open book

Hispanic Immigration in the NE

Another article on the growing Hispanic immigrant presence in supposedly surprising places, this this time in the NE US

Meanwhile, in New York's Finger Lakes region, "there are tensions between Mexican immigrants and the Puerto Ricans," said Alejandra Molina, a professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva. "You go to (the Spanish-language) Mass and the Puerto Ricans will sit on one side and the Mexican families will sit on the other side."

Longtime residents are generally welcoming in Newburgh, a city of about 28,000, but there remain challenges: a shortage of affordable housing, inadequate health care and nearly nonexistent public transportation. It is not unusual, said Carmen Vazqueztell, director of bilingual education in Newburgh schools, to see Mexican immigrants walking or riding bicycles along country roads at night.

Some see the lack of services as business opportunities to sell Oaxacan groceries, soccer supplies and airfare to Mexico City.

"You drive up and down Broadway and say, 'Wow, look at this new business, and this one and this one and this one,'" Vazqueztell said. "They've really made a mark in this community."

Of course, nothing new, but the revitalization of formerly dead business areas is worth noting. I see it in our area - the main roads leading from our part of town (the south) to downtown are full of empty storefronts which are slowly being filled with businesses, mostly catering to Hispanic customers, and some to Asian (in case you don't know, Fort Wayne has one of the largest concentrations of expatriated Burmese in the country). In our drive on Friday, it was quite noticeable in...Lingonier, I think. (don't quote me. It was one of those towns). The outskirts were, of course, all Arby'd and Wal-Marted, but the downtown, obviously dead for a while, was now filled with shops with Spanish-language signs. Fascinating.

Meanwhile, Sandra sends along this story from the Indianapolis Star and remarks that in her view (I didn't save the note and can't quote directly - of course she said it much better herself!), the diminished role given to Catholic institutions in this story is part of the perspective that would like to convince Latinos that being "American" = being "not Catholic." Am I misquoting you, Sandra?

The Rev. Samuel Ruiz says the cross, with its vertical and horizontal intersecting beams, is more than just a sacred symbol of the Christian faith.

He sees it as a fitting symbol for his ministry to Indianapolis' immigrant Hispanic community: Point them upward to God, while helping them get by here on Earth.

Ruiz, who is pastor of the Hispanic ministry at Emmaus Lutheran Church on the Near Southside, leads one of the more than 50 Hispanic congregations in the Indianapolis area.

The job involves not only conducting baptisms and preaching the Gospel but also helping new immigrants find jobs, learn English and keep their kids out of gangs.

"People who are in that survival environment, they need more than a church," said Ruiz, a 57-year-old Cuban immigrant whose congregation numbers about 40 people on Sundays.

More than 20 religious leaders, Ruiz among them, have banded together to form the Alliance of Hispanic Pastors in Indianapolis, which involves clergy from Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran and other denominations.

While Hispanic pastors say they serve both spiritual and earthly needs, it is often down-to-earth problems such as unemployment, hunger or immigration problems that bring new arrivals to the church doorstep.

Aiding and Abetting

Ohio law  "enforcement" helped cover up abuse

In a review of thousands of court and diocese documents and interviews with dozens of police officers, judges, prosecutors, victims, and advocates, the investigation found:

In five cases, police officers refused to arrest or investigate priests suspected of sexually abusing children. One longtime Toledo police chief pressured subordinates not to arrest priests.

In three cases that did result in formal investigations, authorities blocked the release of the case files to the public. Unlike convicted sex offenders, those priests could now pass background checks and have access to children without ever divulging their pasts.

In one case that did make it to sentencing, a judge agreed to a jail term for a priest far lighter than commonly given to other pedophiles convicted of similar crimes.

And in three cases, police and child-welfare caseworkers delayed or dismissed investigations of suspected pedophiles who were priests.

In understanding what has become the biggest scandal to engulf the American Catholic church in generations, victims' advocates say one issue left unexposed is the role of civil authorities in helping to minimize or hide the criminal actions of pedophiles who wore priestly collars.

The details are important to keep in mind, but the pattern shouldn't be news to anyone, and not just in relationship to sexual abuse, and not just in relationship to Catholic clergy.  How many clerical DUI's and solicitation charges have been covered up or expunged over the years? How often has law enforcement and the judicial system cooperated with the privilged and the powerful to conceal their crimes and erase their records? A lot, of course.

