeship and support...
• " ... for being such a strong advocate for those without a home and for those living in poverty
• " Your passion and compassion along with your acumen is testimony to you as a person and the Gospel: "Truly I tell you, just as you did to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me"
• "... it is a lonely place being a voice for social justice. Thank you for the times you have publicly ... spoken truthfully as your mind and heart direct
• "I ... admire your giving voice to the whanau we all serve..."

Source

• Supplied

Among the movement is a group of doctoral students and young activists in Belgium.

In common with young people in other countries, they're concerned about the various crises the institutional Church is facing.

It is also intended to oppose the "Christian identity" embodied by one of France's most far-right politicians, Éric Zemmour.

Despite his failed bid to become president in recent elections, he attracted the support of many practising Catholics.

Posing the question "What can Christians do to work for the common good?" the Belgians are organising a summer seminar to discuss the question.

The three-day gathering at the end of this month will be held outdoors at a retreat centre created in the spirit of the Communion de La Viale, a group founded in 1968 by the Belgian Jesuits.

The programme of planned events includes conferences on capitalism and liberation theology.

Attendees will also share "moments of fraternity and prayer" and have the opportunity to forge links with other believers committed to social justice.

A big issue will be the systemic dimension of clergy abuse and the "tenacious misogyny embedded in the institution".

The idea for the gathering came from a group of friends. They saw something "lacking" in the Church's proposals and wanted to help.

"In retreats or camps, there may be topics on moral commitment in society, but that's as far as it goes," says one.

He and his friends are deeply concerned about the "structural origin of poverty and the ecological crisis".

They believe there are Christian resources that can provide conceptual tools for building a coherent critique of the "capitalist system".

Their challenge is to "think how the Church can reconnect with its social tradition while it is becoming gentrified".

One driver for their initiative was the magnitude of the clergy sex abuse crisis revealed last October by an independent commission in France (CIASE).

"I feel like the scandals have uninhibited me," one of the friends says.

"Before, I didn't feel right opening certain debates, but I think that from now on the laity must speak up, we can no longer leave governance of the Church to the clergy alone.

"We no longer want to collaborate with a guilty institution without being heard."

While the majority of the organisers are Catholic, one of them is Protestant. All are driven by the same desire to raise their voices.

It is an ecumenism that is more obvious for the Belgians than for their French neighbours, says one.

"We don't have a large enough Catholic community, as in France, for events of this type to gather only practising Catholics," he explains.

Source

• La Croix

In a statement, the spokesperson for the Commission, Ms Loraine Elliott acknowledges some of the worst economic times for New Zealanders in many years and is commending the government's efforts.

Elliott is pleased that Budget 2022 is looking to address school attendance issues by supporting initiatives that work for local communities to deal with engagement and attendance.

"This is particularly helpful for Maori and Pasifika communities that have suffered badly from the 2014 withdrawal of funding that would have helped schools to address this," she says.

However, Elliott says there are areas where the Commission believes much more could have been done, particularly in the area of child poverty.

Housing

Elliott said that stable, affordable, warm and dry housing is a fundamental necessity for the well-being of all people in NZ, especially children. She says that despite various initiatives in recent years the Government has not faced the housing crisis head-on.

As of 31 March 2022, there were 26,865 households waiting on the Housing Register; an increase of 13.4% since March 2021.

She says that while the Government is building the greatest number of public housing units of any government for many years, the Register list is not reducing.

While acknowledging some of the measures announced today sound positive, actual delivery is key.

"More information is needed about how they will assist people to purchase their own homes," says the Commission.

The Commission points to inflation and interest rate increases as compounding the problem of homeownership; particularly for first home buyers.

Family and child poverty

The Commission acknowledges the temporary $350 cost-of-living grant for people earning less than $70 000 per year, but is stunned that there is almost nothing to help society's most vulnerable or to help alleviate child and family poverty.

The Commission says New Zealand's most vulnerable families have suffered decades of intergenerational poverty and it is very disappointed that yet again these Kiwis have been ignored.

"It would have been helpful if this initiative had continued this year to enable many families to support themselves with dignity, particularly as costs have increased so much recently.

"The silence of Budget 2022 on this is astounding," she said.

Climate change

The Commission welcomes the Government's support to reduce transport emissions by improving access to public transport, by extending the 50% reduction in fares, and through a vehicle replacement scheme for low-income households.

It supports the emissions reduction plan signalling the beginning of long-term carbon budgets but warns it needs to include agricultural emissions as well.

"We also commend the continuation of the Warmer Kiwi Homes initiative which helps fund heating and insulation upgrades for low-income households," says Elliott.

She has 20-plus years working on and with boards and executive teams, combining leadership in strategy, risk management, legal and financial compliance and people-management here and in the UK.

Of Samoan and Tokelauan descent, Antonio is the first-generation daughter of immigrants to New Zealand.

She learned from her earliest childhood how to live and thrive in a cross-cultural world.

It's a world the Victoria University law graduate, former soldier and mother has taken with both hands and shaped into a career.

In her professional life, Mena Antonio's clients included the academic and corporate worlds, public and private sectors, and community and voluntary spaces.

She says the variety has been "challenging" but has also gifted her with valuable insights which she uses in her leadership and coaching programmes "to help others be the best they can be."

Caritas Board Chair Keith Wedlock says the board is excited about Antonio taking the helm at Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand, replacing Julianne Hickey, who served for 10 years.

