Harold Beamon Adams Health S-Rehab
Joseph Stewart The Med
Raymond Mott Meth-C
Convalescent/Nursing Homes Mrs. Arlene Hardaway (Parkway Health & Rehab) Mrs. Willie Evelyn Malone, (St. Peter Villa), Mr. Floyd Shavers (Metro Community Care Home) Mrs. Allura Tate, Mrs. Ophelia Jennings (Graceland Manor Nursing Home), Mr. Calvin Ezell (Harper View Nursing Home)
Ill at Home Mrs. Audrey Allen, Mr. Herbert Allen, Joseph Alsandor, Mr. Gerald Bond, Mrs. Toya Booker, Mr. Clifford Crawford, Mrs. Lula Crawford, Mr. Robert Crowley, Mr. William Harris, Mrs. Jacqueline Hayes, Mr. Darrell Hollimon, Mrs. Helen Hoof, Mr. Robert Hooper, Mrs. Mary M. Jones, Mrs. Jenny Marshall, Mrs. Grace Milburn, Mrs. Mary Monroe, Mrs. Maurice McDonald, Mrs. Florine McMillan, Mrs. Maria Pinkston, Mrs. Susie Purdy, Mr. Stanley Robinson, Mrs. Katherine Terry, Mrs. Gwen Walton, Mr. Johnnie Weaver, Mr. Eric Wells, Ms. Alana Wright
We Pray For Those That Have Gone Before Us January 22—January 28: Hortense Blackwell: 1946, Ruby Hillman:1952, Sallie Drew:1957, Eddie Johnson:1969, Walter Samuels:1974, Clyde Thompson: 1985, Warnsby Stegall,Sr.:1987, Sr. M. Killian Pollard, BVM, Sam Murphy:1990, Howard Jackson:1998, Samuel Barnes, Jr.:1999, Richard Mathis, Jr.:2004, Lillian Denton:2006, Ivory Flagg:2007, Daniel Webster Pointer:2008, Helene J. Stansbury: 2009
Editorials Highlighting Spiritual, Social and Political Concerns of Today's Catholics
Let Us Go
Up to the House of the Lord
Our Hearts Are Restless As I celebrated my birthday recently I remembered how 50 years ago I got on a city bus and rode to downtown Detroit to get a Social Security card so I could apply for a summer job. I thought this is a waste of time. This social security stuff is for my grandparents. I just want a job now! But now that I have a Medicare card my concerns are different. I, and others of my generation and older generations, worry whether Medicare will survive long enough to care for us. Medicare needs a significant overhaul but we can let younger generations worry about that.
But I, and others in different economic contexts, worry too much about our own situation and future and not enough about the common good. Americans are worried. As the U. S. Bishops note in their 2011 Labor Day Statement: “Most Americans fear our nation and economy are headed in the wrong direction. Many are confused and dismayed by polarization over how our nation can work together to deal with joblessness and declining wages, debt and deficits, economic stagnation, and global fiscal crises. Workers are rightfully anxious and fearful about the future. All these challenges have economic and financial dimensions, but they also have unavoidable human and moral costs.
This Labor Day we need to look beyond the economic indicators, stock market gyrations, and political conflicts and focus on the often invisible burdens of ordinary workers and their families, many of whom are hurting, discouraged, and left behind by this economy.” Fear reveals an absence of trust. As the Bishops write “Sometimes economic troubles bring out the worst in us. Uncertainty and fear compel us to fight for our own interests and to preserve our own advantages.” As people of faith we are challenged to trust that God will provide for the economic and health needs of all people. God will provide but it is our task to see these blessing are equitably distributed to all. That process is often the hard part and source of conflict. As followers of Jesus we share the message of love. So the Bishops note we enter the debate with a different approach. “We can avoid challenging the motives of others. We can advocate our principles and priorities with conviction, integrity, civility, and respect for others.”
The Bishops do not have a detailed plan to fix the economy. But they do present a radical approach to the policy discussions. “In this continuing discussion on how to allocate scarce resources and share sacrifice and burdens, our faith offers a clear moral criterion: put poor and vulnerable people first. A just framework for future budgets cannot rely on disproportionate cuts in essential services to poor persons. It requires shared sacrifice by all, including raising revenues, eliminating unnecessary military and other spending, and addressing the long-term costs of health insurance and retirement programs fairly.”
So my question for myself and others now residing in the land of Medicare: When facing a serious and likely terminal illness would I consider not requesting every possible medicine and latest technology that might give me a few extra months to live in order that basic medical care would be available to all persons?
“Intelligence and liberty are the human environments most favorable to the deepening of personal conviction of religious truth, and obedience to the interior movements of an enlightened conscience”. Father Isaac Hecker, founder of the Paulist Fathers
Let Us Go
