Catholic-Mennonite encuentro in Guatemala
COBAN, Guatemala – Local Catholics and Mennonites recently gathered in an unprecedented ecumenical meeting in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. Among the participants were Rob and Tara Cahill, former workers with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in Coban. Read more
Pope’s theme for Lent: “Justice founded in love”
Pontiff Encourages Work With the Poor
VATICAN CITY, FEB. 14, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is affirming that Jesus satisfies man’s “thirst for justice,” through his Divine love rather than political revolution.
The Pope stated this today in a public address before he prayed the midday Angelus with the pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square.
He reflected on today’s liturgy and the Gospel reading of the Beatitudes.
“The beatitudes are based on the existence of a divine justice,” the Pontiff affirmed, “which raises up those who have been wrongly humiliated and casts down those who have been exalted.” Read more
Duke Center for Reconciliation invites applications to summer institute
Applications are now being received for the 2010 Duke Divinity School Summer Institute, online at www.divinity.duke.edu/summerinstitute. This summer’s Institute will focus on the theme “The Ministry of Reconciliation in a Divided World” and will be held from May 31 – June 5, 2010 on the campus of Duke Divinity School. The 2010 Summer Institute will create a community of learning among diverse peers and offer intimate interaction with a world-class faculty of scholars and practitioners. You will experience in-depth teaching, prayer and worship, shared meals, real-world contexts and challenges, and an opportunity to reflect on your own vocation and ministry setting. Read more
A prayer for Haiti
by Rose Marie Berger
Most Holy Creator God, Lord of heaven and earth,
we bring before you today your people of Haiti.
It is You who set in motion the stars and seas,
You who raised up the mountains of the Massif de la Hotte
and Pic La Selle. It is You who made her people in your very image:
Their gregarious hearts and generous spirits,
their hunger and thirst for righteousness and liberty. Read more
“Pro-life, Pro-peace” seminar at Mennonite Church USA convention
Bridgefolk Board member Darrin Snyder Belousek helped lead a “Pro-life, Pro-peace” seminar earlier this month at the 2009 convention of Mennonite Church USA, together with Ann Graber Hershberger of Eastern Mennonite University. The seminar sought to identify “faithful responses to abortion presented in the framework of a consistent life ethic.” Read more
Mennonites in Congo learn from Catholic experiences of self-reliance and service
The following news article caught our attention this week. Around the world, churches of all traditions find themselves working simultaneously to put down deeper roots in their own cultural locales while maintaining global ties. Here we learn of Mennonites in Congo drawing on Catholic experiences struggling to become more responsive to the needs of the poor in their midst.
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Mennonite & Catholic theologians featured in Forum on Justice & Forgiveness in Colombia
The South American nation of Colombia continues to attract our attention as the place in Latin America where Mennonites and Catholics are cooperating most regularly in peacemaking projects. An event organized by the Colombian Bible Society recently turned to a Mennonite and a Catholic for two of its three major presentations. A news service associated with the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI) reports:
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Colombian Mennonites and Catholics Invite Dialogue
NEWS RELEASE
Mennonite World Conference
For Immediate Release
August 30, 2005
BOGOTA, COLOMBIA – “Called Together to be Peacemakers,” a document issued after five years of dialogue between the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity of the Catholic Church and representatives of Mennonite World Conference, was the topic of an ecumenical dialogue at the Colombian Catholic Bishops Conference here on May 20, 2005. Read more
No Place to Stand
When you’re Christian, progressive, and “pro-life,” voting your conscience is often easier said than done.
by Heidi Schlumpf
What does it mean to be “pro-life”? For some, the term is understood very narrowly as the opposition to abortion, particularly through legal sanction. Others are committed to reducing the number of abortions, truly making them rare, but favor policies that don’t criminalize abortion—and prosecute women and/or their doctors—to do so. And as U.S. Catholic’s Heidi Schlumpf explains in this article, many people, on both sides of the legality question, see a genuinely pro-life stance as one that embraces respect for the human person at every stage—a position that’s hard to find in today’s polarized politics, and one that cries out for broad (and civil) dialogue across our various divides. —The Editors
It’s an election year, and once again Jennifer Roth is wondering if she might as well flip a coin. The 31-year-old systems administrator is one of those “swing voters” who could go either way—a demographic highly coveted by both Democrats and Republicans as the key to winning in 2004. But neither the Dems nor the GOP does much to inspire or excite Roth.
The problem? Roth is a self-described liberal on nearly all issues except one: Abortion. It’s a view that she—and countless other “pro-life progressives”—finds entirely consistent. “In my view liberalism is all about looking out for the little guy, the people who don’t have power, money, or protection,” she says.
But where does that leave her when it comes to the political process? Read more
