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ROAMIN' CATHOLIC
Contents © 2005
by Jim Holman.
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NEWS
March 2005
EVERY CATHOLIC IN THE ARCHDIOCESE "must realize that he or she is, in a genuine sense, a 'vocation promoter,'" wrote Cardinal Roger Mahony in the February 4 Tidings, the newspaper of the archdiocese of Los Angeles. The archdiocese, said the cardinal, faces a looming priest shortage while the number of parishes continues to grow. "This coming July, 22 parishes will need new pastors (11 pastors are retiring, four are not taking another pastorate: net loss of 15 pastors)," wrote Mahony. "But we are only ordaining five new Priests this year. Where will we find 22 new pastors? Where will we find new associate pastors to take the places of those associates being appointed administrators or pastors in July? I use the expression 'we' since this is our collective challenge, not just mine as your Archbishop." Even assuming that all current priests will be able to serve until age 75, "knowing that we have 289 active parishes, between the years 2011 and 2015 we will actually have fewer Priests than we have parishes."
As "vocation promoter[s]," the cardinal said, Catholics need to address the priest shortage in conversation, pray for an increase of priest and religious vocations, foster religious vocations among young men and women (including our sons and daughters), and encourage and pray for priests and religious. Though the "recent Archdiocesan Synod called all of us to be open to the Holy Spirit and to move where the Spirit is leading us," and "we have begun to respond by supporting the development of Pastoral Associates and Parish Life Directors," parishes will still need priests to offer the Eucharist on Sundays, said Mahony.
The cardinal's emphasis on the necessity of priests is an interesting counterpoint to his emphasis of recent years on lay ministry. Indeed, in his 2003 pastoral letter, As I Have Done For You, the cardinal seemed to welcome the priest shortage. "It has taken the shortage of priestly and religious vocations to awaken in us an appreciation of a broadly based shared ministry and a realization that it is in the nature of the Church as the Body of Christ to be endowed with many gifts, ministries and offices," wrote Mahony. "What some refer to as a 'vocations crisis' is, rather, one of the many fruits of the Second Vatican Council, a sign of God's deep love for the Church, and an invitation to a more creative and effective ordering of gifts and energy in the Body of Christ."
WEARERS OF THE RAINBOW SASH, the symbol for a group of homosexual Catholics which protests Church teachings on homosexuality, may not receive communion, said the head of the Holy See's Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments. According to a February 4 Catholic News Service story, Cardinal Francis Arinze said, "Rainbow Sash wearers are showing their opposition to church teaching on a major issue of natural law and so disqualify themselves from being given holy Communion." The cardinal, however, refused to elaborate on his statement.
Last year, members of Rainbow Sash announced that they would present themselves, wearing rainbow sashes, for communion on Pentecost Sunday in cathedrals and churches throughout the country to proclaim their active sexuality. While Cardinal Francis George, the archbishop of Chicago, said he would refuse communion to Rainbow Sash wearers, Cardinal Roger Mahony notified Rainbow Sash that his cathedral would welcome sash wearers and give them communion.
LAWYERS REPRESENTING CARDINAL MAHONY and the archdiocese of Los Angeles said they would not comply with a court order to turn over by January 28 confidential files of two priests accused of molesting minors; rather they would appeal the order, said a January 26 Associated Press report. In September 2004, Judge Thomas Nuss said the archdiocese was obliged to turn over the files to prosecutors; only those files that detailed discussions between the priests and their psychotherapists would be exempt. Mahony's lawyers have argued that both the state and federal constitutions protect all the documents in question from disclosure.
THREE INSURANCE COMPANIES which insured the archdiocese of Los Angeles in the 1970s have also said they want access to priests files, and they have brought a lawsuit against the archdiocese to get it. According to the January 27 Los Angeles Times, the lawsuit claims that in not releasing documents to insurers, Cardinal Roger Mahony's "apparent goal is to obviate any meaningful disclosure of the facts and circumstances of these claims, and yet to pressure [the insurers] to contribute enormous sums of money" to settlements. But the cardinal's lawyer, J. Michael Hennigan, said the lawsuit is just a delaying tactic on the part of the insurance companies The insurance companies, he said, "have full access to the files. They are supposed to be on our side."
But on the archdiocese's side in this case, at least, is victims' lawyer Raymound Boucher. The insurers, said Boucher, are "trying to force the archdiocese into bankruptcy by walking away from their obligations." And Boucher's interest is clear: "our clients have a right to be compensated," he said. "The only way they will ever be compensated is if the carriers participate in fair and meaningful fashion." Boucher said he was investigating whether he could intervene into the insurance case on behalf of the archdiocese.