In the case of the Church, all so that the appearance of "scandal" might be avoided. Well, that worked, didn't it?

So..

why do you think the mouth is a baby's primary sensory organ?

I spend a lot of time thinking about that, which makes sense considering I spend a lot of time scouring the floor for small object and dried-out, rock hard toast crumbs.

As I observe babies, I'm always trying to figure out, not just the how's of their development, but the why's...which are usually a whacky and probably unacceptable combination of theology and evolutionary theory.

For example, I decided a long time ago that the reason human infants aren't born so ready to rock and roll as other mammals is because God wants us to develop our abilities in relationship. He wants our eyes to strengthen and focus as we gaze upon and study other human faces. He wants us to learn to communicate in a give and take of listening and responding. He wants us to be taught, carefully and with patience, and He wants those who teach us to learn about sacrifice and patience.

From the beginning, then, we know, not only that we are "I," but that we are "us," as well.

But this oral thing has me stumped, because, it seems so unsafe, on the face of it. The only thing I can figure is that it ensures the baby will get some kind of food even if it's neglected, as it shoves everything into its mouth. But that still doesn't seem to compensate for the danger factor.

Any ideas?

Book Report

Time for my own.

Last week, I read God's Agents (still linked over there on the right, as well), which is an excellent account of the Jesuits in England through the reign of Elizabeth up to the Gunpowder Plot.

So you see, it's not  a general history of Catholics in England during Elizabeth's reign, nor is it simply focused on Guy Fawkes and his co-conspirators. Alice Hogge's approach is borne of the fact that you can't really understand the Gunpowder Plot or its consequences for Catholics, and particularly the Jesuits, unless you've unpacked the Jesuit mission in England, with a particular eye to the conflict between loyalty to the Queen and loyalty to the Pope that they were forced to confront and which nurtured the suspicion of them over decades. What was interesting to me in the book, among other points, was her elucidation of the conflicts between the Jesuits and other English priests, and the entire, layered complexity of the determination to blame the Plot on the Jesuits.

(Hogge is the descendant of a recusant family, so while she is certainly an objective historian, the understanding of the Catholic position comes through loud and clear).

(You may remember that I asked a couple of weeks ago about fiction rooted in this era. We didn't come up with many titles, did we? Does anyone else find that odd? You'd think that the high drama of the period - which includes disguises, cunning,ingenious hides (constructed by Nicholas Owen, of course), loyalty oaths, an evil priest-catcher, women crushed under boards, escapes from prison and a dried-up virgin Queen would be the stuff of marvelous fiction. I'd read it. Hey - maybe I'll write it!)

What was odd, of course, was reading this book about fringe, radical members of a religious minority in England ready and willing to commit a violent act against the people and government, a religious minority whose leader, early on, had, indeed supported the military efforts of other nations to depose the monarch - yes, reading this in the weeks after the London terrorist bombing. Hogge herself addresses the issue in a page or two at the very end- not in relation to the bombings of course, but in relation to the issue of Muslims and violent Islamists in Europe and England in general. Her point? That it is quite possibly for minority resentments to grow to the point of violence, but that the majority walks a fine line in attempting to protect itself, as well.

This is the 400th anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot (an interesting nexus for those in London right now) - no coincidental publication of this book, then, I assume!

Here's a page on the Parliament site on the Plot

And Here's a list of events commemorating the Plot this year. Interesting.

Spot the Error

The Lady in the Pew would like to invite you to a contest...

The Anchoress has a poll she would like you to take

No Miracle of Sharing here..

In fact, no mention of the Gospel in the homily we heard. At all!

We went to the traditionally German parish, a little gem of Gothic, complete with German-language stations and so on. The church was fuller than normal, and the priest wasn't the pastor. A younger fellow, happy to be there.

Turns out there was a big family reunion of a big German family, and this Mass was a part of the celebration. Not a terribly big deal and not worth making an issue about,  but still, not really appropriate, no matter how important the family is to the parish.

The priest was a son of the family, a religious order priest from out of town. His homily began with allusions to the first reading, and the importance of going to God for our needs. Then he proceeded with the theme he'd begun Mass with (we really need to come up with a name for the spiel that priests way to often give at the beginning of Mass -either before the Signo fo the Cross or right after - Homilette? I don't know. I don't like it, it's not in the rite, it disrupts what should be prayer, gets everyone in the mode of being instructed rather than right in the flow of prayer - our prayer - and I wish every priest who indulges in it would step back and stop it right now.

