From Season to Season

  Please join us in offering a prayer of thanks: To learn more, visit: https://www.sds.org/apostleship/2020-francis-jordan To learn more about my ministry, Jordan Ministry Team (named for Venerable Francis Jordan), visit: www.jordanministryteam.org

Tomorrow, May 23, Cardinal Angelo Amato, the prefect of the Congregation of the Causes of Saints, will beatify the martyr Oscar Romero. This highly anticipated event comes after decades of debate and discernment over the cause and meaning of Romero’s murder, which took place on March 24, 1980, as he celebrated Mass in the chapel of the La Divina Providenza hospital. The day before, he had called upon Salvadoran soldiers—as Christians—to stop carrying out the government’s oppressive and repressive violations and to obey God’s commands. Personally, I’m gratified by beatification and believe that Romero is an important model for the Church’s pastors. He embodies the vision of pastoral care, outreach, and solidarity with the poor that so many celebrate in Pope Francis. After all, Romero is the man who taught us that “There are many things that can only be seen through eyes that have cried.”     I think the greatest tribute that we can offer to Blessed Oscar Rome...

Recent movies like "Amistad," "Django Unchained," and "12 Years a Slave" help keep the scar of slavery alive in the conscience of Americans. The fury that surrounds the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the events that followed, is another reminder of racial and socio-economic inequality in the United States and the pain, frustration, and anger that so many people carry within them.    It’s never permissible for Christians to support systems that prey on the weak and vulnerable or to allow unjust policies and ideologies to prevail. In our quest for peace and justice, we rely on women and men who are able to really see the world around them for what it is—the good with the bad—and who can name its wounds and the grace that is always at work in the world. These people are prophets. And, as Pope Francis has observed, the prophet is the one who says, “you are on the wrong path, return to the path of God!” Theirs is a message that “does not ...