The Christian story and the world’s story

I can’t remember precisely when I fell in love with history, but it was surely in the first innings of my reading life.

Granted, this was easier in the days when history was written and taught as, well, history – meaning drama, heroes and villains, great arguments, wars and revolutions, and all that other dead white male stuff. I was fortunate in that my third-grade teacher, the estimable School Sister of Notre Dame Sister Miriam Jude (then a postulant known as Sister Florence) had sold World Book encyclopedias on the side during her days as a Philadelphia public school teacher and talked my parents into buying a set.

Thanks to the World Book, I was off to the historical races. Then there were Random House’s “Landmark Books,” wonderful history-for-young-readers, written by real historians, not overly dumbed-down, and costing something like $.95 or $1.25 for a hardback. I owned dozens, and read more than a few of them several times. Thus prepared, high school and college history were fun, not drudgery, and to this day, reading good narrative history is a never-failing pleasure.

History, that is, like Robert Bruce Mullin’s “A Short World History of Christianity,” recently published by Westminster John Knox Press. It is no easy business, getting two millennia of Christian history into 283 readable pages. But Professor Mullin has done the job, in a readable style that makes the fruits of his impressive ample scholarship available to a general audience.

Mullin is a master at sketching brief portraits of key figures in the Christian story. He neatly disentangles the great – and often daunting – trinitarian, christological, and mariological controversies of the first centuries in a thoroughly accessible way. Unlike many, perhaps most, historians of Christianity, he understands that the Christian contest with Islam has been a defining experience of Christian history, ever since the armies of Islam broke out of the Arabian peninsula and swept across what was, in the seventh century, one of the vital centers of the Christian world – North Africa.

His description of the accomplishments of the often-deplored Middle Ages is both just and enlightening, as are his depictions of the Reformation, the Catholic Counter- Reformation, and the European wars of religion. His attention to the tremendous missionary expansion of Christianity in the 19th and 20th centuries is a useful reminder, in this Pauline year, that great Christian missions didn’t stop with St. Paul – or St. Francis Xavier, for that matter.

What’s the relationship between the story told so well by Robert Bruce Mullin and the history I inhaled with those World Books? When history was taught properly, the sequence was usually organized by chapter headings that read something like “Ancient Civilizations,” “Greece and Rome,” “the Dark Ages,” the Middle Ages,” “Renaissance and Reformation,” “the Age of Reason,” “the Age of Revolution,” “the Age of Science,” “the Space Age,” or some such. From a Christian perspective, however, that is history read on its surface.

For there is another way to schematize the human story. Its chapter headings would run something like this: “Creation,” “Fall,” “Promise,” “Prophecy,” “Incarnation,” “Redemption,” “Sanctification,” “Proclamation,” “the Kingdom of God.” That story – the biblical story, if you will – does not, however, run parallel to the “real” story as taught in the history textbooks. The story that begins with “Creation” and culminates in “the Kingdom of God” is the human story, read in its proper depth and against its most ample horizon. For the central truth of history is that history is His- story: the story of God’s coming into time and our learning to take the same path that God takes toward the future.

In “A Short World History of Christianity,” Robert Bruce Mullin offers us, not a theological interpretation of history but a concise narrative of the church’s life in the world – the church’s life between “Redemption” and “the Kingdom of God.” To know that story is to see how, in specific personalities and communities, both the Spirit promised to the church and the ancient enemy have been at work, shaping what the world regards as “history.” It’s a story every literate Catholic should know.

George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D. C. We are all in this together

Question: What do the economy, the presidential election and “High School Musical” all have in common?

Answer: We are all in this together.

We are all well aware of the turn in the economy. The stock market, banking and credit and our sense of fiscal security seem quite uncertain. This is true no matter if you were “Joe the Plumber” or “Bill the Billionaire.” Whatever happens next, we are all in this together.

We recently celebrated our nation’s democracy through the election process. We each had a role to play in ensuring a peaceful transition of our nation’s leadership. We had a voice in our future. And, whether “our” candidate lost or won we will share in a common future together.

The release of the Disney movie “High School Musical 3: Senior Year,” offers another opportunity for a reprise of the all-too-familiar anthem “We’re All In This Together.” The storyline, very popular with tween-agers (young people ages 10-12), follows the adventures of the Wildcats of East as they prepare for graduation.

Each of these examples offers us a glimpse of the interconnected nature of the human community. As Catholics, our understanding of God as loving community of three Persons helps us to recognize that all of us are one human community: the Body of Christ – the church.

