"Honoring the Courage of Those Who Sacrifice and Follow Conscience"

The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers   Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox  Watch for Matthew Fox's video meditation -- now appearing every Monday!   Be sure to catch Matthew's newest social media channel on Bluesky! Honoring the Courage of Those Who Sacrifice & Follow Conscience 2/15/2025 As the results of the election ripple out, learn the deeper stakes involved. Get your copy of Trump & the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election today! Choose your format in the book block below.  Three days ago, we honored the 20th anniversary of Sister Dorothy Stang’s martyrdom among the peasant farmers living in the rainforest, and committed to defending it against forces of greed that are trying to kill it in order to get rich quick by establishing cattle farms.   The peasants, when they buried Sister Dot, said “we are not burying you, we are planting you.” In other words, her love for them, the forest and justice, is growing fruit elsewhere.   In doing what she did and staying to do her work on behalf of the peasants and the rainforest, Sister Dot was imitating the courageous way of Jesus, who was called a “stern warrior” in the Scriptures and in the Liturgy. At Christmas, this text is used to speak of Christ: When peaceful silence lay over all,  And night had run the half of her swift course,  Down from the heavens, from the royal throne,  leapt your all-powerful Word:  Into the heart of a doomed land  the stern warrior leapt.  Warrior on horseback. Bronze statue at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Photo by Brett Wharton on Unsplash.  Such love and heroic sacrifice as Sister Dot’s takes spiritual warrior energy. As Aquinas says, we are to “brave great dangers for great things, for instance the common welfare, justice, divine worship, and so forth.” He frequently cited the prophet Jeremiah who said, “The Lord is with me like a brave warrior.”   Rabbi Heschel talks about “the urgency of justice,” and how “to do justice is what God demands of every person: it is the supreme commandment, and one that cannot be fulfilled vicariously.” To do justice takes inner strength or warrior/prophetic energy.   Poster at a Black Lives Matter protest in Nebraska, 2020. Photo by Kalea Morgan on Unsplash.   Buddhist nun Pema Chodrin calls mindfulness practitioners “spiritual warriors.” Buddhist Joanna Macy tells us that “great courage—moral and physical—is required of the Shambhala warriors who carry the weapons of compassion and insight.”   Yesterday, a long-time Republican and conservative and top federal prosecutor resigned, rather than comply with an order to dismiss corruption charges against New York City’s mayor. US Attorney Danielle Sasson, who once interned with conservative judge Anthony Scalia, was recently chosen by the Trump administration to lead the prosecution of New York Mayor Eric Adams.    When she was ordered by deputy attorney general Emil Bove to dismiss the case on Monday, she refused to do so, and gave up her job rather than comply. It took “lion energy” and spiritual warrior conscience to leave her post rather than submit to a command to cease pursuing the corruption charges. Good for Ms. Sasson!  Five other prosecutors followed Ms. Sasson’s courageous act of conscience and defiance, and also walked away from their jobs. It is good to see some courageous and conscience-driven lawyers stand up.  Manhattan U.S. attorney resigns after DOJ says to drop Adams case. Video by CBS New York. Would some congress people and senators would show the same commitment to conscience and to the greater good of our country, stand up and speak out against dangerous nominees for cabinet positions, for example. And risk losing their jobs while standing up for the common good.

The Working Catholic: Disabling Help by Bill Droel

 

Generally, those in education, health care, ministry, civil service and more want to do good through their daily work. However, the outcome of their efforts often produces the opposite of what they intend. Schools produce too many uncultured young adults. Frustration among patients and health professionals is a major side-effect of health care delivery. Churches reinforce individualistic attitudes. The civil service system, top to bottom, often delivers dependency and/or corruption.

The bad side-effects come from the nature of our bureaucratic system in which transactions supersede personal attention. Students relate to teachers by way of grade sheets. Patients relate to doctors and nurses through charts and test results. A business simply counts an employee as a debit on the expense sheet, rather than as a unique individual.

Some time ago, Msgr. Ivan Illich (1926-2002) gave a talk to seminarians, titled “To Hell With Good Intentions.”  These North American seminarians were about to spend a summer helping people in Mexico. Illich told them to discard their unacknowledged pretention that You people will be better because I know better.  Those who desire to help, said Illich, have “enormous good will [but] an abysmal lack of intuitive delicacy.”

 L.M. Sacasas, writing in The Convivial Society, summarizes Illich’s challenge and gives it current application, including to those involved with artificial intelligence. How deeply do computer engineers reflect on the harm that their programs cause, Sacasas asks? All our tools and devices come along with “a perspective on the world.” The devices subtly encourage their users to adopt an individualistic attitude, he continues.

