Skeptical Faith

Google Image My esteem for Pope Francis will come as no surprise to those who read this blog regularly. I believe he is the man for our time, not just for Catholics, but for all humans who want to become more human. I was reminded of this story about the pope by the homilist at an online Mass I recently attended and believe it deserves treatment in this blog, which is principally for people who have given up on God and/or religion. Here’s the story, according to a 2018 online post by Huffpost. “A tearful little boy grappling with big existential questions after the death of his father received some touching words of consolation from Pope Francis. The poignant moment between the pontiff and the child on Sunday highlighted Francis’ enduring emphasis on prioritizing mercy. Emanuele “The child, whom Francis referred to as Emanuele, met the pope during a papal visit to the St. Paul of the Cross parish on the outskirts of Rome. During a question-and-answer session with children of...

Google Image “In a growing shift,” says a recent article in the Des Moines Register, “more than 80 percent of Iowa farmers now say climate change is occurring, with half of growers concerned about its impact on their operations, a new Iowa State University poll shows.” That compares with 68 percent of farmers who held that position in 2011 and 74 percent in 2013. It reached 81 percent last year. What a shift! "Farmers are closer to the weather than most folks,” the director of the poll is quoted as saying. "They’ve been hit with extreme weather event after extreme weather event – floods, drought, derecho – so I’m not surprised that farmers are more aware and more concerned about climate change.” But the article also says farmers are split when it comes to climate-change causes. Only 18 percent say it’s due to human activity; 23 percent say it’s due to “natural causes, 40 percent say it’s a combination of the two and the rest are divided among other choices. Caused by ...

Google Image I fled Him down the nights and down the days; I fled Him down the arches of the years; I fled Him down the labyrinthine ways Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears I hid from Him, and under running laughter. Most of us who are searching for God could find meaning in this poem, written by Francis Thompson in 1890. But it isn’t so much about our search for God as it is about God’s search for us. For some, it may seem an insult to compare God to a “hound.” But the analogy, I believe, is in the doggedness with which God pursues us and our determination to hide from God.   Because Thompson was a Catholic who influenced many Catholic authors, many people who went to Catholic schools are vaguely familiar with this poem and this poet. Full of Failure Thompson’s life was full of failure and rejection. According to Wikipedia, he studied medicine  for nearly eight years at what is now the University of Manchester  in England. But his passion was for...

Google Image In this country, because of the pervasiveness and power of social media, people who are relatively unknown can suddenly become media stars. That’s the case with America’s Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman, age 22, who at the recent presidential inauguration recited a poem about what it means to be America and American. She has been interviewed by practically everyone, and is scheduled to recite a poem at the Super Bowl, of all unexpected places. The inaugural poem itself was wonderful, in my esteem, but the way she recited it was also remarkable in its expressiveness. More than any of the lines of the poem, this optimistic observation struck me. Apparently talking about an America that has been battered by a deadly pandemic and perhaps even deadlier division, she said, “We are not broken but simply unfinished.” This statement, coming from a young African-American woman, appears to me to be generous. I wonder how many Americans would agree, considering that, evidenced...