Unfortunately, when it comes to our sinful attitudes, words and actions, we try to “downplay” their seriousness by telling ourselves that “nobody was hurt.” Our individual sin does have consequences on those around us – diminishing our own capability to recognize the damage done not only to our honor but also to the integrity of our relationships. Sin brings alienation in a world desperately seeking harmony. Too often, when we are able to note the ills of the world around us, we are quick to point the finger towards the other guy – an impersonal institution – anywhere else to deflect acknowledgement of our own culpability. It is easy to accept the notion that I personally value equality and find that bias due to race, gender or sexual orientation might be somebody else’s problem. Yet, this notion is rejected when we use inappropriate humor that offends the dignity and worth of a person created in God’s own image and likeness.

It is easy to bemoan the poor and disadvantaged peoples in Third World countries and how our systems oppress them. But our choices in wearing the latest fashion or drinking the trendiest coffee while ignoring the work conditions and unjust wage of the workers make us accomplices in injustice.

Bemoaning injustice and inequality can become part of our talk at a water-cooler or a cocktail party. We can wonder when leaders, the government, or even the church might fix the problems, and, therefore, wash our hands of our own responsibility.

Yet, the wisdom found within “High School Musical” reminds us: We’re all in this together. Once we know that we are all stars made in the image of God – and see that we’re all in this together – we better understand that love of neighbor is inseparable from love of God (cf. CCC, 1878). And it shows when we stand hand in hand (to) make our dreams come true.

Solutions to the world’s ills will not be resolved in individualistic heroic actions. Our world will change only when we join together. Our joining together is ensured to succeed if we collaborate to connect in with the plan and design of our Creator.

And, this is the “Good News:” No matter how unfair the world seems, God is with us challenging us to be in right relationship with one another. The life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is a sign to us that God joins along with us in singing “We are all in this together.”

D. Scott Miller is the coordinator for adolescent faith formation for the Archdiocese of Baltimore. This is the fifth in a series of articles about the six-week fall session of Why Catholic? Church view on same-sex marriage prevails; other ballot efforts fail

WASHINGTON – In voting on 2008 ballot questions across the country, the ’s view against same-sex marriage prevailed, but most Catholic efforts to influence voting related to abortion, assisted suicide, embryonic stem-cell research and gambling failed.

Voters approved California’s Proposition 8, which would amend the state constitution to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman, by a 52 percent to 48 percent margin, although opponents said the counting of absentee ballots could change the outcome. Similar proposals were approved in Arizona (57 percent to 43 percent) and Florida (62 percent to 38 percent).

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles thanked the Catholic community for the passage of Proposition 8 in a Nov. 5 statement. He said the success also was the result of “an unprecedented coalition of many faith communities and other citizens who understood the importance of maintaining the bedrock institution of marriage as has been lived out since recorded history.”

California is one of three states where same-sex marriage is currently allowed, and the California bishops had said the amendment would affirm “the historic, logical and reasonable definition of marriage” without removing any benefits from other contractual arrangements such as civil unions or domestic partnerships.

On a range of other issues, however, voters turned down the church-supported position on ballot questions.

In Connecticut, where the Supreme Court ruled Oct. 10 that the state’s ban on same- sex marriage was unconstitutional, 59 percent of voters turned down an effort to call for a constitutional convention, where the question could have been reconsidered. The state’s Catholic bishops had urged a vote in favor of the convention.

By a 47 percent to 53 percent margin, California voters rejected a church-supported proposal to require parental notification, or a judicial bypass, 48 hours before a minor’s abortion. A South Dakota measure that would have banned abortions in the state, except for victims of rape and incest, also failed, 55 percent to 45 percent.

In Colorado, Catholic leaders had taken a neutral approach to the Colorado Personhood Amendment, which would have defined “any human being from the moment of fertilization” as a person under the state constitution. Voters rejected the proposed amendment, with only 27 percent for it and 73 percent against it.

The Colorado Catholic bishops said the proposal did not “provide a realistic opportunity for ending or even reducing abortions” in the state because it would be interpreted under current federal law and could have resulted in a reaffirmation of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision legalizing abortion.

Washington became the second state in the nation to allow physician-assisted suicide with a 59 percent to 41 percent vote in favor of Initiative 1000. The state’s Catholic bishops had said the proposal did not have adequate safeguards and its approval would threaten “the dignity of all human life regardless of frailty or social definitions of usefulness.”

The results were mixed on proposals to expand opportunities for gambling in Maryland, Arkansas and Ohio.

A move to allow up to 15,000 slot machines in Maryland, with funds targeted for use in public education, had been strongly opposed by Catholic leaders but was OK’d by voters, 59 percent to 41 percent. The Catholic Conference of Ohio had opposed a proposal in that state to permit one privately owned casino in southwest Ohio, and it failed, 37 percent to 63 percent.