Too often unexamined helping behavior results in “a loss of personal potency,” says Sacasas. The more that nice people apply their notion of helpfulness and forsake “critical self-awareness,” the more that patients, students, parishioners, employees and citizens lose agency.

In this talk to seminarians and in his other writing, Illich delivers a stern warning. The warning does not, however, support the neoconservative position that all government assistance (Medicare, food stamps, disaster relief, etc.) should end. Illich’s positive advice to the seminarians and to us is a “silence of deep interest.” At prayer each evening, consider the question: Whom did I really help today?

Pope Francis preaches the same when he urges Christians to develop a “culture of encounter.” Go to the peripheries and look squarely at others. Listen to them with an unbiased heart. Programs, notebooks, handouts and bandages can be appropriate. But the genuine helper is skilled in the art of active listening. Lo and behold, the helper who listens can discover something about herself. So too, each true exchange between people is an encounter with God, our God who is Unified Community, a Blessed Trinity.

 

Droel edits a free, printed newsletter, INITIATIVES (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629)

The Lost Factor of Production

 The Episcopal Bishop of Washington, D.C. says we need to be concerned about the least among us.  The least among us are innumerable in our world economy. Trump’s disregard for immigrants is just the beginning.  We are all vulnerable. 

Economists say there are 4 factors of production:  land, labor, capitol, and entrepreneurship.  But what is it all for?  If AI is substituted for ‘labor’ and ‘entrepreneurship, ’what is the reason for an economy?  Massive wealth is created for the few. 

If there is no need for labor, why be concerned about social justice for immigrants?  Why be concerned about social justice?  The rationale for an economic system is lost.

But if the reason for an economic system is human survival and happiness, the factors of production have to be adjusted to serve this goal.  This is the lost factor of production.

Where are we going?  Is humanity evolving towards a sincere awareness of the mandate, ‘Love God and love your neighbor’ or do we face an apocalypse of destruction and we have to start all over again? 

                              Robot standing in the lobby of the Sphere in Las Vegas, Nevada

Bishop Speaks Out

Thank you, Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde of Washington, D.C., for speaking in support of working people, migrants, and their families at the traditional prayer service at the National Cathedral Tuesday.  Her words remind us of Pope John Paul II in his encyclical, Laborem Exercens, that labor is prior to capital.  The purpose of the economic system is the service of people, not capital. 

Bishop Budde is a spiritual warrior.  She is a leader of the Faith community whose concern is people, not money.  Will other Faith leaders have the courage to speak out in defense of those who need protection from exploitation?  Bishop Budde asked for mercy, justice.

Another area that deserves attention in the faith communities’ struggle for justice is to look at U.S. foreign policy as a cause for people having to leave their homes. 

It is the Faith communities’ awareness that the world does not belong to those who claim it with military might.  God’s creation is the heritage of all.  Faith leaders who do not speak out for justice, are supporting the new president’s attack on working people and their families.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. DAY

 

How Martin Luther King got his name

Charles King, Martin Luther King’s father went to Germany for a conference on Martin Luther and was so impressed with Martin Luther’s life and teachings that he officially changed his own name to Martin Luther King.  And he also changed the name of his young son, Charles King, Jr., to Martin Luther King, Jr.

Non-violence :  the struggle for freedom

Martin Luther King, Jr. was an advocate of non-violence in the struggle for freedom for African Americans in the U.S.  His insistence on non-violence conflicted with many members in the civil rights movement, including Malcom X and Medgar Evers.  Mayor Richard J. Daley had strong objections to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s philosophy of freedom for African Americans.  Ralph Metcalf, Marquette University and Olympic medal winner and part of the Daley political machine in Chicago, left the Daley machine and followed his own judgments as an alderperson in Chicago as a result of Daley’s opposition to King.

Non-violence:  the Viet Nam war

In opposition to the United States’ political consensus, King was opposed to the Viet Nam war.

Barbershop quotes – ‘He had courage.’  (Courage to Be by Paul Tillich)

I go to the Sherman Phoenix Black Barbershop here in Milwaukee for my haircuts and I feel comfortable talking there with the people in the shop about Martin Luther King.  They summed up their feeling about him with the words, ‘He had courage.’  King knew his life was in danger, yet he joined the garbage workers’ strike in 1968. He was murdered in Memphis where he was speaking to support them. 

Let us celebrate this day dedicated to the spiritual warrior, Martin Luther King, imitating his compassion and service!

