February, 2008

Washington, DC- The Maryknoll Sisters Congregational Leadership Team issued today the following statement:

"During their visit to Africa, President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush will visit Emusoi Centre, a project of the Maryknoll Sisters in Arusha, Tanzania. Emusoi (or place of discovery and awareness in Maa, the Maasai language) is an ongoing educational project that prepares school-age girls from nomadic tribes for entrance into secondary and tertiary schools. We are certain that President and Mrs. Bush will be deeply impressed by the young women of Emusoi and will see the beauty and strength that we as Maryknoll have seen so often in African cultures.

Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good Executive Director Alexia Kelley is contributing to an ongoing conversation at TPMCafe around E.J. Dionne's new book, Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics After the Religious Right. Her first post is entitled "Gospel Voters' and a Return to Prophetic Faith".

In this posting, Kelley states that "A new movement of Catholics, evangelical and mainline Protestants more interested in speaking truth to power than selling out our faith to win elections is now challenging Democrats and Republicans alike to build a culture of the common good where democracy works for more than a privileged few. We could call these religious Americans -- the new “Gospel Voters” – people of faith guided by biblical admonitions to side with the weak over the strong and to love our neighbors as ourselves."

Bay Area priest and scholar, Robert W. McElroy, explored an ethical framework within the Catholic tradition that might inform a national discussion on the ethics of the Iraq war. The speech, delivered at the University of San Francisco, was entitled, Foundations for a National Ethical Discussion About Iraq. Click here to read the full text of the speech.