Bishop Anthony B. Taylor of Little Rock, whose diocese covers the entire state of Arkansas, had not announced his position on a ballot question that would have authorized a state-run lottery to aid higher education. It was approved by a 64 percent to 36 percent margin. Bishop Taylor also took no public stand on another, more controversial state proposal. Act 1, a legislative initiative, would ban unmarried couples from serving as adoptive or foster parents in the state. It was approved by 57 percent of state voters, with 43 percent opposed.

By a margin of 63 percent to 37 percent, voters in Ohio followed the advice of the state Catholic conference in agreeing to keep interest on “payday loans” capped at 28 percent. If the proposal had not been accepted, the rate for such loans could have risen as high as 371 percent.

California Catholic leaders had urged voters to defeat Proposition 6, the so-called “Safe Neighborhoods Act,” which would have increased penalties for gang crimes and eliminated the possibility of bail for illegal immigrants. It failed, 30 percent to 70 percent.

Was it race, or something else, that led to an Obama victory?

While supporters can scarcely contain their euphoria over Sen. ’s historic win of the U.S. presidency – the first for a black man – I am still stuck chewing on the fact that Obama was a major political party’s nominee for president in the first place, let alone the victor in the 2008 epic race for the White House.

I am surprised to see it happen in my own lifetime. I can only imagine how Amanda Jones, the 109-year-old daughter of a man born into slavery, felt when she cast her vote for Obama in Bastrop County, , in early voting in October.

One white woman, a die-hard Republican and huge George W. Bush supporter who voted for Obama in early voting in West Virginia, was quoted by someone close to her as saying, “After growing up in a seriously segregated society but being appalled by it, I wanted to take advantage of my first chance to vote for a black man for president.”

Does an Obama win, which did not happen without major support from whites too, signal the beginning of a new and better era in race relations in the U.S.? Why does race matter so much when people have to decide whom to trust?

Anyone who thinks race is not a major factor in elections is naive.

But those who think that African-Americans, for example, voted for a black man solely because he looks like them miss the point too; their choice was more complicated than that.

Race matters because many racial groups in the U.S. share common experiences. As such, while you may not know another’s personality and personal history, one look can speak volumes about what that person probably was – or wasn’t – subjected to.

And it won’t be the experiences of joy and contentment that will matter most; it will be the experiences of pain.

People want pain to stop at all cost, especially the pain that causes premature death and disability, diminishes the quality of life and creates hopelessness.

In the U.S., countless people across all racial lines are hurting – losing their sons and daughters in a war declared because of erroneous reports that Iraq was harboring weapons of mass destruction, or facing massive home foreclosures and reduced retirement funds and medical benefits.

Even three years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the snub of a president who continued his vacation three days into New Orleans’ death throes still cuts deep for countless Americans.

Before pain can be stopped, however, it first has to be acknowledged. And if it is experienced by one who has power over it, the odds are even greater that it will be dealt with swiftly.

So the Obama victory isn’t just about a black man excelling in an arena dominated for centuries by whites; it is about a candidate who spoke directly to people along their racial lines and convinced them that he understood – even felt – their pain, and would do what was within his power to promote healing.

Several groups that support Obama wanted to be described along racial lines too, and in categories that speak of their issues. On Obama’s official Web site they call themselves First Americans for Obama (Native Americans), Jewish Americans for Obama, European and Mediterranean Americans for Obama, African-Americans for Obama, Arab-Americans for Obama, Latinos … Asian & Pacific Islanders … Americans Abroad … Americans With Disabilities … Kids – even Republicans and Sportsmen – for Obama!

I think the Obama campaign was smart to speak directly to people about what was obvious – who they are, where they hurt and what he wants to do to help.

And, in return, they conferred on him what is still the highest office in the world: the presidency of the .

Carole Norris Greene, associate editor in the CNS special projects department.

Catholic leaders congratulate Obama, offer prayers for administration

WASHINGTON – Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago, president of the U.S. Catholic bishops, congratulated President-elect Barack Obama on his “historic election” Nov. 4 as the first African-American to win the White House.

“The people of our country have entrusted you with a great responsibility,” the cardinal said in a letter to Obama on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “As Catholic bishops we offer our prayers that God give you strength and wisdom to meet the coming challenges.”

But he also said, “We stand ready to work with you in defense and support of the life and dignity of every human person.”

In Nov. 5 statements, blog postings and other comments, Catholic leaders praised Obama for his history-making victory. Some said the Democrat’s win “best reflected” Catholic values “of hope, personal responsibility and care for the common good.”

