Editor’s Note: This post contains sensitive content about pregnancy loss. August 2019 I am one of eight people in a room. I am the only woman, and I am pregnant. I am fatigued, nauseous, praying […]
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Editor’s Note: This post contains sensitive content about pregnancy loss. August 2019 I am one of eight people in a room. I am the only woman, and I am pregnant. I am fatigued, nauseous, praying […]
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The Josephites, more formally known as the Society of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart, are a Catholic order of priests founded in 1893 to serve African Americans. They have been in many ways a […]
In September of this year, US Attorney General William Barr compared the Coronavirus state authorized lockdowns across the nation to American slavery. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn took issue with Barr’s statement: “It is incredible […]
One of the most harrowing moments of my young life as a theologian in formation was when I found myself at an academic gathering listening to a seemingly innocuous academic exchange. The space was filled […]
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In 1967, wrote the Black theologian James Cone in his final book before his death, Said I Wasn’t Gonna Tell Nobody (2018), “Detroit exploded and so did I.” On July 23 of that year, dozens […]
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In these final few weeks before the election, we at Daily Theology are proud to offer a series of essays on one of the most vital aspects that should influence our vote. Beginning this Tuesday, […]
Over the past few months, the United States has been grappling with racism in a way that it has not in recent years. The current discourse has included a greater discussion within the Church of these issues as well. And, one hopes, that the continued discussion will bring further healing and reconciliation, especially with regard to the failures of the American Church to address racism and how it has facilitated racism.
Despite this healthy introspection, an additional phenomenon has arisen that has affected the nature of the discussion: the destruction of the statues of saints. The actual destruction or threatened destruction of these statues is almost beside the point. There will always be people seeking to engage in behavior of this sort. What has taken my interest is the response of some Catholics that—rather than defend the saints—take the opportunity to call for a reexamination of the saint, and what they represent.
In many of my courses, I assign students a final project instead of a final exam. Students choose a particular ethical issue to apply what they’ve learned from the semester, aiming to raise awareness about the issue and motivate others to care enough to speak and act in the pursuit of justice. When I first started teaching, many of these projects focused on issues like homelessness, hunger, immigration, sweatshop labor, human trafficking, or environmental degradation. In the last few years, the focus has turned in a decidedly different direction; now, most projects focus on self-care, mental health, and suicide prevention. In their reflection papers, students share the heavy burdens they carry, often due to anxiety, depression, exposure to trauma, and sometimes suicide ideation. In these moments, I think about Thomas Merton’s insight that the church is not just the “Body of Christ,” but a “body of broken bones.” He lamented all the ways we are unwilling to take up “the sacrifice and the sorrow that are the price of this resetting of bones … the pain of reunion.” Merton identified a key reason for this body of broken bones as unworthiness (which we assume for ourselves as well as others). So many people are suffering—many who feel invisible and unheard—and I am reminded all the time that this includes my students.
It’s Augustine’s feast day! I sometimes joke that I’m the only Catholic feminist in the world who likes Paul, but I think there are at least a few more of us out there — possibly? […]
By Kyle Haden, OFM, Ph.D., The moniker ‘Christian’ has lost a good deal of credibility in the last several years. In the Catholic lexicon it has been stained by years of sexual scandals. In mainline […]
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