And Now for the News of the Day - Sunday, October 9

Here are today’s News briefs from around the world. Here is some information to read, to reflect upon. Each of these events and issues require our prayers. Remember that God has a plan for each believer, each faithful follower. 

Always direct love and generosity toward God. Strive to be good tenants of the vineyard. Do not betray God. Fidelity with God is essential for our spiritual health, spiritual well-being.


Bride kidnapping, bridenapping occurs in at least 17 countries around the world, from China to Mexico to southern Africa, to Russia. In each of these regions exist communities where it is acceptable and routine for young girls to be taken from their families, raped, tortured, and forced into marriage. This happens on each continent but there is little international awareness of these crimes, few police investigations, few global statistics.

One of the places to actually collect data on this situation is Kyrgyzstan where the practice has been on the rise since the fall of communism. There is anecdotal evidence to support that this practice might occur to avoid the embarrassment of being unable to afford a dowry. Up to a third of all ethnic Kyrgyz women in Kyrgyzstan are kidnapped brides. In certain regions of the country bride kidnapping accounts for 80 percent of the marriages.

Bridenapping is a criminal offense in Kyrgyzstan with a maximum three-year jail term, very few cases are prosecuted, and most that are prosecuted receive a light fine. Most citizens of Kyrgyzstan view this practice more as a tradition and not as a crime.

Because China has legalized sex-specific abortions because of the one child policy there is a shortage of women in China. Some desperate grooms pay between $250 and $100 for a kidnapper to locate a bride for them. Dealers often go to Vietnam, capture the young girls and smuggle them across the border into China


Anti-Gaddafi forces began a major assault on the besieged city of Sirte at dawn on Friday and heavy fighting continued into Saturday evening. Sirte is the last Libyan city resisting the rebel alliance. It is believed that Gaddafi might be hiding somewhere in the city.

Many pro-Gaddafi forces are using the high rise buildings in the city center as a base of operations to shoot at approaching fighters and to launch rockets and mortar fire.

Sirte is a Mediterranean coastal town. Once the rebel alliance gain control of Sirte they will be closer to having control over the entire contry.


The Socialist Party in France is preparing to hold the first round voting to determine which of six candidates will run against unpopular President Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2012 elections.

Former party leader Francois Hollande is the leading contender followed by the current head Martine Aubry in second place. Sunday’s primary voting will be open to all registered voters not just members of the Socialist Party. Voters are asked to sign a pledge that they share the values of the left and than donate one euro toward the cost of organizing the vote.


The Japanese city of Fukushima will host experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency to observe the decontamination effort following the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. The 12 member IAEA group is scheduled to visit farms, schools, and government offices in the Fukushima district in northeastern Japan as part of a clean-up process observation.

Local Japanese doctors have also began a long term survey of children looking for thyroid abnormalities, a problem with associated with radiation exposure. Officials plan to test approximately 360,000 people who were under the age of 18 when the nuclear crisis began in March and then continue to collect data throughout their lifetimes.


There are unconfirmed reports that a computer virus that collects keyboard stroke data has infected the United States Air Force computer network that is used by pilots who control the drones flown on the warfront in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

And Now News for the Day - Wednesday, September 28

Mexico’s Supreme Court considers legalizing abortion in the country which would overturn pro-life constitutional personhood amendments in two Mexican states, Baja California and San Luis. Judge Jose Fernando Franco Gonzales’ Action for Unconstitutionality seeks to have the personhood amendment declared unconstitutional.

Mississippi is preparing its own personhood initiative for the November 8 election despite objections by Planned Parenthood and the ACLU.

Maria Elizabeth Macias, a 39-year-old editor of newspaper Primera Hora and a member of the Community of Scalabrinian Lay Movement was kidnapped and murdered by drug cartels in the border state of Tamaulipas. She was found dead on Sept. 24 after she went missing two days earlier.

During a four day visit to Germany Pope Benedict XVI spoke about secular endorsed godlessness. "God is increasingly being driven out of our society. ... Are we to yield to the pressure of secularization, and become modern by watering down the faith?" he said. The Pope also stressed that human dignity needs to be protected. The Pope presented an address to the German Parliament.

China is preparing to send a space station into orbit. Tomorrow China will launch a Tiangong-1 from the Gobi desert. The rocket will be unmanned and is part of an ambitious Chinese space program which might culminate with Chinese astronauts landing on the moon.