But others, including Catholic bishops, said they hoped the new administration would make decisions that show a “commitment to the sanctity and dignity of all human life.” Still other Catholics, including pro-life leaders, expressed profound disappointment that a candidate who supports abortion rights was elected and vowed that the pro-life movement would grow in strength.

In his letter to Obama, released by the USCCB in Washington, Cardinal George said that “the country is confronting many uncertainties. We pray that you will use the powers of your office to meet them with a special concern to defend the most vulnerable among us and heal the divisions in our country and our world.”

Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl of Washington said in a statement: “We offer our prayers today for our nation and for our newly elected leaders, including President- elect Obama, as they take on their new responsibilities.”

“We rejoice with the rest of our nation in the significance” of Obama’s victory, Archbishop Wuerl said. “May our nation’s new leaders be guided in their decisions with wisdom and compassion and at the heart of all of their decisions may there be a deep respect for and commitment to the sanctity and dignity of all human life and support for the most vulnerable among us.”

In an e-mail response to a Catholic News Service query, Rick Gebhardt, founder of Knights for Obama, said: “I believe we made a difference.”

Patrick Whelan, president of Catholic Democrats, said his organization “is thrilled that Sen. Obama has been elected to the highest office in the land today, and that Sen. Biden will be our first Catholic vice president.” He added that his group “argued all along” that Obama and Biden “were the candidates that best reflected our Catholic values of hope, personal responsibility and care for the common good.”

He said the two Democrats also “best addressed the issues of meeting our energy needs, feeding our families, ensuring access to quality health care, promoting peace and prosperity, and restoring the progress that was made against abortion during the 1990s.”

Father Frank Pavone, national director of , said in a statement the electorate made “a grave mistake,” pointing to a comment Obama made during the campaign that the priest paraphrased by saying that “he does not know when a human being starts to have human rights.”

“Governing is about protecting human rights; to do it successfully, you have to know where they come from, and when they begin. The president-elect has already failed that test miserably,” Father Pavone said, adding that the pro-life movement will grow in strength.

“We will keep marching toward that pro-life America we seek, and won’t stop until we get there,” he said.

In a posting on dotCommonweal, a blog run by the Catholic magazine Commonweal, journalism professor Paul Moses said: “John F. Kennedy blazed the trail for Catholics. But it has taken nearly 50 years for another Catholic to follow him to victory on a national ticket,” with Biden winning the vice presidency.

He noted that “Biden had to weather some serious criticism from bishops about his views on abortion – and his bad theology on the subject.”

Moses, who teaches at Brooklyn College in New York and the journalism graduate school at the City University of New York, said Biden’s hometown of Scranton, Pa., “became a national emblem of the fight for Catholic votes.”

Despite Scranton Bishop Joseph F. Martino’s condemnation of the Obama-Biden ticket because of its support for abortion and “Catholics who supported it,” Moses said that there, “as in the nation, a majority of Catholics” supported the winning ticket.

“It would appear from the pre-election polls that more than half of American Catholics voted for Barack Obama. How could they do that when their bishops ordered them to vote for John McCain?” said priest-sociologist Father Andrew Greeley in a column in the Chicago Sun-Times daily newspaper. “In fact, no such order was issued, though some bishops came pretty close to it.”

“Some bishops and priests argue that abortion is such a horrible evil that there can be no proportionate reason” to vote for a candidate who supports legal abortion, Father Greeley said.

He argued that view “goes beyond Catholic ethical demands” and said opposition to abortion doesn’t “exhaust the moral obligations of the Catholic social ethic. … Catholics must strive to persuade others by the depth and power of their commitment to life issues.”

McCain supporters at election night rally express disappointment

PHOENIX – Despite the fact their candidate trailed in every major national poll, supporters of Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona still guarded a quiet hope that the “maverick” would pull off a miracle on Election Day.

“I still hope McCain will come back,” said Jeff Kovac, a parishioner at St. Timothy in Mesa, who watched the results pour in at McCain’s election night rally in Phoenix Nov. 4. “I don’t know what we’re going to do if (Sen. Barack) Obama wins.”

A few minutes later came the announcement that the Democratic senator from Illinois had won the presidency, becoming the first African-American to take the White House. “We have come to the end of a long journey,” McCain told supporters assembled outside the Arizona Biltmore, congratulating his opponent for his historic accomplishment.

He underscored Obama’s ability to “inspire millions” to take part in the democratic process.

“His success alone commands my respect,” he added, flanked by his wife, Cindy, and his running mate, Alaska Gov. , and her husband, Todd.

Across the country, Obama gave a victory speech in Chicago’s Grant Park before more than 100,000 people.

“It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America,” Obama said.

“The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep,” he said. “We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America – I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you – we as a people will get there.”