"Mena has a good balance of social enterprise and social justice skillsets in governance and operational roles.

"The mix of professional skills she brings to the role is complemented by a practical commitment to community building, justice and peace.

"The board is confident they've found someone able to lead ... Caritas on the next phase of its journey and to respond in the fullness of Catholic social teaching."

One of the many advantages Antonio's unique cultural heritage offers is the opportunity to deepen connections with Oceania partners.

She experienced this most recently on recent Caritas assignments in Samoa and Fiji.

"One memorable visit with Caritas Samoa was to Moamoa Theological College where my grandfather, from the Tokelau atoll Nukunonu, trained as a catechist.

"My late father, Nikolao Pali'i, was Head Catechist at Holy Family parish, Porirua for years. To me this role continues the calling my parents and their parents before them heeded, to be in service of the people we are called to serve."

Antionio is strongly supportive of the value of community and seeks to live out the principles of Catholic social teaching.

Wairarapa-based, Antonio founded a charity in Masterton bringing together leaders and teen parents through a mentoring programme aiming to build equitable and diverse communities.

"Engaging the voices of women and children is critical to good decision-making to ensure all people flourish. I want to enhance this work in Caritas," she says.

Source

• NZ Catholic Bishops' Conference
• The Diaspora Way
• Image: Trust House

‘The purpose of the Synod, and therefore of this consultation, is not to produce documents, but to plant dreams, draw forth prophecies and visions, allow hope to flourish, inspire trust, bind up wounds, weave together relationships, awaken a dawn of hope, learn from one another, create a bright resourcefulness that will enlightened minds, warm hearts, give strength to our hands' - Pope Francis

Thank you for the invitation to be involved with preparations for the forthcoming Synod of Bishops.

It has come at a critical time in the history of the planet and of the Church. We believe our Church needs a paradigm shift in its structures and approach to mission if it is to unleash the fullness of the Gospel message to our threatened planet.

Our current tamed tired Church is often a hindrance to proper evangelisation.

As members of a longstanding Catholic Worker community, like you, we take as our starting point the mandate from God given to Jesus, recorded in Luke 4/18-19.

‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and give new sight to the blind, to free the oppressed, and announce the Lord's year of mercy.'

In so doing, sadly it seems we part company to a large degree with many for whom the Catholic tradition is wedded to the promotion of the Constantinian Church in the 4th century with all the compromises that went with that and subsequent developments.

Context - a planet under siege

If we accept, as do most scientists and world religions including the Catholic Church, that everything is interconnected, that the whole of life forms a cloak of woven fabric with each part dependent on the other, that one strand unravelling can undo all the others, then we need to make these connections ourselves every day in every way.

The August 2021 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report (IPCCR) and the subsequent COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow have issued massive wake-up calls for the human community highlighting the damage we are continuing to do to the planet.

Their warnings were stark, graphic, urgent.

They came from the best sources - the IPCC Report reflecting the combined work over decades by more than 200 scientists from 60 countries, and COP26 bringing together the world's political leaders and the frontline groundwork of tens of thousands of climate activists and experts. They all agree we are living on a rapidly deteriorating planet.

The People of God - a vision undermined

For many centuries, the Church has taught that its teaching authority was built on Scripture and Tradition. Yet the Church generally has failed to disseminate our up-to-date scholarship in these matters leading to them becoming largely irrelevant to modern minds.

The Decree on the Church agreed to at Vatican II was a transformational document, filled with challenges and alive with expectation.

Along with other documents on ecumenism, the Church in the Modern World, the Laity, Liturgy, Religious freedom and Revelation, a new vision of Church emerged from the Council.

Had it been implemented, it could have charted the Church on a road to a sustainable meaningful future in tune with the rapidly changing times and flowing from the initial mandate in Luke Ch 4 to Jesus and the practice of the early Church itself.

Alas, the clerical powerbrokers decided to undermine this Vatican II model in subsequent years, minimising its implementation, resulting in the broken model we have today.

Clericalism, condemned so often as one of the major sins of our time, re-asserted its powerful voice.

With bureaucratic power centralised at the Roman centre, control by clergy has become almost absolute in some countries. Canon Law has become the guiding ‘bible' of the Church, not the original guides: the Holy Spirit, sacred scripture and a dynamic Tradition.

The fallout has been dramatic.

Nearly sixty years after the Council, the ignorance of the vast majority of Catholics of an in-depth understanding of scripture is appalling.

We have failed to liberate them with the very Word that the early Church gave us as a vital tool. And the teachings on social justice, which form a substantial section of ‘the love of neighbour' Tradition, have always been marginalised. They have proven to be too challenging.

As the saintly and prophetic Cardinal Carlo Martini said in his final interview (NCR, 2013), ‘The Church is 200 years behind the times. Why doesn't it stir? Are we afraid? Is it fear rather than courage?

"In any event, faith is the foundation of the Church: faith, trust, courage.

"Only love defeats exhaustion. God is love.

"The Church is tired, in the Europe of well-being and in America. Our culture has become old, our churches and religious houses are big and empty, the bureaucratic apparatus of the Church grows, our rites and our dress are pompous. Do these things, however, express what we are today?

"Well-being weighs on us.

"We find ourselves like the rich young man who went away sad when Jesus called him to be a disciple. Theologian Karl Rahner often used the image of the embers hidden under the ash. I see in the Church today so much ash under the embers that often I'm hit with a sense of impotence. How can we liberate the members from the ash, to reinvigorate the fires of love?"