Elizabeth Taylor’s jewelry will go on sale in December at Christie’s New York. The highlights currently are on a three month tour to Moscow, London, Los Angeles, Dubai, Geneva, Paris, and Hong Kong. There are 269 jewels representing Ms Taylor’s life. The sale of the jewels is estimated to earn over $30 million. The sale will take place over three days in December.

A Saudi women has been sentenced to 10 lashings for challenging the ban on women driving.

Summer of Mercy 2.0 - Rosary Procession

The remarkable love of virtue and life and the zeal for following in the footsteps inspired parishioners from the Archdiocese of Washington to attend a special Mass on August 3 at the Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle. This Mass was Summer of Mercy 2.0 event. It was an illustrious moment of prayer and reflection and diligence. 

Approximately one hundred people joined the procession and said prayers while walking on the narrow rush hour sidewalks. What a great moment of catechesis! One hundred people moving through the streets of Washington reverently praying and reflecting.

Rosary or Umbrella

Saturday began quietly. There was slight hesitation about whether to go to early Mass or not. The weather forecast was a confusing mixture of clouds and sunshine. A slight debate over which camera, which lenses, which camera bag began. There were more reasons to remain indoors than to leave, there were more reasons to do something else, anything else than to leave and be productive.

Outside there was sunlight caressing one side of the still silent, somehow wonderfully traffic free avenue. There was something gently beautiful about this view, something which provided hope. There was a brief debate over taking photograph or not.

The walk to the Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle continued. There were few pedestrians moving about that Saturday morning. There were joggers and cyclists and dogs on leashes. The air was cool, the sky was blank. People looked liked statues or other inanimate objects.

There were trees without leaves, buses without riders, taxicabs without passengers. There were many things to think about, many things to remember. This was a time for silent prayer, silent reflection. This was a time to remember some of the people that I had promised to pray for. This was a time to remember my own search for my personal sense of humanity. This was a time to remember to pray for strangers. Mass had been missed, the second destination was plotted.

Walking on the sidewalks, jaywalking at some intersections provided a crazy sense of anonymity and anxiety. There was a second or two of calm carelessness as I looked at this glass and steel building. There was a second or two of casual thoughtlessness as I darted into traffic.

Walking south there was a moment when I wondered if I had the wrong date, if this event was going to occur on another future time.

Then, I saw them. It was about twenty people of all ages, standing there holding their rosaries. Some were holding sheets of paper.

Their voices were gentle, merciful, loving. Their manner was civil, polite. They were publicly praying in front of the local abortion clinic. There was one police vehicle on the street.

A priest with a microphone was leading those saying the Rosary. This was a moment of reverence. This was a moment of hope. This was a moment of charity. The voices gently said the Rosary, each mystery was clearly announced. Standing on the edge of a sidewalk near the entrance to the abortion clinic, these Christians peacefully, calmly prayed for life, prayed for those thinking about having an abortion, prayed for those who have had an abortion, prayed for those innocent children who were killed by abortion.

The Rosary is powerful. As Catholics we are taught to respect life, to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. A sign of that love is supporting life, supporting hope. We must remember God, remember goodness, holiness, and kindness.

We must encourage our friends to help with this fight. All human life is important. All human life contains the potential for beauty, for hope, for love.

All human life deserves a chance.

Simple Thoughts on Abortion

This week my imagination has been busy alternating between thoughts about abortion, snow, and being more productive. Other thoughts have been able to survive, even thrive for an hour or two to be replaced and forgotten. Abortion as a real world reality dominated my thoughts, caused me to rethink how I view the world. All other thoughts this week except those at the grocery store which were on a search and avoid corn starch syrup were filtered by an awareness of the impact of abortion.

I have always believed abortion to be wrong. In many ways it always seemed like a doomsday literary device, the crisis is temporarily averted but the danger remains, the anxiety, the angst, the depression remains.

Attending the March for Life on Monday was beautiful, inspiring. My mind was not prepared for all of the people present on the Mall or marching to the Supreme Court.

My day began with a beautiful Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle, then a journey on the Orange Line to the Mall. How amazing it was seeing all the young people walking near Federal Center South West! How wonderful it was watching them huddle together, listening to instructions, listening to prayers.

I had no idea what the Mall would look like. It was a cold January afternoon. I was dressed in several layers. I was carrying a big, black camera bag. My initial thoughts were centered on lens and camera angles and cold fingers and other things that photographers worry about whenever they pull out their cameras. There was a moment when I imagined that I was either F. Scott Fitzgerald or Ernest Hemingway or Howard Hawks or Frank Capra.