Some of the Catholic McCain supporters at the Phoenix rally said their disappointment in the election results would make them even more committed to their faith.

“It’s time for the church to rise up,” said Kimberly Scoggin, a parishioner at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Tempe. “Catholics need to come back to their core values.”

She told The Catholic Sun, Phoenix’s diocesan newspaper, the Obama victory was a “sad day” for the pro-life movement because of his support for keeping abortion legal.

“But our hope is not in politicians. Our hope is in the almighty God,” she added. “With almighty God, nothing is impossible.”

Her husband, Joe, echoed her sentiments.

“Our hope isn’t in the government. It’s in Jesus Christ,” he said. “I just wish Catholics would vote as one with life as the pre-eminent issue.”

The Scoggins attended the rally with their pastor, Father John Bonavitacola.

“President-elect Obama will not be cozying up to Catholics anytime soon,” he said. “So we’re going to have to make things known to him. That’s not going to be easy, but we’re going to have to stand up for what we believe in.”

Father Bonavitacola underscored the church’s opposition to embryonic stem-cell research, abortion and same-sex marriage.

St. Timothy parishioners Terry and Rosa Biagi, who attended the McCain event with their two daughters, also expressed frustration.

“We’re real disappointed,” Terry Biagi said. “Our general beliefs would be more aligned with McCain.”

Pro-life advocate Tina Torry, author of “Short of a Miracle” – which documents her botched abortion and the subsequent birth of her daughter – also felt let down.

“I’m going to trust God even though we’re disappointed,” she said. “God’s ways are just different and we don’t know.”

Torry said the pro-life movement couldn’t depend on “the law of the land.”

“We have to go out there and reach those people,” she said, referring to pregnant mothers considering an abortion. “We have to keep speaking the truth about abortion. We have to change hearts.”

Catholic voters mirror general electorate in support for Obama

WASHINGTON – Catholics pretty much voted the way the rest of the country did Nov. 4, even backing Democratic Sen. Barack Obama a little more strongly than the electorate overall, according to exit polls.

What the exit polls don’t explain, however, is whether efforts by bishops in some dioceses to direct Catholic voters to base their vote only on the abortion issue are responsible for some deviations from the general trend.

Typically, the majority of Catholic voters mirrors the majority of the electorate overall. But this time, in a couple of battleground states that Obama won but where some bishops were particularly visible on the topic of how to vote, a majority of Catholics backed Republican Sen. John McCain.

Nationwide, 54 percent of Catholics supported Obama and 44 percent voted for McCain. Of the total population, 52 percent voted for Obama and 46 percent for McCain.

By comparison, 52 percent of Catholics in 2004 supported Republican President George W. Bush and 47 percent voted for Democratic Sen. John Kerry. The total vote in 2004 was 51 percent for Bush and 48 percent for Kerry. In 2000 Catholics also lined up with the popular vote and supported Vice President Al Gore by 50 percent to the 47 percent who backed Bush that year. Bush won the electoral vote but not the popular vote.

Political and sociological analysts in several interviews and teleconferences Nov. 5 pointed out that Obama’s vote among Catholics reflected a 7-point increase over the Catholic vote for Kerry.

The exit polls divided voters into “all Catholics” or white, non-Hispanic Catholics. In the latter group, the shift toward the Democratic candidate was less pronounced than among Catholics overall. Fifty-two percent of white Catholics supported McCain, and 47 percent voted for Obama. Majorities of white Catholics also voted for Bush in both his elections, by 56 percent in 2004 and 52 percent in 2000. Approximately 40 percent of U.S. Catholics are Hispanic and another 3 percent are African-American. Asian and Pacific Islanders constitute about 4 percent.

Latinos nationwide voted for Obama by 67 percent to 31 percent for McCain. African-Americans voted for Obama by 95 percent to 4 percent. Asians supported Obama by 62 percent to 35 percent.

In some states, Obama’s gains among Catholics were more substantial than the general picture. In Indiana in 2004, for example, Catholics supported Bush by 56 percent to 43 percent. This year in that state, Catholics were split evenly between Obama and McCain.

Although McCain won a majority of voters who attend church most frequently, Obama also made substantial inroads into that group, noted John Green, senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, in one of several teleconferences in which he spoke. The Republican advantage of 64 percent to 35 percent of those voters in 2004 shrank to just 55 percent McCain voters to 46 percent Obama voters.

The analysts agreed that voters based their election choices primarily on issues such as the economy, health care and the war in Iraq, rather than on issues typically identified as major religious concerns: abortion and same-sex marriage.

But Stephen Schneck, director of the Life Cycle Institute at The Catholic University of America, said that “for Catholics the economy itself is a moral issue.”

