Last year, Scannell hatched the postcard plan — called Any Refugee — and then convinced his fifth grade class in Anchorage to participate by drawing pictures on one side, writing a message on the other, and sending them to refugee children around the world.
Cardinal Francis George had planned to be in Alaska this summer to celebrate the 25th year since his long-time friend Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz was ordained a bishop. That visit is not possible now as Cardinal George, 78, passed away April 17 after a long bout with cancer.
Most states took Roe as the final judicial word on abortion. Alaska was no exception. No one expected that a judge would use the right to privacy in Alaska’s constitution to further liberalize abortion, firstly because the United States Supreme Court had the opportunity to do so, and did not.
Here at Catholic Social Services, we recently received a letter from a former client. At an unexpected crisis point in his life he found himself homeless and with nowhere to turn. He turned to the Brother Francis Shelter, but he came to us with low expectations and filled with fear of personal danger, as well as fear of being judged. His experience changed his view of shelters and of being homeless.
If you were a religious sister in the 1960s, garbed in a long black serge habit, tucked away in a Catholic community which revered you, you were treated with deference. But when Sister Hogan marched with Dr. Martin Luther King in Selma, Alabama, in 1965, the crowds of screaming protestors on the street near the Edmund Pettus Bridge told a different story. And the folks at the airport as she headed home to Detroit glared at her with eyes livid with contempt.
I happen to be writing this column shortly after gunmen stormed the offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris and opened fire, killing 12 people in what French authorities are calling the worst attack in four decades. In my unbelief, I could only say September 11 all over again: another story of the struggle between faith and death, faith and violence.
My time in Russia has been a time of great faith building and a time of great faith testing. I have been in a crisis of faith on a number of occasions and each time the Lord shows a way through it. I bless the Lord for this knowledge and want to share some with you because there are many of you who are in a crisis, coming out of a crisis or ready to go into a crisis and have no idea what to do. I have cried out so many times these words: “God help me!”
Father Jules Jette (1864-1927) made good on his high standards. As a missionary priest coming to Alaska in 1898, his primary role meant conversions and baptisms among the Athabaskans, but as a scholar, he wanted to chronicle the multitudinous complexities of the Koyukon Athabaskan language and culture. As a humanitarian who loved the Ten’a people, the melding of those two vocations meant Father Jette was uniquely able to bestow a lasting gift on Alaska’s unknown future:
A bill aimed at giving parents greater freedom in directing the education of their children, including the right to opt out of standardized tests and controversial sex instruction classes, has been amended to prohibit Planned Parenthood and other organizations that perform abortions from teaching in public schools.
On Thursday, April 16, Theology and Brew in Anchorage will host a talk entitled, “Judgment & Grace: God’s Desire for Our Salvation.” The presentation will be delivered by Oblate priest Father Arthur Flores.