Category: Making a Difference

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Tony Magliano

Respecting life outside our comfort zone

True respect for life requires us to get out of our comfort zone. Oh, we might say, “I respect life, I vote for ‘pro-life’ politicians who claim they will work to end abortion.” However, in a democracy voting is usually easy and comfortable.

But are we willing to regularly stand outside of an abortion mill on a freezing winter morning or hot summer afternoon praying and witnessing to the humanity of our unborn brothers and sisters? That’s harder and somewhat uncomfortable.

War kills life

Now for those who are willing to get uncomfortable in support of the Catholic Church’s efforts to protect unborn human life, try to move into an even more uncomfortable zone: acknowledge the truth that war does much to disrespect life. War kills life — mostly innocent life.

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Tony Magliano

The truth about climate change

“Can we remain indifferent before the problems associated with such realities as climate change . . . loss of productivity in vast agricultural areas, the pollution of rivers and aquifers, the loss of biodiversity, the increase of natural catastrophes, and the deforestation of equatorial and tropical regions?”

These aren’t the radical words from the leader of a secular environmental organization, no; these are the radical words from the former leader of the Catholic Church!

In his 2010 World Day of Peace message titled, “If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation,” Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote that “it would be irresponsible not to take seriously” the signs of a growing environmental crisis.

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Tony Magliano

Revisiting the just war theory

Is there such a thing as a just war? Can the massive death and destruction of armed conflict ever be morally justified by followers of the Prince of Peace?

For the first disciples of Christ the answer was a resounding “No!”

Following Jesus’ command

During the first 300 years of Christianity, it was unthinkable for followers of the nonviolent Jesus to kill a human being.

They took most seriously Jesus’ command: “But to you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other as well. . . . Put your sword back into its sheath, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.”

Typical of early Church teaching on nonviolence, St. Clement of Alexandria said to wealthy Christians, “Contrary to the rest of men, enlist for yourself an army without weapons, without war, without bloodshed, without wrath, without stain — pious old men, orphans dear to God, widows armed with gentleness, men adorned with love.”

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Tony Magliano

Holy Land Principles: Powerful tool for justice and peace

During his recent pilgrimage to the Holy Land, the pope of surprises gave the world an unexpected powerful message.

On his way to celebrate Mass in Bethlehem, Pope Francis suddenly got out of his popemobile and walked toward the towering concrete Israeli-built barrier that divides Israel from the Israeli occupied territory of the West Bank.

Pope prays for world without walls

In a highly symbolic scene, with Israeli soldiers in a tower above him, Pope Francis touched the separation wall and prayed with head bowed at precisely the spot where spray-painted messages cry out, “Pope we need some 1 to speak about Justice Bethlehem look like Warsaw ghetto” and “Free Palestine.” Then he touched his forehead to the wall.

“This wall is a sign of division, that something is not functioning right,” said Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi. And Pope Francis’ prayer there “signifies for me his desire for peace, for a world without walls.”

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Tony Magliano

Poverty, inequality, and Pope Francis

Just think about it. According to the United Nations, approximately 1.2 billion people live in extreme poverty throughout the world.

Clean water and sanitation, adequate nutritious food, a safe job with fair pay, an education, medical care, and a decent place to call home are unfulfilled dreams to these brothers and sisters of ours.

Every day they must somehow find a way to survive on less than $1.25. Even in the poorest countries, it is almost impossible to live on this meager amount. And in fact, many do not make it.

Affects of extreme poverty

Every day approximately 21,000 fellow human beings die from hunger and hunger related diseases. And according to the United Nations Children’s Fund, some 300 million children go to bed hungry every night.

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Tony Magliano

Millions of refugees with no place to call home

Emergency: Syria! Emergency: South Sudan! Emergency: Democratic Republic of the Congo!

These are the alarming messages being displayed on the homepage (www.unhcr.org) of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

People uprooted from their homes

According to the UNHCR, Syria has more people forcibly displaced than any country on earth. Over nine million Syrians have been uprooted from their homes due to civil war — over 2.5 million of them have fled to neighboring countries as refugees. And most distressing, more than half of the displaced are children.

In South Sudan, UNHCR reports the civil war and growing food shortages there has led to approximately 2,000 people crossing into nearby countries per day. Many of these refugees have been arriving exhausted, nutritionally weak, and in poor health.

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Tony Magliano

Thirsting for clean water

We turn on our faucets and out comes water — clean, refreshing, plentiful, life-sustaining water. But we rarely give it a thought.

We just tend to take for granted that it will always be there. We even forget to thank God — the well-spring of life.

Lack of access to clean water

But for 768 million fellow human beings, clean plentiful water is a distant dream, according to the United Nations. For them, the water they drink, cook with, and bath in, is polluted and often disease-ridden, and must be carried long distances in many cases.

According to figures released by the United Nations Children‘s Fund in 2013, lack of access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene is a leading cause of death from diarrhea in children under five, amounting to approximately 1,400 children dying each day.

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Tony Magliano

My brief experience as a homeless person

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For quite some time I have had an interest in the plight of the homeless. I have read about it, prayed over it, and have done small things to help.

But feeling that I could, and should, do more to make a difference, I concluded that living as a homeless man — at least for a very brief period — was the best way to understand what it’s like to have no place to call home.

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