Especially in hard times, he said in a teleconference sponsored by the organization Faith in Public Life, “Catholics are reminded that there are moral dimensions to the economy.”

Mark Gray, a research associate at ’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, pointed to several states as examples of where a higher percentage of Catholics supported McCain compared to the rest of the state’s voters.

In Missouri, McCain and Obama each got about 50 percent of the vote. Catholics in Missouri voted for McCain by a difference of 55 percent to 45 percent. In Pennsylvania, Obama won 55 percent of the vote and McCain 44 percent, but Catholics favored McCain by 52 percent to 48 percent.

What distinguishes those states, Gray noted, is that in each at least one bishop issued statements that leaned strongly toward telling voters they should vote only for candidates of the party that supports overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion virtually on demand.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in its political responsibility statement, “Faithful Citizenship,” emphasized the importance of abortion in voting. But it also left open the possibility that Catholics might in good conscience support candidates who do not favor overturning Roe. “Voting in this way,” it says, “would be permissible only for truly grave moral reasons, not to advance narrow interests or partisan preferences or to ignore a fundamental moral evil.”

One bishop, Bishop Joseph F. Martino of Scranton, Pa., issued a letter to his diocese and later a video saying abortion outweighed all other issues in voting. He also arrived unexpectedly at a political forum at a parish and said the USCCB document was not relevant in his diocese.

“The USCCB doesn’t speak for me,” the local newspaper, the Wayne Independent, quoted him as saying at St. John’s Catholic Church. “The only relevant document … is my letter.”

Obama’s historic win celebrated in his father’s Kenyan village

KOGELO, Kenya – Kenyans took to the streets Nov. 5 to celebrate President-elect Barack Obama’s election victory as the first African-American president of the United States. In the Kenyan village of Kogelo, the birthplace of Obama’s late father, villagers sang, cheered and danced in the streets when Obama’s victory was announced. Many draped themselves in U.S. flags or waved them in the air. Hundreds of people gathered to celebrate with Obama’s Kenyan grandmother and members of his extended family.

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki called Obama’s election victory “a momentous day not only in the history of the United States of America, but also for us in Kenya. The victory of Sen. Obama is our own victory because of his roots here in Kenya. As a country, we are full of pride for his success.”

He also declared Nov. 6 a public holiday in honor of Obama’s victory.

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga said Obama’s victory will “resonate with hundreds of millions of people around the world,” particularly because of its “message of hope and a vision of a world united in dealing with global challenges,” The Associated Press reported.

Nobel peace laureate and retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa said the Obama victory was similar to when Nelson Mandela became president of that country in 1994. He said the victory gives Africans “a new spring in our walk” and tells them “the sky is the limit.”

Mandela, in a letter of congratulations to Obama, told the president-elect that his victory demonstrates that “no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place.”

Many African church leaders saw Obama’s victory as a positive sign for their continent.

Vatican Radio quoted Archbishop Gabriel Palmer-Buckle of Accra, Ghana, who said the election of Obama marked a breakthrough for Africa.

“It causes great joy to see that a son of Africa, for once, is the head of what we call the greatest nation on earth. This shows that Africa is capable of arriving at the top,” the archbishop said. “I think that having a president of the most powerful country who is a son of the Third World will give us Africans a chance to let our voices be heard,” he said.

Anglican Bishop Joseph Wasonga of the Kenyan Diocese of Maseno West congratulated Obama.

“I think his winning will bring hope and healing to the whole world,” he told Ecumenical News International. “His election has shown that America is truly democratic.”

The bishop also said he hoped Obama would be able to bring some global attention to African needs.

In South Africa, the Rev. Kenneth Meshoe, a member of Parliament and president of the African Christian Democratic Party, said he hoped Obama’s victory would “improve relations between America and the African continent.”

Holy Childhood Association fosters classroom missionaries

Anyone growing up in the Catholic Church through the 1960s might remember the term “pagan baby,” based on a parish/school program through which parishioners and students spiritually adopted babies from foreign countries to pray for them.

That was Holy Childhood Association (HCA), in existence for 165 years through the archdiocese, and one way coordinator Kelly Hellmuth leads in to her spiel when trying to attract participants to this important mission work among elementary school children.

“People get a kick out of that,” she said. “ ‘I remember!’ they say.”

But not only grownups are called to live out their faith, said Ms. Hellmuth; children also are called to help brothers and sisters around the world.

Through four focal HCA programs, an international association with a national office in New York, children are asked to practice three components while learning about Third World countries: daily prayer for other children, spiritual sacrifices and financial sacrifices.