The companies filing suit against the archdiocese are three of more than twenty insurers the archdiocese has used. They are the Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania, Granite State Insurance Company, and American Home Assurance Company.
RADICAL FINESSE. The Santa Ana Catholic Worker has been trying to smooth relations with its neighbors after threatening legal action against the city of Santa Ana last year, said the January 16 Los Angeles Times. Because of complaints from some neighbors of the Catholic Worker house of hospitality for the homeless, located on a Cypress Street residential neighborhood, the city of Santa Ana threatened to close it down. Fourteen lawyers offered their services to Dwight Smith and his wife, Leia, who run the Catholic Worker house, filing a federal lawsuit against city officials on the plea that they were violating the Smiths' religious liberty. The city backed down. Under a court-ordered mediation process, guidelines for the running of the Worker house are being developed. With the legal issue in abeyance, a neighborhood activist advised Smith to try to win friends by demonstrating the value of the house to the neighborhood. Now not only is the Worker distributing food, it is asking the homeless to collect trash and debris in the neighborhood. The Worker even served up a meal of chicken breast in sherry with mushrooms, green beans with almonds, and mashed potatoes to members of the South Santa Ana Merchants Association. The meal was served by four homeless people dressed in white shirts and black pants.
"Half-jokingly," said the Times, Smith commented: "I'm getting more sophisticated. I still feel I'm following Jesus, but I'm following more of his strategies for community organizing. We want to have a positive impact and less of a negative impact."
THE FATE OF UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS may hang in the balance between two proposed Republican immigration reform proposals, the January 27 Los Angeles Times indicated. One proposal, that of President George W. Bush, would establish a guest worker program in which millions of undocumented workers could apply for temporary legal status. The other, introduced by Wisconsin representative F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr., would deny drivers licenses to illegal immigrants, complete a border fence between Mexico and California, and make it harder for immigrants to obtain political asylum. Sensenbrenner chairs the House Judiciary Committee. Sensenbrenner's proposals passed the House last year as part of an intelligence reform bill, but the Senate balked at them. The White House was able to get enough support from House Republicans to pass a version of the House intelligence bill after excising Sensenbrenner's additions. The House however told Sensenbrenner that it would attach his provisions to the first piece of legislation that both the House and the Senate is expected to pass this year.
Sensenbrenner's proposals have drawn criticism from immigrant rights groups. Kevin Appleby, migration and refugee policy director for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said "none of the provisions that are in the bill will make us safer;" rather, denying licenses to the undocumented will "make our roads less safe," since many immigrants will drive anyhow, without a license and insurance. Tightening political asylum criteria, said Appleby, "could lead to the rejection of valid claims."
SIX WEEKS AFTER agreeing to settle for $100 million with 90 alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse, the diocese of Orange on January 20 said it would go ahead with the establishment of two new parishes, the relocation of another, and the building of a new cathedral, the Associated Press reported on January 21. The diocese said the parishes and cathedral were needed, since the diocese in six years has grown from 615,041 to 1.2 million Catholics. Settlement payments — of which the diocese will pay about half, insurers the rest — will not be affected by the new projects, diocesan officials claimed.
CHOCK FULL OF VARIETY. The 2005 Religious Education Congress, put on by the archdiocese of Los Angeles, promised to be a multi-cultural smorgasbord, said the February 5 Tidings. "I think we have tried to bring together talent from across cultures and generations that will awake us to grace," Sister Edith Prendergast, archdiocesan directress of religious education, said. As part of the fare, Bishop Gabino Zavala was to preside at the "Mass of the Americas/Misa de las Americas," to honor "the richness and giftedness of the many cultures of the Americas." Other Masses promised were jazz, "contemplative," and "general" liturgies, and one "planned by and for youth." In addition, there were to be "Masses centering on various traditions including Celtic, Hispanic, Samoan and Black culture."
Special events slated for this year's Religious Education Congress included "multi-sensory ways for participants to become attuned to the presence of the Spirit." These "feasts for the soul, heart, eyes and ears" were to provide "opportunities for Eucharistic Adoration, Labyrinth-walking, Marion art works viewing and contemplative music listening."
HOME SCHOOLERS, DON'T PANIC. The Virginia-based Home School Legal Defense Association reported January 25 that the website of the California department of education indicated the department will not receive private school affidavits after December 31, 2004 and has removed the affidavit from the website. Home School Legal Defense assures home schooling parents that no laws have changed vis-à-vis home schooling and that the department of education has removed the affidavit before. The action only affects private schools formed after December 31, 2004. In California, home schools are included under the private school designation.
