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HERALD ARTICLES

CARITAS CORNER: Good Catholic Songs

By Andy Barton

Andy Barton 0 191

Let me just get this out of the way:  the band Black Sabbath is not for everyone.  If their choice of band name is not enough to turn off good and proper people, the anecdotes of their excessive living are sufficiently dissuasive.  It is an infamy that stems, in large part, from their lead singer Ozzy Osbourne who, for those of my generation, was the subject of playground legend for biting off the head of a live bat during a concert in 1982 (which is not fiction, by the way).

CARITAS CORNER: Time to Revisit Laudato Si’

By Andy Barton

Andy Barton 0 169

This month marks the eight-year anniversary of Pope Francis’ Encyclical Letter, “Laudato Si’” (On Care for Our Common Home).  When it was initially published in May 2015, it received both praise and criticism from Catholics and non-Catholics alike.  In a somewhat less politically polarized world than the one we are living in today, Francis’ plea for environmental consciousness and care became linked with partisanism.  Progressive, non-Catholics for whom much of the Church’s moral teaching is objectionable, nonetheless praised the letter, while some conservative Catholics took exception, mostly to what were regarded as critiques of capitalism. 

CARITAS CORNER: Lent is the Season for Justice

By Andy Barton

Andy Barton 0 336

On one of those cold, gray afternoons this past February, I ran into a friend at a coffee shop who greeted me with a warning of her sour mood and explained that she was tired of the gloom.  It was the perfect word for those weeks leading up to Lent.  The darkness and cold of the season seeps into our collective psyche and a pervasive gloom seems to settle into our daily lives.

CARITAS CORNER: The Gift of an Orange on Christmas

By Andy Barton

Andy Barton 0 549

One Christmas day, 15 years ago, I sat next to my wife’s grandmother, Marie Vigil, at a family gathering as my kids and their cousins tore through presents with delight and awe.  She watched her family with a smile, laughing occasionally at a child’s outburst of joy and parents’ attempt to maintain order. 

CARITAS CORNER: A Vote Toward Ending Homelessness

By Andy Barton

Andy Barton 0 547

Increasingly, in social settings like dinner parties, the person I am talking to will take a serious tone and say something along the lines of: “This homelessness seems to be getting out of hand.”  Then, with a manner that is genuine in both concern and resignation, they will ask: “What can possibly be done about it?”

I have found over the years that my answer to that question takes far too long. After a while, there is a glance at a watch or scan the room for other conversations. The reasons for homelessness, and the poverty that causes it, make for bad dinner- party conversation.  

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