There was something all crazy and upside down about our culture, like a thirties screwball comedy without the happy ending or a sense of moral redemption or even a sense of cultural morals or ethics. Thoughts like these often flash into my imagination on days when I am being unnaturally quiet and anonymous.

Abortion remains the quiet anonymous aberration, the post sexual revolution paradox of the convergence of convenience, consequence, and responsibility. Abortion remains an instant polarizing conundrum. Everyone has a point of view, everyone is ready to argue this topic. Few people are ready to listen to what their opponents are really saying.

A fundamental shift in our culture will be needed to combat or stop abortion. All people must be educated on how to make good choices, how to avoid hormones and peer pressure, how to do the right thing. Our society provides mixed messages regarding sexuality. We are routinely told sex is good, encouraged to have sex. Each day our sexual openness provides new risks and dangers for us all. Sex has become just another consumer good, another commodity. There is nothing beautiful or sacred or mysterious about sex. For many sex is like a large order of french fries or a latte. Our culture encourages and allows us to use sex for instant gratification.

Hopefully with time our society will again value goodness, holiness, and kindness and encourage all its citizens to respect themselves, to have patience, to remember God and his laws. Our society likes to talk about Plato, Socrates, Einstein, Darwin. We like to talk about natural laws.

There is nothing natural about abortion. It is truly barbaric. It does not simply kill unborn babies. Abortion attacks the spirit of all those living, breathing, and praying. Abortion is an attack on our way of life, on our dreams, on our future.

March for Life 2011

March for Life 2011

March for Life 2011

We Pray at Twilight

We live in a era that emphasizes leisure. We are sinners. Sibylline talking heads reinterpret the Bill of Rights. Byzantine parrots joke about how complicated our lives become as each new technological advance allows us to stay connected with each other. We murmur communication to ourselves in barely audible tones. We are trying to improve our lives.

Our lives still contain mistakes, failure, sin; modern society has removed public morality from the public’s conscience. Every behavior is accepted, every behavior is expected. Many people live moments of great compromise and confusion behind faded brocade curtains of sin and vice.

We live within great metropolises with malignant friends leading us into subterranean antechambers, crumbling and dark; our subways offer a glimpse of purgatory, a noisy chaotic moment when we must depend upon prayer, our own and our neighbors. Flattering acquaintances present florid complements to the bad weather, our bad natures revolving in the revolving doors, revolving with jealousy, revolving with avarice, revolving and revolving.

There were prayers to say on Sunday, hymns to sing on Sunday, and ideas and ideals to reflect upon, to incorporate into our lives. We listened on those poetic Sunday mornings to lessons about goodness, about morals; and we decided which restaurant we would be best for our brunch party.

Urban life beckons us with unending choices and sweet popular possibilities preserved within television commercials and glossy magazine advertisements present unending promises of happiness, fulfillment. Ironically we live with an era of typographical and grammatical errors.

The secular color of the moment remains an aggrieved gray, mourning, weeping like a discarded courtesan demanding the attention and courtesies from a younger yesterday. The sound of this discontent does not disturb us as it tries to attack our hearts and souls.

There are prayers before and after Communion for us to listen to, for us to think about. Being Christian is sometimes like being a travelling salesman moving from room to room, searching for leads, laying foundations for future sales. Being Christian is always examining ourselves, always trying to apply the Gospel teachings to our lives.

Sibylline coffee cups with enticing whipped cream wait to protest social justice, wait to lead you astray with words of discouragement, words of discontent.

But the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist are beautiful yet ancient; they both offer and gently encourage love. We are asked to look within the unopened rooms within our hearts to find and release all of our love. Sharing our love will improve our lives.

There is always talk of murder and mayhem. Euthanasia, contraception, abortion have become accepted as natural modern living rights with slogans, supporters, and advertising campaigns confusing and/or losing the issue of the value of each life.

The hateful, profanity covered lyrics from some popular songs attack the pedestrians with machine gun like intensity from behind tinted glass. The faces on the street are lost, disillusioned, desperate and so much denim and so many people simply moving between eutectic points, freezing or melting, sinning and regretting. . . . We pray at twilight.

