Minneapolis Catholic Church shooter blamed ‘gender and weed’ for mental health issues

Washington D.C., Sep 4, 2017 / 04:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In their 2017 statement for Labor Day, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops stressed a properly ordered understanding of work, which prioritizes the worker and the family.

This vision of work must ensure safe working conditions, show solidarity with those in poverty, and seek to emphasize the dignity of the worker rather than solely economic gain, the statement emphasized.

“Economic stresses contribute to a decline in marriage rates, increases in births outside of two-parent households, and child poverty,” said Bishop Frank Dewane of Venice, chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development at the U.S. bishops’ conference.

He called for legal safeguards to protect workers’ rights and defend against exploitation.

However, “(l)egal protections cannot solve all problems when the culture itself must also change,” he said, and these changes must extend beyond politics, and aim to recover the understanding of work as “a cooperation with God’s creative power.”

The bishop expressed concern that despite a growing economy, there is still a “stagnant or … decreasing [wage] for the vast majority of people” and that the newly generated wealth is only going to a small percentage of people.  

“The dignity of the individual and the demands of justice require, particularly today, that economic choices do not cause disparities in wealth to increase in an excessive and morally unacceptable manner, and that we continue to prioritize the goal of access to steady employment  for everyone,” said the bishop, repeating the words of Benedict XVI in Caritas in veritate.

That encyclical has also been echoed by Pope Francis, the bishop noted, pointing to Francis’ challenge “to confront a twisted understanding of the purposes of labor which does not recognize talents as gifts from God.”

“With such a mindset, it becomes possible to improperly justify economic and societal injustices,” he added, and warned that “merit” can be used to unjustly excuse inequality in the work place.

“The poor person is considered undeserving and therefore to blame. And if poverty is the fault of the poor, the rich are exonerated from doing anything,” said the bishop, repeating the words of Pope Francis.

Seeing wealth as the basis for right or wrong, Bishop Dewane said, opposes the message of the Gospel and aligns itself to the opinions of Job’s friends, who saw Job’s misfortune as the result of his sin.

Pope Francis has said that this view contradicts God’s “gaze of love” which is best reflected in the parable of the Prodigal Son, whose father “thinks no son deserves the acorns that are for the pigs,” even when the son has failed.

However, this potential crisis is also an opportunity to regain the true nature of work, Bishop Dewane said, highlighting the importance of legal protections, unions, and rest.

He said laws should be ordered to protect compensation in wage and injuries, worksite safety, easy access to information on workers’ legal rights, and the right to unionize.

“Migrants and refugees should receive careful consideration,  including the conditions that allow for dignified work and protections against trafficking,” he said, also giving special attention to closing the wage gap between sexes.

Unions must regain the voice of the unheard and be a line of defense for the vulnerable, especially the foreigners and the discarded, he said.

“Thus, the union should resist the temptation of ‘becoming too similar to the institutions and powers that it should instead criticize,’” said the bishop, quoting a statement to the Italian trade unions issued by the Holy Father last month.

Additionally, he said, the whole wellbeing of the worker, including their family life, should be promoted, respecting a proper amount of rest necessary for recovery and a parent’s bonding with their children.

A properly ordered understanding of work is crucial, the bishop said, “not only to understanding our work, but also to coming to know God himself.”

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Washington D.C., May 2, 2017 / 05:33 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- At a Mass on Tuesday, the archbishop of Washington, D.C. thanked law enforcement officers and first responders for putting themselves in harm’s way for the betterment of society.

“This Mass,” Cardinal Donald Wuerl said, “should call forth from all of us enormous gratitude.” He thanked officials in attendance, their fallen comrades who died in the line of duty, and the families of the deceased.

Cardinal Wuerl was the celebrant and homilist at the 23rd annual Blue Mass at St. Patrick’s Church in downtown Washington, D.C.  The Mass is said for law enforcement and fire safety officials, and for those who have died in the line of duty.

According to the Archdiocese of Washington, the tradition of the Blue Mass dates back to 1934 but it has only been an annual tradition beginning with 1994.

In 2016, there were 144 law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty in the U.S., according to the Officer Down Memorial Page.

In attendance at the Mass were various federal and local law enforcement honor guards and families of slain law enforcement officials. At the end of the liturgy, two trumpeters played Taps after the names of the slain officials from the past year were read.

“Taps” for fallen law enforcement/fire safety at the end of DC’s Blue Mass. pic.twitter.com/nZJZvabJ0O

— Matthew Hadro (@matthadro) May 2, 2017

“Recognizing that not every law enforcement officer, firefighter, emergency responder or medical personnel returns home at the end of their shift, we pray especially for the fallen and their families,” the cardinal wrote later on his blog.

“Reflecting our faith in the Resurrection, our prayers are directed to our loving and ever-merciful God, whom we ask to receive into his kingdom of new and eternal life those who have paid the last full measure so that others might live, prosper and be free,” he continued.

Those officers fallen in the line of duty show us that “violence” is around us, the cardinal admitted in his homily. “We recognize unfortunately that violence is also a part of life,” he said, yet “we must never let it change us.”

He reflected on the first reading of the martyrdom account of St. Stephen, insisting that there was “more to the story” than an unjust death.

The officers who “stand in harm’s way” in defense of human dignity witness to “the great hope that there is a better way,” he added. “Your lives and your service are a great witness to that hope,” he told the officials in attendance at the Mass.

Ultimately, these officers are motivated by love, the cardinal stressed: “their love of their families to be sure, and also their love for the community, their selfless love for those they do not even know, for those who may not even like or appreciate them, but for whom they are willing to risk their own lives.”

“This love is reflected in all of the routine day in and day out challenges they face all the time.”

More from DC’s Blue Mass honoring law enforcement & 1st responders: bagpipers in the preliminary procession playing “Minstrel Boy” pic.twitter.com/NRAdIq0kwA

— Matthew Hadro (@matthadro) May 2, 2017

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Washington D.C., Aug 15, 2017 / 12:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Today, Catholics around the world mark the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, commemorating the end of her earthly life and assumption into Heaven. But while the feast day is a relatively new one… […]