US Catholic Faith in Real Life

Performance review: More feedback on President Obama

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We don't normally publish the feedback from our Reader Surveys online, out of respect for the privacy of respondents (name and city are included in this section), but between the record amount or responses to our survey on President Obama and the passion with which our readers responded, we wanted to share them with our online readers.

We've included some of our favorite answers without any identifying information.

For Catholics, the greatest success of the Obama administration has been:

The passage of healthcare reform.

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Performance review: Readers rate President Obama

By Scott Alessi | Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
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U.S. Catholic readers provide a progress report on Barack Obama’s first term in office.

Scott Alessi is a former editor at U.S. Catholic.

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I'll be green for Christmas

By Megan Sweas | Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
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Let’s not only be green when summer’s here but also during the most wonderful time of the year.

The anticipation was over, the gifts all opened, and nothing left to do except take it all in. Even when I was little, it was one of my favorite moments of Christmas. I'd sit with my loot sorted next to me and survey the living room while peeling the customary orange from my stocking. Red, green, and patterned wrapping paper covered the floor, and the cats, high on new catnip, would be attacking a bow under the tree.

Megan Sweas is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles.

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Think outside the box: Being green at the end of life

By Joe Sehee | Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
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Editors' note: Sounding Board is one person’s take on a many-sided subject and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of U.S. Catholic, its editors, or the Claretians.

Joe Sehee is executive director of the Green Burial Council (greenburialcouncil.org), a former Jesuit lay minister and spiritual director, and a senior fellow with the Environmental Leadership Program.

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Urban planting: Turning blight into bounty in the inner city

By Olga Bonfiglio | Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
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Armed with soil and seeds, Catholics in blighted cities are taking social justice into their own hands.

In Camden, New Jersey a jumble of railroad tracks, freeways, and abandoned factories lace through the Waterfront South area on the Delaware River just across from Philadelphia. During heavy rains, a nearby wastewater treatment plant frequently leaks raw sewage onto the streets.

Olga Bonfiglio is a freelance writer, organic gardener, and lamancha goat handler at a small dairy farm in southwestern Michigan. She blogs at olgabonfiglio.blogspot.com.

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Parish resources for growing a community garden

By Olga Bonfiglio | Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
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Practical, hands-on actions are the best way for individuals and faith communities to put their faith into action, says the Michigan Catholic Rural Life Coalition (MCLRC). Here’s how they say to get involved and get growing.
 

Parish Farmer’s Market:

Olga Bonfiglio is a freelance writer, organic gardener, and lamancha goat handler at a small dairy farm in southwestern Michigan. She blogs at olgabonfiglio.blogspot.com.

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O death, where is thy ecological concern?

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Star power: The future of solar energy

By Kevin Clarke | Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
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The energy policy of the future should be sung to the tune of “Here Comes the Sun.”

Events out of Japan persist in an irradiated gloom. The disaster unfolding in Fukushima Daiichi represents a level of calamity for which adjectives have yet to be invented. It’s quite possible that in the end, in a replay of the Chernobyl disaster, areas around the plant may not be suitable again for human habitation.

Kevin Clarke is a writer living in New York.

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It's easy being green when building a church

By Judith Dupré | Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Your Faith
It's not as difficult—or expensive—as you might think to build a green parish.

Church design is evolving as people reawaken to the ancient wisdom that the environment is a series of exquisite interconnections. Forward-looking congregations are building and renovating in ways that reflect the belief that God resides in the world and all creation resides within God.

Judith Dupré is an architectural historian living in Mamaroneck, New York.

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Parks and re-Creation

By Megan Sweas | Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
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A group of young people in the Bronx finds that by beautifying an old eyesore, they’ve unleashed a desire to serve their community.

David Shuffler walks through the park that he helped build in the South Bronx on his way to work.

Grass and young trees line his path through Concrete Plant Park, named after the factory that was once on the site. Some of the old factory structures remain—but they’ve been transformed into public art.

Megan Sweas is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles.

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