The BBC website has an interview with one of the Daughters of Charity who was a witness to the slaying of a priest. The men arrived during morning mass in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, a working-class town near Rouen, northwest of Paris, where the 85-year-old parish...
John Freund, CM
Author
Vincent, Frederic, the Dreams of Youth and WYD
A question for us is what can we do to nourish those dreams in our Vincentian Youth and help them channel their energy.
Participating in WYD via a modern miracle
It has been referred to as a "Catholic Woodstock" and a 21st-century version of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Whatever the description, the expectation is that more than one million youth will make a pilgrimage to Krakow, Poland June 26-31 for World Youth Day. The...
GO To Where The Need Is
Do I actively seek and welcome all to the table?
Something we can all agree on about elections
Tuesdays as a day of prayer and fasting for elections USA
Ozanam on systemic change – little known insights
His insights on what we would call today “systemic change” reveal a profoundly deep thinker and critic of a piecemeal approach to serving the poor.
Vincent – balancing basics
After 50 years of priesthood I still struggle with the issues of balancing basics. Having been ordained in 1965 I was quickly exposed to a spirit of activism. I remember being very caught up with the concept of “leaving God for God.” After all, Vincent expressed that...
Who Do We Represent?
It is no secret that we tend to label people very quickly. No doubt there is some utility to labels even if today they are used like arrows of insult. Labels try to identify who we represent. To my mind labels lead a question for followers of Vincent and Louise. "Who...
What must be done – Framing the questions
Seeds of future systemic changes....Father Gregory Gay, during his twelve years as Superior General, consistently invited us to think beyond what we were accustomed to, especially in terms of collaboration for systemic change. Here are the questions that he presented...
St. Vincent, Kevin Spacey and sending the elevator back down
An elevator goes up, goes down. People get on and off. I live in a large Vincentian community facility where at 78 I like to think I am in the mid-range age group of this community (okay maybe upper). It is no surprise that the elevator is crucial for so many of us....