Thoughts on a Controversial Subject

I am happy to be able to have a rational calm discussion about the moral and ethical implications of abortion without and violent measures or unacceptable speech. How I have lived as a gentle invalid to avoid direct discourse on this issue. How easy it is to talk about freedom, political rights. How much more difficult it is to contemplate and then respect the life span of each human being from conception to natural death. Science does not provide answers for us; science creates new questions. I must oppose abortion with the same fervor that I oppose the death penalty; they both deny another human being the opportunity to live their lives. There is no reason that we should ever sanction the killing of another human being. We must discipline ourselves to a routine of regular prayer and peaceful civil protest to help with the strengthening of our position with other like minded people. We must work for the ultimate restoration of the organic respect and reverence for life instead of corporate commodity view. Our society needs to be reminded the truth about the fragility and beauty of life. Each of our actions cause reactions. We must remember this. It is time to demand that our elected officials provide us with moral, ethical, and just leadership. Instead of chasing polls and campaign contributions, they should be chasing social justice and social responsibility. Although we are an affluent society, we are not a responsible society. That abortion is legal points to a callousness, a coarseness which does not respect life or God. Each time there is an abortion we all are affected in a small subtle way. Since Roe vs Wade the country has been soothed and tranquillized by that Supreme Court decision; others have been proposing new laws and restrictions, organizing protest marches, and praying outside abortion clinics. We must keep our spirits up and filled with God’s love and mercy. We do not have to be quiet. This is an outrage, a dangerous, immoral outrage. This is a time for prayer and action; and we must remember and speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. We must be stronger, louder, and brisker in our movements and efforts to free our country from this social injustice. This entry is, perhaps, too political, and will appear so to you when you think about it, as I am afraid you must, our gaze must shine the spotlight on the dirty little secret, the dirty reality that abortion kills unborn babies. But we must remember to keep both the unborn babies and their mothers in our prayers; both need our hope and our love. I am not sanguine about the chances of legally removing abortion as a choice in the immediate future but the struggle must continue. We must avoid the temptation to judge the women who are considering or have had abortions. Treat them gently with fairness and respect. Keep them in your prayers. Let God, and God alone to judge them. Keep mercy in your heart and be willing to hope, be ready to hope: though really, without being too simplistic, open your heart, allow yourself to love life with all the beauty, respect, reverence that you can that your actions may inspire others to think like you think, to act as you think. We can all be a witness of Christ’s love; we can all follow him.

So Long The Silence Remains

I watched too much television once. At least I learned about forensics and asking questions. Television is all about asking questions and sharing suspicions. Television is just heat lightning on the horizon. It flashes occasionally, but there’s no thunder, no rain. My friends say that television is not good for our minds and causes typographical errors. Someone suggested that we should read books.

I read a book once. At least I tried. I don’t know if it counts if the book is never discussed or used in conversation. But I tried to read a book and contemplate life and other things. Most of the time my friends and I just talk about each other and people in the news and familiar people we see around town. And my friends say that I have good manners but bad mannerisms. And my friends say that my mannerisms are so stylized and playful, that sometimes it is hard for them to know when I am bored with other people from around town. The only topic this summer is sex. Only two reminders forgiveness and mercy. And everyone has an opinion on the church’s opinion on abortion and someone wrote something about homelessness and poverty and the death penalty. But in this town there is always day chasing night, wrong teasing right.

There is always talk of vacation plans with lemonade, there is always talk of vocation plans in prayers at church. I wonder if is anyone listening. Is anyone carefully putting the words from the sermons into nice genuine suitcases in the lobby of a patient mind, ready to be unpacked later, unpacked and studied later? Will the words be neat or squished? And the words will be words with meaning, some of my friends try to explain to me when they speak of love, faith and God. And the words will be more than words for those who have a desire or longing for a true vocation.

Some folks are lucky to be freckled with hope and love and understanding all over their faces and all through their hearts! And vocation is really a nice word, really nice. So nice to me and some of my friends. Something in the word makes me smile. I sometimes hear “welcome” and “thank you” and “you are loved” when I hear the word vocation.

Sometimes just mumbling the word under my breath, makes me smile. There is some type of power in vocation. Thinking about the word makes me smile. I like thinking about words that make me smile. I always like to remember them or to talk about them with or without my friends around.

And one Sunday when my friends were out of town I went to church all by myself. And I arrived early before the organist even touched the keyboard. Then I glanced at the other faces in the other pews and thought about vocation all by myself. Thought about my responsibilities, my being humble, my job. I just stared and stared until I had to close my eyes and think of the sacraments and the virtues and prayers and folks freckled with God’s hope and love.

Then, as the choir began to sing, my heart felt something beyond the melody, beyond the words. My heart hummed “Yes.”

And then I grabbed vocation and looked at it with a silence infused by Saint Paul’s writings!

That was my first truly adult thought. It was the most romantic, selfless moment of my life.

Until I remembered “So long the silence remains, So long the prayers begin”