A timid, ineffectual Church

Catholicism has become largely irrelevant within the modern consumer culture.

This is partly because we have not presented our message in ways that are transformative and have too often placed our emphasis on complicity with the culture.

For too long, we have developed a corporate model of Church, rather than a sacramental model of community, with participation and spiritual growth at its centre.

For example, money, control and appearance have grabbed centre stage instead of our care for the earth and the poor, witnessing to social justice, promoting community development and providing prophetic leadership.

We have failed since Vatican II to make the three-pronged approach necessary to an adult understanding of faith and commitment, where the teachings of Scripture and the Church's social teachings, (love of neighbour), sit alongside the dogmatic truths.

The result is we have produced generations of Catholics inadequately grounded in the basics necessary for a life commitment to a Church built on Scripture and Tradition and capable of supporting its members and reaching out to the wider world.

Instead, many clergy have found it easier to foster a Church of supplementary devotional practices which in many dioceses take priority over the real food that truly nourishes.

They fail to see that the Word becomes flesh only when it is not left as newsprint!

Church buildings have been used to protect medieval theology as if the divine presence wasn't manifest everywhere. And leadership has been left in the hands of celibate clergy too often with little understanding of family pressures and of the mature relationships needed to develop and expand Christian communities.

We have often talked about community without allowing people the tools and theology to develop it.

We have also become badly wounded by the sexual abuse scandals which have surfaced in recent decades and which, in some countries, have almost gutted the Church to a point beyond repair eg Ireland, Chile.

Too often, we have failed to tackle the issue of abuse of power that clericalism portrays and simply tried to reshuffle the card pack to adjust and hope the problems might disappear.

They won't.

We haven't addressed the core problems associated with the abuse of power and underdeveloped sexuality. We still have structures in place and follow teachings that led to these scandals occurring in the first place.

To a considerable extent, we have also lost our sense of sin and redemptive grace to the point where our moral teachings are no longer meaningful to the average Catholic. We have always been clear about personal sexual ethics but failed miserably to recognise more prevalent and damaging sin in its structural forms.

We have virtually ignored the teachings of successive popes going back more than a century who have condemned unfettered capitalism, environmental degradation, war, the arms race, economic exploitation, racism and gender inequality as being unworthy of God's people. And we have failed to teach the non-violence and radical nature of Jesus and his teaching and highlight the presence of grace everywhere.

Placing social justice at the heart of the nature of God as Vatican II did has proved too challenging for most.

Women in the Church

Go to any parish in the world and the main force holding it together will be its women members.

How ironic - considering how badly the official church structures have treated women over the centuries.

Gospel accounts confirm that, besides the male apostles and disciples, Jesus was also accompanied (against the cultural norms of the time) by a group of women who alone remained as witnesses to his crucifixion when the men fled. In addition, they were the first to experience and proclaim the Risen Christ, even when they were doubted by the men.

One could even argue that they fulfilled the criteria for apostleship far better than the chosen Twelve!

They clearly played a leading part in the early Church.

Yet, in subsequent centuries, their role has been discounted in the official tradition that has historically affirmed the authority of an all-male sacramental and governance leadership.

Even in the face of a hugely influential modern women's movement, we have continued a patriarchal power structure to limit women's full recognition and participation.

In the wider world, such male structures are maintained now only by groupings like the Taliban and Isis and in countries like Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Iran.

How dare we claim as they do that this discrimination somehow has divine authority?

While cultural arguments about the roles of men and women may have held sway in earlier centuries, this clearly is no longer the case.

Yet we continue to deny women full participation in sacramental and governance roles in the church. In so doing, we are continuing to treat women as second-class members.

This is sinful.

Among many things, for the past 50 years, the Church has been tone-deaf in the matter of inclusive language about which we still have insulting debates.

Our credibility has been shot to pieces by self-inflicted wounds.

The miracle is that any women at all have stayed with the Church!

Transformative

But stay many have because they, like many men including a strong minority of priests, have found within the tradition, despite its shortcomings, a road to holiness in a message of life and hope for our times.

Many Christians in their discipleship journeys still find and commit to the transformative message Jesus brought.

They meet the Risen Christ in their daily lives and seek to find in a hopefully nourishing community a source of grace, support and transforming love.

They recognise how essential belonging to a collective ecclesial community is for the development and sustenance of their faith.

Their response to the question of St Peter, ‘to whom do we go?' is the same as his to Jesus - ‘you have the words of eternal life'.

They stay and they persevere.

Ministries should not be controlled by gender.

Both women and men, through their baptism, qualify for such roles.

Other Christian Churches - including both Protestant and Anglican - have already pioneered the way forward and opened their ministries to all.

The Catholic Church is called to humbly acknowledge these ground-breaking prophetic journeys others have undertaken, learn from them and implement similar appropriate changes.

Conclusions

Just as the tectonic plates of the earth shift from time to time and bring about realignment, so do the Catholic Church's structural plates need a paradigm shift at this time.

Our planet is in crisis.

So is our Church.

Our Catholic tradition of Church continues to ignore many signs of the times and the desperate need for change.

For the first time in centuries, as pope, you have created a Kairos moment of opportunity to change before it is too late. We dare not squander it.

Thank you and blessing on your ministry in abundance.

