July 2005

The Guardian: Vatican in terror dispute with Israel, John Hooper in Rome and Chris McGreal in Jerusalem, Saturday July 30, 2005.
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Via Worldchanging we learn that the Catholic Church in the Philipines has built a system whereby impoverished families with low-cost cell phones can use text messaging to haggle for food and goods–and for these folks, even a slightly cheaper price on the essentials makes a big difference.

The subtext of many items on Pie and Coffee is an “integral” philosophy, and this is a great example of that: the faith community has the infrastructure to build the trading system, and that system strengthens both individuals and the faith community.

Tying systems or ideas together makes them stronger and more effective.

Which brings us to Ken Wilber.
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. . . and other items.

• From St. John’s parish bulletin this week:
  

  Free Meal: Our anniversary week was busy. Last year, we were standing outside the church wondering if anyone would come to break bread, and enjoy soup, with us. This year, we barely had enough soup. “Success,” in this regard, is not needing a free meal, but there is a need now, and we are blessed to be able to serve and to offer a place of physical, emotional, and spiritual nourishment. We are always grateful for your monetary donations as well as lunch meats, tuna fish, mustard, mayo, coffee, and . . . Thank you!

• Speaking of Darfur-related fasts, there has been a fast in Lafayette Park for most of July.
• In I’m So Blue, Barbara Solow pays tribute to the progressive South.

This happened last month: Faiths praying and walking together today for peace in the Middle East. (I am too lazy to write up any more than this….) Read the rest of this entry »

Catholic Peace Fellowship has created a full-color counter-recruitment poster for Catholic schools.

Pie and Coffee has created a black & white, high-contrast version, suitable for printing, photocopying, and posting around your neighborhood.

• before_you_enlist.pdf (101kb)

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Weekly items:

• South Bend Tribune: Day shelter a good idea to fill a void:
  

  OUR OPINION

  We were glad to see the South Bend Common Council give its OK to a proposed day shelter for homeless men.

  The request came from Catholic Worker of Michiana, which plans to open a facility in a vacant building at 744 S. Main St.

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The Worcester Telegram & Gazette had a long, front-page article on Worcester’s anti-panhandling campaign this Sunday, written by Taryn Plumb. The article gave lots of space to those who disagree with the city’s plan:

“Why are we wasting so much time, effort and money on a few panhandlers?” asked community advocate Peter Stefan, who owns Graham Putnam & Mahoney Funeral Home on Main Street. “We’re turning an M&M into a basketball. We have people dying of AIDS, people starving, people who can’t afford to buy medicine for their kids. I don’t get it.”

And the article quoted a few words from the street:

“It’s legal to stand here and say hello,” Jimmy Fahey said, standing alongside Chandler Street. “You’re not giving money to someone to buy drugs. You’re helping someone keep their head above water.”

His friend, a panhandler who did not wish to be identified, was a bit more indignant.

“Panhandling is not the answer,” he said mockingly. “Not the answer to what? What do they know about my problems?”

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Weekly items, old and new:

• A belated happy Canada Day and Independence Day to all. Pie and Coffee contributor Kaihsu Tai’s photo of a stop sign in English and Inuktituk is part of Wikipedia’s Nunavut Highways entry. (Kaihsu, like Talking Heads, has been on the Road to Nowhere.)
• Claire Schaeffer-Duffy comments on Worcester’s anti-poor attitude in National Catholic Reporter. “The gist of the debate seems to be we must hide the poor because their presence diminishes the community. My experience at the Catholic Worker has proved quite the opposite.”
• In a letter, Karen House Catholic Worker of St. Louis, Mo., writes:
  

  Our big news, of course, is that in the fall we purchased Karen House and the adjoining Church building from the Archdiocese . . . . Currently, the Church is being rented out, and we are placing the Karen House building into a property trust. So we own our building now!

• Mike True recommends this article about the draft by Frida Berrigan, and Johan Galtung’s testimony from the recently-concluded World Tribunal on Iraq in Istanbul. “Criminal acts have to be planned in secret . . . by small gangs with cojones, in Bush’s words. They do not benefit from the dialogue of open agreements openly arrived at in an open society, also known as a democracy. Democracy’s traitors easily become its fools.”
• The most entertaining essay title I’ve seen in a while is Anthony Mansueto’s Why the New Pope Isn’t Catholic–and Why I Still Am. The gist, as I gather it: the last two popes have been crypto-Protestants. Somehow, I remain sceptical.
• “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” is coming to the Worcester Public Library July 27. Is this the film’s squarest venue ever? (One old Worcesterite tells me that “The last time they showed it at the Palladium, the audience caused $10,000 worth of damage.”)
• Worcester Magazine continues its profiles of local activists with a piece on Cha-cha Connor. Also: Doug Chapel proposes a better use of the city’s promotional budget–fund “dedicated, driven, obsessed creative types to really focus on creating events to draw people to Worcester!”