I've had some friends ask me what the value of fasting is: Why give something up instead of "doing" something, or helping someone in need?
I'm not sure those things are mutually exclusive, but I do think there's something valuable in just "giving up," too, in just fasting. For me that's going to be meat this Lent. And, no, that doesn't mean I'm going to be eating lobster everyday!
I was pleased to read today of a new Catholic initiative on climate change, the Catholic Climate Covenant, which was introduced yesterday by Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane, Washington, according to a New York Times blog. Catholic insitutions--schools, hospitals, and parishes--together could make a big difference in our collective carbon footprint. The press conference focused especially on the effects of climate change on the poor of the developing world.
Sometimes I think I'm a bad daughter-I'm often too busy to think much about my mother and I'm certainly too busy to call home more than a couple of times a month. But I suppose my own mother is lucky for getting a call every couple of weeks.
Mother Earth may only hear from her kids once a year on Earth Day, celebrated throughout much of the world on April 22. On this day we broaden the interpretation of the 4th Commandment to "Honor your father and mother" and remember the earthy mater who cradles all creation in her arms.
The earth is warming and we are responsible. This is the undeniable conclusion reached by 2,000 scientists and policy experts contributing to the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the winners of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize along with Al Gore.
Pope Benedict XVI has spawned another media tempest related to homosexuality; or at least he threw a bone to a hungry media, who then spawned the tempest. In his annual address to the papal household, in which the pope summarizes the year's events, B16 reflected on World Youth Day and reflected on the church's turn to environmentalism.
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