• Catholic Worker Community, Suzanne Aubert House, Christchurch, New Zealand.
• First published in the Catholic Worker Community Journal. Republished with permission.

Nearly 25 years later, both the founders had passed away and their seven children assumed control of the foundation.

Michael Wolohan, the youngest of his siblings and the foundation's president, said his parents imbued the foundation with "a Catholic-informed perspective," which for the Wolohan siblings meant focusing on "the corporal works of mercy: to feed the hungry, to give water to the thirsty, homes for the homeless."

Ensuring that their parents' commitment to their Catholic faith continued through the Michigan-based foundation was key.

With Michael and his siblings now north of age 65, they are preparing to hand control over to a new cohort of descendants who do not know the founders as intimately and who came of age in a radically different world.

Catholic ministries face an uncertain financial future as religiosity decreases among younger Americans—including, perhaps, descendants of prominent Catholic philanthropic leaders.

This process can present challenges not just for the Wolohan family, but for other private Catholic family foundations throughout the country, which each year disburse tens of millions of dollars to Catholic ministries.

Those ministries could face an uncertain financial future, some analysts say, as religiosity decreases among younger Americans—including, perhaps, descendants of prominent Catholic philanthropic leaders.

While there are no definitive estimates of how much foundation money makes its way to Catholic-affiliated organizations each year, it likely runs into the billions.

According to the Catholic Funding Guide, an online subscription-based search tool listing foundations that include Catholic ministries and organizations in their giving portfolios, about 2,200 of these private foundations, church-based grantmakers, religious communities and international funders control assets of more than $39 trillion and annually give more than $14 billion in support.

President of the US Catholic Bishops Conference, Archbishop Gomez (above), has a serious misunderstanding, and perhaps even a willed ignorance, about the goals and motivations of contemporary social justice movements. However, a leading theologian at Fordam University theology, Fr Bryan Massingale says "most Black Catholics I know advocate Black Lives Matter precisely because of our belief in the universal human dignity of all people as images of God."

Gen next

"We know engaging the next generation is beneficial to everybody, and it strengthens our mission," said Maria Raskob.

Ms. Raskob chairs the board of the Catholic philanthropic consortium Fadica (Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities) and is herself a fourth-generation descendant of one of the nation's prominent Catholic philanthropic families.

"Part of that engagement is passing on faith and values that began with the foundation and has been incorporated in everything that we do," she said.

John and Helena Raskob founded the Raskob Foundation for Catholic Activities in 1945.

The foundation has disbursed more than $200 million to Catholic organizations since its founding.

Now the Delaware-based foundation operates with a membership model: Descendants of John and Helena can be as involved as much or as little in the grantmaking process as they desire. Making sure that younger members of the family want to participate—and that they understand the intent of the founders—is a key priority for the Raskob Foundation.

And that formation starts young.

"The next generation is exposed [to] and involved with the foundation at a really early age," Ms. Raskob said.

Some parents bring their children to service events organized by the foundation or even to annual meetings.

Once descendants turn 18, they are able to participate in more formal ways as well, exposing them to the church's vast social justice ministry. That can help forge strong bonds, she said, between family members and the institutional church, even if the individual descendant is not religious.

"What younger members, and any members, see is Catholic social teaching in action," she said, learning how it "covers health care, social services, peace and justice, and environmental issues."

"This is inspiring to witness, and all members are able to find aspects of the work that are appealing to them," Ms. Raskob said.

Maria Raskob: "We know engaging the next generation is beneficial to everybody, and it strengthens our mission." Continue reading

They are nonetheless helping to spread a craze for Mary, mother of Jesus, wearing designer Brenda Equihua's splashy coats made from San Marcos cobijas: blankets found in many Latinx homes that commonly feature the Virgin of Guadalupe.

For Equihua, Mary's appeal is partly sentimental.

Of Mexican American heritage, Equihua identifies the Virgin of Guadalupe with home.

But there's something deeper than simple nostalgia going on in her designs.

"Wearing Mary in a fashion piece is unexpected," she explained. "I think what's cool is taking something out of context."

Religious figures are often (if scandalously) appropriated outside sacred settings, but the decontextualization of Mother Mary has been in hyperdrive of late.

Long a fixture on devotional medals worn by Catholics, Mary is so central to Catholic spirituality that Pope Francis earlier this year had to debunk the notion that Jesus' mother would be designated "co-redemptrix": "Mary Saves" tees are not coming to the St Peter's gift shop.

But if Catholics are content with her place as "a Mother, not as a goddess," as the pope put it, Mary has become an icon to a younger generation of all faiths and no faith that has put social justice at the centre of its hopes for a better world.

The Blessed Mother guitar pedal created by Heather Brown.

She's treated as a feminist beacon, her likeness appearing alongside that of Frida Kahlo, Joan of Arc and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Mary lends cred to high-end guitar pedals created by female gear makers and pops up with increasing frequency on Etsy.

Her story is being retold in provocative contemporary art and the theses of up-and-coming scholars.

But for all her trendiness, what makes Mary an appealing figure today is what has made her popular for 2,000 years: For all her connections to divine power, she has a lot in common with people who often get overlooked.

Ben Wildflower is a mail carrier by day and artist in his off-hours.

In 2017, he made a woodcut that showed Mary, her fist raised over her head, feet resting on a skull and a serpent (the former is a motif usually associated with Jesus' disciple Mary Magdalene, while the latter is in keeping with historical representations of Mary, Jesus' mother, triumphing over original sin).