“I tell kids they can say a Hail Mary faster than they can brush their teeth,” said Ms. Hellmuth. When they give up something, for instance chocolate, children are encouraged to do so with a smile, and offer up a prayer to those without it.

Through Advent and Lent collections, a Membership Program and Around the World, Ms. Hellmuth’s job is to hype children to learn about students around the globe and to donate money from their hearts to help ease impoverished lives.

“I don’t just want their extra change,” she said, “I want them to be meaningful in their giving, to understand how the money will help.”

One little boy offered $5 of his $10 birthday money, she said. “That was a pretty big sacrifice for a 7-year-old!”

HCA depends on educators to help teach students, including those homeschooled, what it means to be poor, and more importantly, what it means to be poor in America versus Ethiopia. They are taught to be become missionaries – from the classroom.

Upcoming Advent collection

Schools and parishes can still sign up for the Advent collection commencing Nov. 30 to help children prepare for Christmas. Students learn how to make the season more meaningful through prayer and sacrifice.

Activities, crafts and prayer services will focus on Peru. Grade-appropriate materials are distributed for a mere $5 fee which supplies each child with a coin box, each classroom with a poster, and each educator with a reference guide and curriculum.

On board to date are Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Ellicott City; St. Charles Borromeo, Pikesville; St. Brigid, Canton; St. William of York, Baltimore; St. Clare School, Essex; and St. Thomas Aquinas Elementary School, Hampden.

The same program will be available for Lent 2009 (focusing on Bangladesh), and the ongoing Membership Program is focused on Angola. For every $10 collected, another country is adopted and tracked on a large classroom map. Eight parishes and schools are currently enrolled in the Membership Program.

Ironically, students in Third World countries are participating as missionaries themselves through HCA. Ms. Hellmuth heard the account of one little girl at a Catholic mission who placed her only pair of shoes in the offertory basket; she thought some other child may need them more.

“We want kids to know they are helping kids around the world,” said Ms. Hellmuth. “Are they praying for a new Nintendo for Christmas, or for God to help other kids?”

For more information about Holy Childhood Association, e-mail [email protected] or call 410-625-8450. Visit www.hcakids.org.

Catholic Center takes measures to protect environment

Kermit the Frog once sang “It’s not easy being green.”

The leaders at the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s downtown headquarters beg to differ, however.

Since June, the employees of the Catholic Center have made environmental inroads at the building, increasing their recycling efforts while cutting water and electricity usage. Employees are also encouraged to take public transportation to work, if possible. God is at the forefront of the environmental movement for Catholic leaders.

“Here at the Catholic Center we want to be leaders in all of this,” Nolan McCoy, director of facilities and real estate properties for the archdiocese, said. “We have to protect the resources we have been entrusted.”

The move toward conserving follows several edicts by Pope Benedict XVI over the years.

“In dialogue with Christians of various churches, we need to commit ourselves to caring for the created world, without squandering its resources, and sharing them in a cooperative way,” he said in 2006.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops followed up the pope’s statements in 2007 with their own declarations about environmental consciousness in a document called “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.”

“Care for the earth is a duty of our faith and a sign of our concern for all people,” the bishops said. “We should strive to live simply to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. We have a moral obligation to protect the planet on which we live – to respect God’s creation and to ensure a safe and hospitable environment for human beings, especially children at their most vulnerable stages of development.”

George Keitz, the Catholic Center building manager, said there was a sense of positive obligation among employees at a June kickoff party for their “green” efforts.

Each employee has a white or clear paper-only bin at their desk. At the end of each day, employees take their paper to a larger bin stored on each floor. Throughout the week, paper is taken from the building so it can be recycled.

With the paper efforts, the building cut trash dumpster collections from four to three times a week in just two months thanks to recycling efforts.

“It’s going really well,” Mr. Keitz said. “A lot of them have embraced the idea of recycling. This isn’t just a feel good kind of thing. The Vatican has said we have a moral obligation to this earth. The Catholic Center has taken that message seriously.”

The building also recycles aluminum cans and plastic through collections.

In order to reduce water usage, Mr. Keitz has spearheaded the effort to have building bathrooms feature “touch-less” sink fixtures to sense when water needs to be turned on and off. The building is also moving to lower wattage bulbs in some rooms and exploring installing sensors in rooms to keep electricity off when rooms are not in use.

Mr. Keitz said people inside the Catholic Center are committed to changing their lives for the betterment of the world.

“We want to go as green,” Mr. Keitz said, “as we possibly can.”

Democrats make gains in gubernatorial, congressional races

WASHINGTON – The U.S. electorate appears to have focused more on the struggling economy than social issues as they selected governors and members of Congress, with Democrats making gains throughout the country.

