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Fleming Rutledge’s The Crucifixion is one of the most stimulating and thought-provoking books of theology that I have read in the past 10 years.
Both an academic and a well-regarded preacher in the Episcopal tradition, Rutledge has an extraordinary knack of cutting to the heart of the matter. Her book on the central reality of the Christian faith is supremely illuminating, a delight for the inquiring mind — and man, will it ever preach.
During a recent family reunion, my elderly mother and I were the only ones at the table without smartphones. We felt left out.
A few days later I read that Pope Francis advised parents to ban mobile devices from the dinner table to help restore the quality of family relationships.
These two occurrences reminded me of the life of our foundress, St. Jeanne Jugan.
To the editor:
In the June 30 issue of the Herald, you argue that we should “Work for sensible gun control.” Ninety-three percent of guns used in crimes are obtained illegally, whereas less than one percent are from gun shows.
It is true that most U.S. suicides use guns, but America’s suicide rate is not unusually high — in other countries, they find a way. Our gun homicide rate is unusually high, but 63 percent of victims have a criminal history — most gun violence happens between criminals.
To the editor:
It seems whenever there is a shooting, there is a clamor for more gun control, as in a recent editorial, “Work for sensible gun control.”
They say guns are killing people. I have yet seen or heard of a gun discharging itself into a person, much less loading itself. People kill people, and yes, some use guns. But guns get blamed and not the people using them. Why?
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| Pat Bries, fifth grade teacher at St. Joseph School in Fort Atkinson, hands out Turkish Delights to some of her students. Bries is retiring after 42 years at the school. (Catholic Herald photo/Kevin Wondrash) |
FORT ATKINSON — As Pat Bries completed her fourth, and final, decade teaching fifth graders — bringing the total to more than 600 — her classroom displayed her career, both the past and the present.
A Smartboard has long replaced the chalkboard, but signs with the cursive alphabet still adorned the classroom.
Bries said the handwriting style is still needed in the real world, “I don’t think it’s on the way out yet.”
Her desk displayed small school pictures of every student she taught since the school started having the photos taken more than 20 years ago, while her current students listened to her read to them from an eBook reader.
The book was Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck, a book she has read to all of her classes toward the end of the school year.
Bries reads it because one of the book’s main characters has a “strong sense of right and wrong” and her soon-to-be-departing fifth graders are “going into middle school now and they realize that life is not all black and white — there are a lot of shades of gray.”
Despite the school year and a teaching career of 42 years coming to an end, it was just a normal day in Pat Bries’ classroom located at the end of the hallway at St. Joseph School in Fort Atkinson.
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Q I am trying to be an advocate for my mother who has some health issues and I feel as though we are getting lost in this complicated health care system.
I have permission to be with her during the frequent visits to the numerous specialists she must see. It seems when I bring up a concern, all we get is another series of tests, a trial for a different medication, or a referral to yet another specialist.
My mother does not want to keep seeing new physicians and repeating the same information all over again. She does not understand all of this “fussing” and would just like to be comfortable.
On Independence Day, I saw many in the Badger State wearing red, white, and blue. Like some of you, I “liked” statements on social media asserting national pride and joined in singing patriotic songs at Mass.
These celebrations affirm our democracy and recognize those who have protected our founding freedoms.
However after reviewing past election results, I was reminded that everyone enjoys the celebration, but many people don’t like the planning. Elections are how we as citizens plan our government.
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Over 37 years-ago when Annunciation House — a sanctuary and home of hospitality that has served over 100,000 refugees, homeless poor, and undocumented workers — was started in El Paso, Texas, founding director Ruben Garcia and a few friends wanted to place themselves among the poor, to see where the poor would lead them. He said, “They took us to the undocumented — the most vulnerable.”
Garcia explained to me that since the undocumented have no legal status in the United States, they are forced to take undesirable, poorly paid jobs, which offer no benefits. Unlike poor U.S. citizens, undocumented workers and their families cannot receive food stamps, Medicaid, or housing assistance. They are at the lowest rung of American life.
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There is, in many quarters, increasing concern about the hyper-charged political correctness that has gripped our campuses and other forums of public conversation.
Even great works of literature and philosophy — from Huckleberry Finn and Heart of Darkness to, believe it or not, Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason — are now regularly accompanied by “trigger warnings” that alert prospective readers to the racism, sexism, homophobia, or classism contained therein.
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There is, in many quarters, increasing concern about the hyper-charged political correctness that has gripped our campuses and other forums of public conversation.
Even great works of literature and philosophy — from Huckleberry Finn and Heart of Darkness to, believe it or not, Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason — are now regularly accompanied by “trigger warnings” that alert prospective readers to the racism, sexism, homophobia, or classism contained therein.