In a circle around Wildflower's image are the words "Fill the hungry. Cast down the mighty. Lift the lowly. Send the rich away."

When he posted it on Instagram, it went viral.

Some critics called the woodcut's message "un-Christian," protesting that "God loves everyone."

The taunting language, however, was pulled directly from the Magnificat, the gospel writer Luke's version of a song attributed to Mary, that from earliest Christian times was seen as so revolutionary public readings of it have been banned in the past.

Wildflower, the child of evangelical Christian missionaries, now attends an Anglican church, is committed to living in solidarity with the poor and has been described as a "Christian anarchist."

He finds himself deeply drawn to the mother of Jesus and said he likes Mary's vision of hierarchies being turned upside down.

Non-Christians, he said, are often interested in his work on Mary as a way of "seeking the divine feminine" via a sort of "DIY spirituality."

Further evidence of this approach can be found on sites such as Etsy, which sells Mother Mary oracle cards and altars for charging "reiki-energized" crystals that feature Mary's likeness.

"Sometimes I'll realize I have an influx of followers on Instagram and I'll try to figure out what happened and it'll be from like, a witchcraft and herbal kind of account," Wildflower added.

But for Wildflower, Mary is a bridge to a Christianity far from his evangelical upbringing.

"For a lot of people who were raised in white evangelical culture, God's representatives throughout most of our lives had not been the best people," Wildflower explained, "but Mary's representatives were just kind of absent.

So it's not hard to relate to her as someone saying, ‘It's our job to bring God into the world.'

There's something relatable there because there's no baggage."

(For a clue to what kind of baggage he's trying to leave behind, look no further than another Wildflower illustration that depicts Mary shooting flames out of her hands at Nazi and Confederate flags, encircled by the words "O Mary, conceived without white supremacy, pray for us trying to dismantle this s_t.")

Catholic author and University of California, Berkeley lecturer Kaya Oakes is not surprised by the new attention paid to Mary, noting that her appeal tends to grow when times are hard.

"Mary represents this side of God that is nurturing and will stay with you when you're in pain," Oakes said.

"We're coming out of this really traumatic phase in world history with the pandemic, and people have needed images of God that were more resonant with that compassionate, rather than judgmental, side of the divine."

A Virgin Mary inspired dress stands on display in the front window of a shop in Rehoboth, Delaware in March 2021.

Mary traditionally shows up whenever she is most needed.

For years, apparitions of the Virgin of Guadalupe have reportedly distracted border guards to help immigrants stranded at the U.S. border slip into the country unnoticed. Similarly, the culture tends to put Mary at the centre of the conflict.

After Mike Brown was shot in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, Mark Doox's " Our Lady of Ferguson" depicted her as a Black woman with her womb in the crosshairs of a gun with a child Christ in the centre.

Kehinde Wiley's "Mary Comforter of the Afflicted," one of the artist's stained glass window images, casts the Pietà as a Black man holding a dead child.

Within the past year, Kelly Latimore's icon memorialized George Floyd by depicting Mary holding a broken Jesus.

Amey Victoria Adkins-Jones, an assistant professor in the theology department of Boston College whose scholarship focuses on Mariology, said these artists are pulling from a long tradition of Black Madonnas.

Though Adkins-Jones was raised Southern Baptist in a setting where Mary got little attention, her experiences with the Black Madonna helped convince her that the mother of Jesus is an underutilized resource for grappling with Black womanist concerns in Christian theology.

"This imagery captures the legacy of grief that comes from injustice," said Adkins-Jones.

"Perhaps Mary is a ready figure to call to memory because Jesus is a person who dies unjustly at the hands of the state. … Questions of justice are always in conversation with artistic representations."

Adkins-Jones also sees Mary inviting theological questions about gender.

As a young, poor woman giving birth in an occupied land, the historical Mary experienced a kind of precarious existence that can't be disconnected from her womanhood, Adkins-Jones said.

Looking to Mary invites both a new kind of intellectual curiosity and spiritual reflection on the role of women in the world.

For all the seemingly renewed interest in Mary, Adkins-Jones notes that some of it aren't so much new as a continuing tradition now aided by platforms such as Instagram that allow for fresh ways to "visually discuss."

Still, according to associate professor of art history at Wheaton College Matthew Milliner, there is a kind of change afoot. When he started teaching classes on Mary at Wheaton shortly after his arrival in 2011, Milliner was surprised to see such consistent interest in the course from the largely Protestant student body.

"Protestant interest in Mary is increasing steadily," he said.

"But thankfully it has been growing in Catholic circles as well." It is easy to forget, Milliner said, that in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, attention to Mary declined dramatically even in Catholic circles, a topic explored in Charlene Spretnak's 2004 book "Missing Mary."

The culture may soon move on from Mary, but Milliner believes Christians should keep her close, without fearing that love for the mother of God could threaten their love of Jesus.

"Love for Mary is a natural outgrowth of love for Christ," he said.

"They are not in competition, any more than love for my in-laws is in competition with love for my wife," he said. "In short, meet the parents!"

• Whitney Bauck is an author at RNS.
• First published in RNS. Republished with permission.

It's not the first time he's used the term.

He coined the phrase 25 years ago, to critique modern or liberal Catholicism as "a faith that had become culturally accommodating, hand-wringing, unsure of itself."

Barron has long combated post-Vatican II trends that he sees as anthropocentric rather than Christocentric.

