Editorials - Catholic Sentinel

Choose solidarity and protect your neighbor

Choosing to practice solidarity is not a game of politics. Living solidarity requires self-sacrifice as Christ sacrificed himself for us on the cross. Let us remember the commandment that Jesus left us, "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Mt 22:39).
Sentinel news via email

I want to remind you of one more way to get Catholic news in western Oregon — our email newsletter.
To protect life

A few local Catholics are unnecessarily chary over giving names and contact information when they sign up for Mass. During this effort to snub the coronavirus pandemic, we ask these folks to overcome their fears and instead act for the common good.
Talk less, listen more

“A riot is the language of the unheard.”

— Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Stanford University, 1967
Lessons for humanity from an inspiring pope on his 100th birthday

Celebrating the Eucharist at St. Pope John Paul II’s tomb in St. Peter’s Basilica on the 100th anniversary of the saint’s birth (May 18), Pope Francis said in his homily that God loves his people, and in times of difficulty visits them by sending a holy man or a prophet. And in the person of Pope John Paul II, we can see a man sent by God. “Today, we can say that the Lord visited his people” (watch: https://bit.ly/3bUZQ64).
Humanity may never again get a chance like this – let’s not squander it

While to a certain degree returning to “business as usual” will not likely happen, that does not mean the vast majority of those who hold most of the world’s wealth and power will not use every advantage at their deposal in trying to hold onto broken, corrupt, unjust systems – what St. Pope John Paul II called “structures of sin” – which feed their greed while starving the morally just aspirations of the world’s poor and vulnerable.
Why I work for the Sentinel

Although raised Lutheran (nobody’s perfect) with obvious ties to the history, beliefs and traditions of the Catholic faith, we really weren’t exposed to Catholic teachings growing up, except for the occasional anecdote or life-lesson from Mrs. Hochstatter up the street — my boyhood friend’s mom. They were parishioners at St. Jude in Eugene. I was a devout attendee of her “cookie baking day” – every Sunday afternoon.
The virus and the Beatitudes

People who try to live the Beatitudes make better choices in life. There’s no reason to think that’s not also true for nations.
Navigating change

When everything changes, we tend to cling to what we know, and can be forgiven for doing so, even if it’s a pew with a slightly obstructed view, gum under the seat and a squeaky kneeler.
Accelerating vaccine development

Creating a new vaccine and bringing it to market typically requires more than a decade of research and clinical testing. Many companies and research groups are working overtime to shorten this timeline dramatically in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
WHY SABBATH MATTERS

Could keeping the Sabbath be an antidote to our over-worked, over-scheduled, consumeristic, “more is always better” culture?
A piping parade

On Mother’s Day at St. Gabriel Parish in Chicago, the tradition was for the men and older boys to march the five blocks from the Knights of Columbus hall to the church proudly wearing their blue Holy Name Society badges with gold fringe led by bagpipers.
No Logic in Religion?

Such theory is an insult to Christ, who spent three years of His public life in teaching definite religious and moral doctrines.
Fragile people living on a fragile planet

As the dreadful coronavirus pandemic clearly illustrates: Life is fragile. In just a matter of a few months, the highly contagious COVID-19 has killed over 225,000 people, sickened many more, eliminated millions of jobs and is threatening to nearly double the number of severely hungry people throughout the world.
Dream of college came true on Mother’s Day

Each Monday night when I returned from classes at the University of Portland, dinner and a note from my husband, Bob, awaited me. It was his way of cheering me on to the college degree I had wanted for many years.
‘Shipmates’

“If we obey God, we must disobey ourselves; and it is in this disobeying ourselves, wherein the hardness of obeying God consists."
Antibodies of solidarity: A message from Catholic Charities leadership

In reflecting on the COVID-19 emergency, Pope Francis recently reminded us that such a crisis “is overcome in the first place by the antibodies of solidarity.” Our commitment to solidarity, he continued, “breaks all the fatalism in which we have immersed ourselves and allows us to return to be the architects and protagonists of a common history.”
Above the fray

Every two years we explain why the Sentinel, indeed the whole Catholic Church, refrains from endorsing or lending aid to this candidate or that. Catholic leaders also refuse to plug for any particular political party.
Catholic Charities staff: Called to row together

It was raining in Rome on the evening of Friday, March 27. The camera caught the raindrops slicing the sky as it followed Pope Francis’ walk into an empty St. Peter’s Square.
Dear Reader

It is day 3,678 of shelter-in-place quarantine, and I might be (at long last) losing my marbles. Granted, I didn’t have many marbles left to lose, but they were mine, okay?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Looking for something older? Try our archive search

Search only accepts letters and numbers.