We must dialogue with Muslims
The other day I attended an open house at a local Islamic Center in my Midwestern city. The center is a modest building, with a crescent moon ornament adorning its roof, in a middle-to-lower-middle class part of town.
OPINION
Russian-based priest reflects on sharing Jesus with Muslim friends
The challenge is to show Muslims the real Jesus, not the version presented by the Qur’an, but Jesus as he is revealed in the Gospels. Most Muslims are convinced that Christians falsified their Scriptures regarding the truth of Jesus. This presents a real problem when it comes to sharing passages of Sacred Scripture with them. Yet I do, and I show where our Scriptures are consistent and where Jesus himself proclaims his divinity. I show them where the Scriptures teach that Jesus was really crucified and died. Muslims are taught that Jesus didn’t really die on the cross.
‘Lone Ranger’ Christianity fades into the West
We were not made to be spiritual Lone Rangers. The Pew study shows in no uncertain terms that outside Christ’s Mystical Body — the church — we cannot long endure in faith. It’s an old saying: Remember the Sabbath, and keep it holy.
Alaskan teen hockey players team up to help homeless shelter
Using the Star Wars theme, Dimond (Rebel Alliance) and South (Empire) hockey teams decided to use the game as an opportunity to raise funds and donations for Brother Francis Shelter, the homeless shelter for adults that is run by Catholic Social Services.
Discovering hope in a violent age
In these most recent times we recall violent events in such places as Baltimore, Ferguson, death in an Oregon classroom, death of a black teenager on a Chicago street, death at an abortion facility in Colorado Springs and, last but not least, the killing of fourteen innocent Christmas celebrants in San Bernardino, California. Perhaps T.S. Eliot had come upon some deep mystery when he said that we keep coming back to our beginnings, hoping that we will discover some meaning in the events that face us, as though for the first time.
‘Perfect storm’ raises safety issues at Br. Francis Shelter
Just as when Brother Francis Shelter opened, we are in a perfect storm. We have a faltering economy, homelessness on the rise, increasing numbers of vulnerable citizens without shelter, and safety is an issue. Working in close partnership with government agencies, businesses and committed individuals, Catholic Social Services is striving to achieve short and long-term solutions.
Airplane trips are never dull for a collared priest
I travel a lot for my mission in Magadan, Russia, always wearing my religious habit or a clerical cassock to identify me as a priest. Exceptional encounters and conversations arise that would not otherwise happen if people didn’t know I was a priest. I jokingly say that I witness many conversions on plane trips as I walk down the aisle looking for my seat. I can see the fear in the eyes of many who are quietly praying, “Please God, don’t let that religious fanatic sit next to me.”
‘A wake-up call on wastefulness’
I had just returned from a meeting of Ignatian Associates, a faith-based group centered on prayer and apostolic activity. When I arrived at the meeting, I noticed the table was piled with loaves of bread, oatmeal bread, French bread, baguettes, none of them wrapped. They looked like someone had just dumped them.
When one suffers, so do we all
But recently at mid-morning someone told me that a young gunman at Umqua College in Roseberg, Oregon, killed 10 students. It is so utterly tragic. And yet, an ounce of sense would have reminded me that bad news never ceases. If it were not bad it wouldn’t qualify for breaking news. Walter Cronkite made that clear years ago when he would end his evening news broadcast with the words: “That’s the way it is, folks.”
Anchorage Archbishop urges Alaskans to welcome refugees
The fallout since the attacks is what has been most surprising to my brother bishops and me. Here in America, a land of immigrants, governors from across our nation announced that they would refuse to take in Syrian refugees. Here in Alaska, Governor Walker has not supported this, for which I am grateful.