Democrats won seven of the 11 gubernatorial elections Nov. 4 and could take as many as 25 new House seats and at least five additional Senate seats, gaining significant majorities in Congress. By midday Nov. 5 the results of several races were not final.

“It appears the majority of the voters who supported (President-elect Barack) Obama supported Democratic candidates,” said Stephen Krason, 54, a political science professor at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio. He also is president of the Society of Catholic Social Scientists. “Economics is a normal thing for the electorate to focus on, but with what has been going on in the last two months it’s not surprising that the economy began to dwarf other things in the last several weeks,” he said Nov. 5 in a telephone interview with Catholic News Service.

Political campaigns nationwide began to focus on the economy after Sept. 15, when dramatic fluctuations overwhelmed the New York Stock Exchange, some giant financial services firms declared bankruptcy and credit markets began to freeze up.

It’s also typical for the electorate to turn on the political party in charge of the country during an economic crisis, and since President George W. Bush is a Republican, that explains why Democrats made such gains in the national and state elections, Krason said.

Issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage were not raised in most political races this election cycle and polls showed the electorate gave those matters much less weight when casting their ballots, he said.

“You are seeing an ingraining of an anti-traditional movement in the country,” Krason said. “It seems as though the electorate is accepting the cultural developments on abortion and sexual questions and that is why you are not seeing those issues stressed by the candidates. The politics reflects the culture.”

Though Democrats have traditionally favored funding social programs for the needy, it’s too early to tell if charitable organizations will benefit from the greater numbers of Democratic officeholders, said Candy S. Hill, senior vice president for social policy and government affairs at Catholic Charities USA.

“We have a terrible situation with our economy, and no matter what party is in power, that is going to be the focus right now, especially in the first 100 days of the Obama administration,” Hill said. “Our message will not change. We’re dedicated to working on both sides of the aisle. We will welcome new faces to Washington and in the states, and to establishing partnerships with those who serve.” Pope sends congratulatory message to Obama

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI sent a personal message to President-elect Barack Obama Nov. 5, congratulating him and offering his prayers for Obama and for all the people of the United States.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said that because the message was addressed personally to Obama the Vatican did not plan to publish it.

However, he said, the papal message opened by referring to the “historic occasion” of the election, marking the first time a black man has been elected president of the United States.

The pope congratulated Obama, his wife and family, Father Lombardi said.

“He assured him of his prayers that God would help him with his high responsibilities for his country and for the international community,” Father Lombardi said.

The pope also prayed that “the blessing of God would sustain him and the American people so that with all people of good will they could build a world of peace, solidarity and justice,” the spokesman said.

Asked if the pope mentioned any specific issues he was concerned about, Father Lombardi responded, “peace, solidarity and justice.”

The message to Obama was sent through the office of Mary Ann Glendon, the U.S. ambassador to the , he said. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state, also sent a message.

Father Lombardi said it is likely a formal message also will be sent on the occasion of Obama’s Jan. 20 inauguration; in past years, the Vatican custom has been that the pope congratulates a new U.S. president only when he formally takes office.

The Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, was published Nov. 5 with an opinion piece headlined “A choice that unites.”

“In the end, change occurred. The slogan that accompanied Barack Obama’s whole electoral campaign found its expression” in the results of the Nov. 4 election, said the article by Giuseppe Fiorentino.

“As the president-elect underlined in his victory speech in Chicago, America really is the country where anything can happen,” a country “able to overcome fractures and divisions that not long ago seemed impossible to heal,” it said.

But, the article said, the vote for Obama was “very pragmatic” because he was the “more convincing” candidate for “an electorate needing new hope, especially for a quick economic recovery.”

The newspaper said Obama and his supporters know “not everything is roses and flowers,” because of the “huge political, social, economic and moral challenges” the United States is facing.

Obama must unite the nation, a process L’Osservatore said will be helped by the concession speech of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who referred to Obama as “my president.”

Vatican Radio called the election of Obama a “historic day” for the United States and underlined the overwhelmingly positive reaction around the world.

A commentary on the election for Asianews, a Rome-based missionary news agency, ran under the headline: “I’m happy for the victory of Barack Obama.”

Written by Father Piero Gheddo, a member of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, the commentary listed three reasons for satisfaction at the result:

– Obama will give a positive impression of the United States at a time when “America is seen in a bad light and even hated throughout the world.” – The election of the first black U.S. president offers a lesson on racial equality, especially for Europe. It is an extraordinarily encouraging sign for black people around the world, who have often faced humiliation, it said.

– Obama’s victory speech ended with the words, “God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America,” something that would not be possible in Catholic Italy and which demonstrates that religion remains at the foundations of public life in the United States.