I was invited by the Thomas More Society of Catholic Lawyers who awarded me the Thomas More Award at the last red mass for Catholic Lawyers, Oct. 15, 2020, to give three talks for them on Pope Francis’ recent book. Let Us Dream: The Path to A Better Future, this Lent. I gave the first one on March 18th. Having read the book, taken copious notes and doing a PowerPoint for each talk, the book has stayed with me, challenged me and edified me. The book consists of a prologue, three chapters and an epilogue. I also now have decided to write a blog about it since it is such a challenging book.

My heart is heavy as I begin to write. This is a very difficult week for a number of reasons. The first one is a story in this morning’s paper which details the horrific events in Atlanta – additional, bigger, more tragic versions of the rising anti-Asian violence in our country over the last year.

Father John Coleman reflects on new publications grappling with the problem of homelessness in the United States I have read many studies about the homeless and engaged in many conversations about the homeless in San Francisco, especially with family and friends who feel the nearby homeless are a danger for their apartment properties. I have also, using the studies I read, written about the homeless. I have a chapter, for example, in a new book published by Fordham University Press, Land of Stark Contrasts: Faith-Based Responses to Homelessness in the United States, edited by Manuel Mejido. My Chapter is entitled, “Social Service, Citizen Activism and Faith-BasedOrganizations.“

With more than 80 million people vaccinated in the U.S., my cautious optimism about what our faith community might be able to do together in 2021 is becoming less cautious and more optimistic. Recently, I have even allowed myself the fantasy of engaging in my former practice of casually walking the church aisles and greeting you in your pew before Mass starts. Just typing that sentence puts a grin on my face.

Global Catholicism in the 21st Century is vastly different than Global Catholicism in the 20th century. In 1920, the English Catholic, Hilaire Belloc could acclaim that, “ The Church is Europe and Europe is the Church.” But today the majority of the Christian population shifts from Europe and North America to the Global South, Africa and Latin America. In 1910 Europe was home to roughly two-thirds of the world’s Christians (66.6 percent) but by 2010 that number had dropped to 25.5 percent, and is projected to drop to 15.6 percent by 2050. One reason is diminishing fertility. Europe has the lowest fertility rate of any global region. Another factor is religious switching, or people ceasing to practice religion. In 12 out of 21 European countries studied, most young people said they have no religion. The percentage of practicing Catholics has diminished strongly in the Netherlands. Also, largely because of the sex abuse scandal, mass attendance in Ireland that once was around 90 percent of the Catholic population has dropped to about 30 percent.

With the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes coming up, I wanted to add my own reflections on my experience at Lourdes. I have visited at various times Fatima, Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine in Mexico City and Lourdes. In my judgment, Lourdes was the most interesting and spiritually enriching experience. I went to Lourdes in the summer of 1973 when I spent the entire summer in France after living in Amsterdam for two and a half years while writing my doctoral dissertation in sociology. I stayed with a California Jesuit (and a former teacher of mine) Maurice Belval in Paris, and he suggested we go together to visit Lourdes. We spent two days there.

On February 6, the Church celebrated the memorial of St. Paul Miki, S.J., and Companions. In 1597, 26 martyrs of Japan were crucified on a hill, now known as the Holy Mountain, overlooking Nagasaki.