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May 2, 2022, Washington, D.C. – Pope Francis’ message of the need to reach out to people on the margins is “spiritually exhilarating” to those who work directly with people suffering from poverty and marginalization. That was the perspective of Sister Donna Markham, OP, PhD, who, as President and CEO of Catholic Charities USA, has dedicated her own life to reaching out to people in need.
In an article in a recent issue of Our Sunday Visitor, Sister Donna said Pope Francis’ message was credible because of his own work with people in poverty. “His whole life in Latin America has put him face to face with people in abject poverty,” she told Our Sunday Visitor. “He knows how to engage with them.”
Sister Donna experienced the pope’s dedication to struggling people first-hand when, in September 2015, she accompanied him on a tour of agencies that serve people in poverty in New York and Washington, D.C. She was present for his visit to Catholic Charities, when he visited people who were homeless; for his address to the United Nations; and for his visit with immigrants at Queen of Angels School in Harlem.
Read the article about Pope Francis and his concern for people suffering from poverty.
Feature photo: Pope Francis addresses dignitaries on the White House Lawn during his 2015 tour of the United States, including New York and Washington, D.C. The photo was taken by Sister Donna Markham, OP, PhD, President and CEO of Catholic Charities USA, who was invited to several events during the pope’s visit. Adrian Dominican Sisters File Photo
May 2, 2022, Adrian, Michigan – A statement by Mahatma Gandhi that there is one truth but many paths to that truth “seems to be the consensus of millions, even billions, of people in the 21st century.”
That was the opening statement of Sister Susan Van Baalen, OP, in her April 21, 2022, spirituality presentation on world religions, “One Truth, Many Paths.” The live streamed event was part of a monthly series of presentations on spirituality sponsored by the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Spirituality Committee.
Noting that we are “all on our personal journey,” Sister Susan invited her audience to open themselves to the spiritual gifts of other faith traditions – while maintaining their fidelity to their own faith tradition, the one that God is calling them to follow.
“Even if I believe my tradition is exactly right for me, I can also believe that their tradition is exactly right for them,” she said. She described this as an inclusive stance to world religions. A further step on this path, she added, is religious pluralism, which leads people to “embrace some of the rich practices” of other traditions while remaining true to their own.
Sister Susan said that most world religions have common values. “There are as many commonly used names for the union with God as there are faith traditions,” she said. “In each, [religious practice] stems from a journey of letting go of all that is not of God – all thoughts, words, and actions of this world – and living in unconditional love.”
Sister Susan spent much of her talk describing the different practices and common principles of Eastern spiritualities, including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism and the “people of the book,” including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Watch Sister Susan’s entire presentation below.