He connects these trends with the loss of the beauty and splendor of the Catholic cultural tradition. But he has now become concerned with what he sees as liberal Catholicism's dangerous opposite extreme: the radical traditionalist movement in the church.

Critics of radical traditionalism, myself included, have often pointed out that "rad trads" are in fact neither radical nor traditional.

They are enamored of an imaginary golden age of Christendom, an amalgamation of white neighborhoods in the 1950s United States, Victorian tea parlors and a technicolor version of the Middle Ages, complete with bright shiny crusaders and pious maidens.

They routinely reject actual church traditions, such as the preferential option for the poor, and refuse to consider reviving such egalitarian practices as having women deacons. The tradition they embrace is not only imaginary; it is calcified, dead.

Barron sees this irony: that radical traditionalists have gone so far as to reject tradition itself, specifically papal authority. But he seems to find their stance almost sympathetic, an understandable reaction to "beige Catholicism." He writes:

"It has come about, partly, as a reaction to the same beige Catholicism that I have criticized, but its ferocity is due to the scandals that have shaken the Church the past thirty years, especially the McCarrick situation.

In their anger and frustration, some of it justified, these arch-traditionalist Catholics have become nostalgic for the Church of the pre-conciliar period and antipathetic toward the Second Vatican Council itself, Pope John XXIII, Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul II, and particularly our present Holy Father."

This type of faith practice, according to Barron, is "self-devouring," destroying its own foundational beliefs, especially in its attacks on recent popes.

While Barron appears to share the frustration of traditionalists with liberal or modern Catholicism, he opposes their rejection of papal authority and Vatican II.

He also is critical of their online behavior, much of which has been directed at him.

In July 2020 Barron hosted an online meeting of Catholic media professionals to discuss his concerns about new trends in Catholic online culture.

According to NCR's August 2020 report, trends addressed including a "culture of contempt" and the ascendance of various radical traditionalist personalities and outlets.

Barron's message is clear: Word on Fire stands as a "middle ground" alternative to the perceived extremes of "beige" (weak, watered-down) liberal Catholicism on one hand, and "self-devouring" traditionalist Catholicism on the other.

This characterization of two perceived extremes is not exclusive to Barron.

The stereotype of liberal or progressive Catholicism as watered-down, weak and overly influenced by secular culture has been around for years.

And Barron is not the only one positioning himself as a moderate and orthodox alternative to the binaries of progressivism and traditionalism. J.D. Flynn, former editor-in-chief of Catholic News Agency, and Ed Condon, former DC bureau chief of the same, recently founded their own media outlet, The Pillar. As stated in their opening post:

"We want The Pillar to be a different kind of journalism. At The Pillar, we aim to take seriously the issues in the Church, and we aim to do so in a way that respects the complexity of the Church's cultures, doctrine, history, and institutions. We look for answers, instead of driving an agenda, a foregone conclusion, or a partisan narrative."

This is all very admirable.

Yet the implication is that other journalistic outlets, this one included, are operating according to an agenda, whereas Flynn and Condon are committed to pure objectivity.

And this implication rests on the false assumption that a middle ground position must automatically be correct.

Moderate or politely centrist Catholicism is not without bias.

It simply has a different set of biases than traditionalist or progressive Catholicism — one being the bias that taking a centrist position equates with objectivity.

In journalism, ideally, one reports truthfully.

One presents facts and evidence.

But because we are operating in religious journalism, it is impossible for us to opine without certain foregone conclusions.

You can call it belief, or you can call it bias.

The question should not be, "Who is without bias?" but rather, "Which biases are most in line with the truth?"

And when it comes to our faith: "Which beliefs are most true to the Gospel teachings of Christ?"

Barron, Flynn, Condon and others consider that they are in line with the truth because they are in line with tradition and the magisterium, unlike the traditionalists who reject Vatican II and the teachings of recent popes, and unlike the progressives who often question magisterial teachings, especially on issues pertaining to sex and gender.

Yet not all progressive Catholics prioritize questioning.

Some do not question at all, but rather emphasize components of Catholic teaching that have been insufficiently emphasized, such as teachings on the dignity of workers, the rights of the poor, the right to a just wage, the right to health care, immigrants' rights, the immorality of capital punishment and care for the environment.

All of these are core tenets of Catholic faith that are far more essential to a Gospel-oriented faith than teachings on contraception or gay marriage.

And the "liberal" Catholics who defend these articles of faith often do so passionately, in the face of pushback and adversity.

In defending their beliefs, they find themselves standing against powerful persons and institutions, both secular and religious.

Other liberal or progressive Catholics are vocal about areas in which the institutional church has failed, such as lack of accountability on the part of the bishops, failure to care for survivors of clergy abuse, a tendency to protect institutions over persons, clericalism and gender inequality.

Women religious, theologians and activists have asked to be given a place at the table, for our voices to be heard. And in response to this we have received harsh criticism, mockery, threats and silencing.

Perhaps the most important area in which so-called liberal Catholics are calling on the institutional church to do better is racial justice.

Moderate Catholics seem content to ignore race issues, to emphasize the beauties of the church's history while glossing over the many times the church has not only failed to stand up against racial injustice but even actively enabled it.

The splendors of Christendom that they laud are almost exclusively the splendors of white Eurocentric Christendom, which happens to be the same Christendom that was intimately involved in efforts of colonialism and even slave trade.