Oh, anyway - his homilette was on the wisdom of ancestors, so he picked that up again, and then, referring to a notebook, went through what several of the elderly relatives had responded in answer to his question of, "What is most important in life?" Or something.

Okay, give them their family celebration, but it's still not really right to do it during the Sunday liturgy - and, of course, any Sunday parish liturgy focused on a particular group or demographic is problematic, period. It draws attention to divisions and discrete parts rather than to what binds us in Christ, not just with each other, but with every single Catholic throughout the world.

So, if you want to see what Miracles of Sharing stories have already been...shared, look here. Or add your 2cents here.

Oh, these babies...

What a terrible mess...

When Stephen F. Melinger visited the newborn twins he was adopting at Methodist Hospital in April, health care workers became alarmed. On one occasion, the New Jersey man showed up with a live bird in his pocket. On another, the shoulder of his shirt was stained with bird feces.

After Melinger, a single, 58-year-old schoolteacher, indicated he was planning to drive the infants back to New Jersey by himself, child welfare authorities were called. He was unprepared to parent, hospital workers believed, and didn't even seem to realize the babies would need feedings every three hours.

Melinger's actions prompted a child welfare case in Marion Superior Court that has raised questions about Surrogate Mothers Inc., the Indiana company that arranged the infants' births to a married woman from South Carolina, and about the legality of the Hamilton County adoptions, which the company also handled.

The adoptions were approved despite the absence of a legally required study of Melinger's New Jersey home or a period of preadoption supervision by an Indiana-licensed agency, court records show.

This case could test Indiana's lack of regulation of surrogate births and laws governing the strict confidentiality of adoption records that prevent even judges and social workers from gaining access.

Brave new world, indeed...

A Passion for Preaching

The Globe on Archbishop O'Malley

Two years into his tenure as archbishop of Boston, O'Malley's public profile has largely been defined by a few key actions: his settlement of sex abuse cases, his sale of the archbishop's mansion and move into the cathedral rectory, his unsuccessful campaign against gay marriage, and his controversial parish closings program.

But he has quietly been defining another profile, or at least attempting to do so, through relentless preaching to churchgoing Catholics, who make up perhaps a small but influential fraction -- less than 20 percent -- of the estimated 2 million Catholics in the 144 cities and towns that make up the archdiocese. Throughout the two years, most weekends, he has said Mass at least two parishes, and he has also preached at large retreat-like gatherings of Catholics, and to inmates in prison.

Through his preaching, O'Malley is sketching out an agenda for the archdiocese that has nothing to do with cleaning up the mess created by the abuse crisis, bringing order to the diocese's troubled administrative and financial structures, or battling public policy measures increasingly at odds with Catholic teaching -- even though those items have consumed much of his time.

In his homilies, which he drafts by hand late at night after long days of meetings, O'Malley focuses almost exclusively on spiritual matters, offering faith in Jesus as a solution to a culture beset by spiritual hunger and moral ambiguity. He tends to stick to broad descriptions of Christian faith, rarely offering a list of do's and don'ts or exhorting worshipers to specific courses of action. His general themes, he says, have been the importance of the Eucharist, prayer, and church.

[snip]

O'Malley often jokes about the poor quality of Catholic preaching -- a frequent complaint of Catholic worshipers, and historically less of a priority in Catholic worship services than in many Protestant congregations. O'Malley said he is concerned about the quality of Catholic preaching, and is contemplating organizing workshops for local priests. ''Sometimes people will come up to me and say, 'Oh, bishop, that's the best sermon I've heard in my life,' " O'Malley said. ''It used to fuel my vanity. Now it just instills panic in me."

That last sentence is amusing and truthful.

Has anyone heard Archbishop O'Malley preach in a parish setting?

Les Enfants du Paradis

French women are having babies...

The result is that more than in any other European country, French families now have three or more children. Germany and Switzerland also give generous family benefits, and in Sweden 77 percent of the children under 6 are in crèches, but birth rates stay well under that in France.

While the birthrate of immigrants in Europe is nearly everywhere higher than for women of nonimmigrant origin, the French phenomenon of enlarging families is particularly noticeable in the middle and professional classes

Rocky Road

On the last Sunday of July, a traditional climb (barefoot) to the summit of Croagh Patrick, where St. Patrick iis said to have fasted for 40 days in 441.

More on the pilgrimage