A young man touches a picture of St. Óscar Romero during an Oct. 13 Mass at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Managua, Nicaragua. The Mass was celebrated for Romero and six other new saints canonized Oct. 14 at the Vatican. (CNS / Reuters / Oswaldo Rivas)
by Christine Schenk
In the midst of so much painful recent news, I am finding it difficult to stay positive. I keep searching for the "best of times" to balance the "worst of times" through which we now seem to be living. If you have the stamina to read through this week's mournful list, you will be rewarded.
- Thirteen states and (probably scores of dioceses) are investigating decades-old claims of clergy sex abuse and cover-up by Catholic bishops.
- As horrendously destructive hurricanes increase in strength, and western wildfires rage out of control, U.S. government leaders have abdicated any responsibility for ameliorating conditions that cause global warming.
- Immigrant children who were forcibly separated from their parents are at greater risk of being adopted in the U.S. without their parents' consent, meaning they may never see their birth families again.
- Our morally compromised president came into his great wealth by gaming the Internal Revenue Service, which apparently never held him or those like him accountable.
- After the bitterest Supreme Court Senate hearing in recent memory, just-barely-confirmed Justice Brett Kavanaugh will face an ethics investigation requested by Chief Justice John Roberts.
Are you depressed yet?
If not, it must be because you, like me, have at least a modicum of faith. St. Paul does tell us, "All things work together unto good for those who love God" (Romans 8:28).
Not some things — all things.