Moderate Catholics seem to avoid grappling with difficult historical truths about the many times Christians failed to follow Christ's teachings on radical love of neighbor.

They also seem happy to ignore the reality that what radical traditionalist Catholics are actively keeping alive is not just traditional liturgy and practice, but the institutional church's racist, colonialist and sexist past.

The problem with the dichotomy that Barron and others set up is that it erases generations of Catholics who have stood up against and suffered injustice meted out by institutional church as well as state.

It also accepts the proposal advanced by traditionalists that they are motivated by love of truth and beauty when what they most frequently defend is hatred and bigotry.

If traditionalist Catholics were genuinely driven by a loathing of the evils of modern secular culture, they would not so enthusiastically embrace ideologies associated with violence, bigotry and discrimination.

When I look for Catholics who are most passionately living out Christ's Gospel, I do not see the moderates who glance away from our past and present evils.

I see instead those who are confronting them. Many of these would likely be labeled "liberal" but they are anything but "beige" (figuratively or literally).

I see Black Catholics who have labored and suffered for justice, activist Catholics who have been imprisoned for their anti-war activism, religious sisters who have stood up courageously against violence.

How would centrist Catholics such as Barron, Flynn and Condon categorize boldly prophetic Catholics such as Dorothy Day, or the Berrigan Brothers?

How would they categorize Black Catholic civil rights activists such as Sr. Mary Antona Ebo, who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King in Selma?

Where in their liberal versus traditionalist binary would they place contemporary Black Catholics who are working for racial justice despite pushback from clergy and parishioners who fret about upsetting white feelings?

What about theologian Fr. Bryan Massingale, who has written and spoken at length about the evils of systemic racism, and called out the church's hierarchy for refusing to address race issues in any way that would upset white people?

Or theologian M. Shawn Copeland, who has been targeted for harassment by far-right media groups such as Church Militant?

Or religious sisters working to end poverty and oppose violence in the global South?

Our social and racial justice activists past and present do not fit the image of blandness and flimsiness evoked by the phrase "beige Catholicism."

And these get conveniently left out of the picture, so only a single binary remains, with polite centrists positioned on a midpoint between two supposed extremes.

Or do Barron and others view the work of Black Catholics and other advocates for justice as somehow conforming to the standards of the world, because they are not vocal enough in promoting magisterial teachings on sex and gender?

Do polite centrist Catholics view racial and social justice work as secular fads, and not central to living the Gospel? Is anti-racism work somehow "beige"?

While I appreciate Flynn and Condon's pursuit of journalistic integrity, and Bishop Barron's willingness to criticize the traditionalists who share many of his tastes, nevertheless, I find their view of the present religious and cultural scene unrealistic.

It is not enough simply to decry ideological battles as vitriolic or uncivil.

We need to see that often these battles are between those who are advancing agendas of hatred and violence, and those who are upholding justice.

Far-right Catholics are not simply problematic due to their rejection of papal authority; they are dangerous, because they have traded fidelity to the pope for a license to violence and bigotry.

And the ones who are doing the most, risking the most, to oppose this anti-Christ agenda are not the moderates who avoid taking a strong stand against bigotry.

The Catholics on the frontlines are the ones who would probably be labeled liberal, modernist or progressive.

Are these the "beige" Catholics?

Or would that term be better reserved for Catholics who take a polite middle ground where they'll rarely have to see injustice, let alone confront it?

• Rebecca Bratten Weiss is an editor, independent academic and freelance writer residing in rural Ohio.
• Originally published in NCR.
• Reprinted by permission of NCR Publishing Company www.NCROnline.org

Another essential message presented to us as we received ashes is that we are to "Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel." Scripture often equates sin with darkness - the inability to see clearly, causing us to stumble around in this life with no clear direction; with no sure way to the truth that sets us free - free from enslaving deadly sin.

Left unchecked, with no repentance, our many collective individual sins metastasize into what St. Pope John Paul II called the "structures of sin" - those larger elements within our cultures, societies, governments and corporations that operate in the darkness of self-absorbed greed, power-lust, violence and indifference to suffering.

We desperately need to turn away from sin - both personal sin and the structures of sin. An honest look into many of our human-made institutions surely reveals decadent sinful structures that need conversion.

From abortion to war, from poverty and hunger to homelessness, from the refugee crisis to unfair trade agreements, from sweatshop labour to low frozen minimum wages, from the international arms trade to neighbourhood gun violence, from nuclear weapons to astronomical military budgets, from lack of affordable health care to COVID-19, from drug abuse to insufficient drug treatment facilities, from crumbling infrastructures to unemployment, from racism to human trafficking and from environmental pollution to climate change … it is undeniable that our world is deeply suffering from human-caused structures of sin.

As the world struggles to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic, we must even more importantly be determined to emerge - with the grace of God - from all of our structures of sin. Let us instead build structures worthy of human beings for the greater glory of God!

Our nation and our world desperately need a new standard to measure human progress: not gross national product, not the stock market and not military supremacy.

The new standard we need to creatively envision and fully implement is as old as the Sermon on the Mount and Christ's final judgment of the nations scene in Matthew's Gospel. And it's as modern as Catholic social teaching.

Pope Francis continues to urge us to see how all of humanity is interconnected. And that we are interconnected to all of creation. In order to survive and thrive, we need to join hands and hearts in prayer, and to tirelessly work together to build a world of love, social justice and peace.

Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

As we more faithfully walk in the Master's footsteps, we become more and more radiantly like him. And we begin to better understand and more fully live out his related challenge to us: "You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. … Your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father."

There is no better time than Lent to "Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel!"

• Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated Catholic social justice and peace columnist. He is available to speak at diocesan or parish gatherings. Tony can be reached at tmag6@comcast.net.

Myanmar is "a nation that I carry in my heart with much affection, ever since my apostolic visit there in 2017," he said after the Angelus on Sunday.

New Zealand's leaders are likewise concerned about the 1 February 2021 military coup which deposed Myanmar's democratically elected government.

The military has detained elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi whose National League for Democracy Party won a landslide in a November general election.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, making the announcement after a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, said all "high-level" political contact would be ended, and New Zealand's aid programme "should not" be delivered in conjunction with, or benefit, the military.

Ardern, speaking earlier, said the Government's response represented "important, fundamental changes" to the relationship between New Zealand and Myanmar, and were "right up there" among the strongest actions that could be taken.

Ardern said New Zealand would maintain its aid programme - which mostly consists of agricultural, educational, and renewable energy spending - as none was currently connected to the military.

"This will mean being very cautious about the way that we enter into aid programmes in Myanmar from henceforth," she said.

A travel ban on Myanmar's military leaders will be formalised later in the week.

Meanwhile tens of thousands of people rallied across Myanmar on Sunday to denounce last week's coup and demand Aung San Suu Kyi's release, in the biggest protests since the 2007 Saffron Revolution that helped lead to democratic reforms.

A line of armed police with riot shields set up barricades, but did not try to stop the demonstration. Some marchers reportedly presented police with flowers as a sign of peace.

Closer to home, hundreds of Myanmar demonstrators and their New Zealand supporters showed solidarity with the people protesting in Myanmar's city streets, by banging pots and pans on Parliament's forecourt on Tuesday evening.

"We are deeply concerned and fearful for our family at home. We will do anything we can to help our family, friends and loved ones in Myanmar. Please help support us and our families," Christalin Thangpawl​, chairwomen of the New Zealand Myanmar Ethnics Council, told the crowd.

Source

• Stuff
• Stuff
• La Croix
• Vatican News
• Image: CNN

I have many concerns about this legislation, including around the technical aspects and operation of the law.

But I'm also very concerned about its impact on the vulnerable and marginalised in our society. Here are my top four reasons.

1. It devalues and risks the lives of tangata whaikaha

There's a reason opposition to this legislation is being driven by tangata whaikaha (the disability community), and a reason you may not have heard from them. Many of them are terrified by this legislation and its implications.

Much of the korero around this issue from the "yes" side has been about dignity. You'll often read people saying they don't want the indignity of not being able to do certain things, for example. They say that's not "quality of life".

Well, picture what that says to tangata whaikaha. It says their everyday lives have no dignity, no quality, and in many ways, no meaning. And not only does this diminish their mana, but it starts to send messages about euthanasia as a solution.

As Dr Huhana Hickey says, "I qualify under that and I've still got a lot of life left in me. Many of us will qualify for that."

Tangata whaikaha are already the most marginalised community in Aotearoa. Let's listen to them.

2. The health system is broken for Maori, so this law won't work

No law is racism-proof. And despite the recent denials of the National Party leader, for example, there is, in fact, clear evidence of systemic racism in the health system. Maori receive much worse outcomes from our health system due to racism — whether it's conscious, unconscious, or systemic.

And so, when proponents of the legislation and the referendum point to the "safeguards" built into the law, please forgive my scepticism. From influencing the judgment call of doctors through to the lack of access to adequate resources in areas with high Maori population, especially rural, these factors combine to create unacceptable health outcomes. Why would EOLC be any different?

And, look, you're either going to accept there's racism in the system or you aren't. If the latter, please do some more reading (and preferably not just your Facebook bubble). But if you do accept it, accept the implications, too, for this referendum.

3. The concept of ‘choice is based on access to adequate resources

You've come to the point where ending your life under this law is a possibility. Let's do the flow chart.

You may choose to consult with whanau and friends — not that you're required to under the legislation. You take in all the factors you need, and you make a call. If "yes", you want to end your life, then you go through the (problematic) process and it's done.

If no, well . . . actually, "no" isn't as easy as it sounds. "No" will be much easier for some than for others.

If you're reasonably comfortable in your lifestyle, say, living in a nice retirement village, your kids have their degrees and are on their career tracks, and your will is all sorted, leaving something reassuring for them, then that's one thing. "No" means you carry on living in relative comfort and with your whanau and loved ones in comfort as well. "Yes" is kind of easier in this scenario, too.

In another scenario, you don't have a will and, even if you did, there's nothing really to leave. Your whanau love you in their way but they're busy, with demanding and fragile employment situations where taking time to be with you is not easy. Your rental housing is cold, and you're often lonely. This is a realistic scenario for many.

In this scenario, "no" is much harder to choose.

The idea of choice is a fallacy. It's based on people having access to adequate resources to enable their choices. And this is the ultimate choice. This is not picking your car and having to choose the cheaper model. This is being offered a choice to live or die.

Let's not pretend that people are always free to choose. As always, the poor and marginalised have far less choice than the wealthy and privileged. Continue reading

• Dr Hirini Kaa (Ngati Porou, Ngati Kahungunu and Rongowhakaata) is a historian and Anglican minister and has also worked in the health and social services sectors.