Marquette Rejects Catholic Social Teaching

 

Marquette University has rejected the requests of professors and workers to organize a union to bargain collectively.  In doing this, Marquette has rejected Catholic Social Teaching which has been a backbone for workers’ rights.

This is some of what Marquette has rejected:  the 1892 encyclical of Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, which declares the right of workers to organize; the 1919 statement by the U.S. Catholic Bishops, supporting the Popes’ Encyclicals on workers’ rights authored by Monsignor John Ryan; the 1931 encyclical by Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno, defining the social structures of solidarity and subsidiarity; the 1965 document from Vatican II, Church in the Modern World, declaring workers’ right to independence and their right to strike; the 1981 encyclical by Pope John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, explaining how  labor unions are a necessity and that labor is prior to capital; and, finally, the 1986 Pastoral Letter by the U. S. Catholic Bishops, “Economic Justice for All,” saying that Roman Catholic institutions are obligated to respect workers’ rights as presented in Catholic Social teaching.

Currently there are new unions formed in various industries:  the baristas working for Starbucks and the Milwaukee Area Service and Hospitality Workers Organization (MASH).  Martin Luther King, Jr. supported the garbage workers in their fight for workers’ rights in 1968.  The support for workers’ rights is in Catholic Social Teaching.  Where do we look now for the backbone for workers’ rights? 

Marquette University professors and workers have a right to form a union.

The Working Catholic: Christmas 2024 by Bill Droel

Christmas is the feast of the Incarnation—Jesus Christ, simultaneously fully divine and fully human, dwelling among us. He comes to the world not in splendor, but in a stable in an out-of-the-way town “where ox and ass are feeding.” That stable, displayed in millions of homes this month, symbolizes our modern world, broken yet redeemed.

For over 400 years Roman Catholicism ducked its appointment with modernity, reacting many times with aloof superiority or even with hostility. Since 1517 Catholicism has been uneasy with the loss of community as the individualism associated with the Protestant Reformation ascends. Catholicism was additionally turned off by the violent anti-clericalism of the French Revolution and later revolutions. Further, Catholicism takes a defensive posture with those expressions of Protestant Christianity in this country and elsewhere that are explicitly anti-Catholic. Catholicism’s caution about the modern world is also related to its opposition of communism’s total denial of the spiritual. Finally, Catholicism was and remains cautious toward some “scientific” trends, including a materialistic notion of evolution and eugenics with its accompanying embrace of abortion.

Catholicism’s defensive strategy officially changed at Vatican II (1962-1965). The new method is dialogue with modern ideas. The dialogue means learning about God’s revelation from the world of science, reason, exploration, forms of governance, modern art, and global commerce, from non-Catholic expressions of Christianity and from non-Christian expressions of faith. This dialogue with the world, please realize, does not exclude disagreements.

The new strategy requires a fresh definition of church. The word still applies to buildings, but that is not its deepest meaning. Nor is the church primarily bishops, their clergy, and their helpers. The word church means all the baptized.

How are people today able to gather around the Christmas stable—a symbol for our world? 

In recent days Pope Francis concluded a multi-year synod that was meant to model how Catholic leaders can internally discuss vital topics. It was a synod about a process. Understandably, the press did not find a three-year meeting about a new process interesting. Instead, newspaper and magazine ink was mostly given to a few controversial topics like ordained women deacons in Catholicism and changes in celibacy requirements for clergy, better treatment of gays, lesbians, and those others whom Catholicism has maligned. 

Nonetheless, the synod was an expression of Vatican II and particularly of Pope Francis’ primary theme: In our modern place and time the church (people of God) finds the incarnate Christ along the peripheries. To hear the word of God, people must attentively listen to those   huddled around a stable in Bethlehem, those scrambling among ruins within Syria, those in line at the Wednesday morning food pantry, and those young adults who are unsatisfied with our vacuous culture.

How can Catholics and others from the east and west find the stable and there have fruitful engagements with what is happening in our modern world? This month happens to be the 60 th anniversary of Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church. Therein is a paragraph about the new definition of church, about how that church influences the world, about how the world enriches the church and about the true meaning of Christmas:

The entire people of God by their very vocation seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them to the plan of God. They live in the world, that is in each and in all of the secular professions and occupations. They live in the ordinary circumstances of family and social life from which the very web of their existence is woven. They are called there by God so that by exercising their proper function and being led by the Spirit of the gospel they may work for the sanctification of the world from within, in the manner of leaven.

Droel edits a free newsletter on faith and work, INITIATIVES (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629)