Home School Legal Defense said those home schools that have yet to file an affidavit have three options. First, "the filing of the affidavit is merely a statistical filing requirement and not a prerequisite to establishing a bona fide school," said the home schooling organization. So, if all other requirements of the state education code are met, the home school student cannot be considered truant merely for lack of an affidavit. A second option for those beginning to home school after December 31 is to join a private school independent study program, of which there are many in California. The third option is to download from Home School Legal Defense its "Statement in Lieu of Affidavit," available to Home School Legal Defense members on its website www.hslda.org. Home School Legal Defense "strongly advise[s]" that parents discuss the three options with a Home School Legal Defense lawyer. For information on how to join Home School Legal Defense, see the website above, or contact the organization at P.O. Box 3000, Purcellville, Virginia 20134-9000; phone, (540) 338-5600; fax, (540) 338-2733; e-mail, info@hslda.org.
"WE HAVE LOST OUR MORAL and spiritual leadership in America," the Rev. Cain Hope Felder said. "We preach on very safe subjects." Felder, professor of biblical languages and literature at Howard University Divinity School of Washingtion, D.C., was addressing a national conference of black ministers that met in Los Angeles during the last week of January. The meeting's theme, according to the January 29 Los Angeles Times, was how black churches have lost moral leadership since the end of the civil rights era; the task was to discuss how to regain that leadership. According to the Rev. Felder, black churches need to stop preaching the "gospel of prosperity" in order to reach young people and fight the ill effects of the popular culture of violence and sex. "Look at the video games — violence, sex and drugs. The church is supposed to be a moral and spiritual institution, and yet it's not doing anything on these issues," said Felder. The Rev. Henry Williamson, Sr., a bishop of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, said that like the prophet Nathan to King David, the church must speak out against the "messages of madness, murders and mayhem" found in popular culture. Bishop Williamson suggested that individual churches adopt public schools, working with school administrators to develop volunteer programs to help students academically and in their behavior. The conference, "Reflecting Scripture in a Post-Civil Rights Era: Declaring Our Lord Jesus From the Pulpit, in the Pew, on the Pavement." drew 121 pastors and lay Christian leaders from ten states.
A FEW DAYS AFTER the close of the "Reflecting Scripture" conference, a gathering of black ministers who had supported President George W. Bush in the last election, met in Los Angeles, said the February 2 Los Angeles Times. Organized by the white evangelical minister, the Rev. Louis Sheldon, the February 1 meeting was an attempt to align blacks, who traditionally vote Democratic, into an alliance with Republicans to fight homosexual marriage. The meeting was held at the 27,000 member Crenshaw Christian Center, whose minister, the Rev. Fred Price, is a well-known proponent of the gospel of prosperity. "Tithing is the trigger of the gun, so to speak, that releases the projectile of prosperity," Price has said.
But homosexual marriage was not the only issue at the meeting; the "Black Contract with America on Moral Values," authored by Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr. of College Park, Maryland, and unveiled at the conference, listed other issues. These are: "wealth creation: Private Social Security investment accounts and encouraging homeownership; education: School vouchers, charter schools and boosting black enrollment in higher education; prison reform: Including a 'Second Chance Act,' reentry programs and laws restoring the rights of felons; Africa: Intervention in Sudan and penalties against corporations that explore for oil in the region; Healthcare overhaul: Including programs to cover the poor."
THE REV. LOU SHELDON was present for President George W. Bush's inauguration on January 20, but the day before he hosted a bash for about 800 people at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, D.C., said the January 21 Los Angeles Times. On inauguration day itself, Sheldon hosted a gathering of about 300 Christians — indoors and out of the cold. Both celebrations were graced by the presence of Bush luminaries: outgoing Attorney General John Ashcroft gave the dinner speech on Wednesday, and on Thursday, Bush political director Matt Schlapp, senior advisor Karl Rove, and the newly named chairman of the Republican National Committee, Ken Mehlman, made appearances. Rove took issue with those who say Bush received no mandate in the last election, since "this president won a greater percentage of the vote than any Democratic candidate since 1964." Mehlhan came, he said, to say "thank you" to the evangelicals. He assured them "promises made will be promises kept, because this president will do what he said he'd do." The president's "most sacred duty," said Mehlman" is "the appointment of judges. We're going to have more Scalias and Thomases." Also present for Sheldon's parties were such evangelical personalities as Gary Bauer, Ralph Reed, the Rev. Jerry Falwell and the flamboyantly made-up and be-wigged Jan Crouch of Southern California's Trinity Broadcasting Network.
BLACK ABORTION GENOCIDE. "For every five African-American women who get pregnant, three have an abortion," said Clenard Childress, Jr., who directs the Northeast Chapter of the Life Education and Resource Network. According to a February 7 Catholic News Service story, Childress backs up his claim with studies taken from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to these studies, since 1973, abortion has killed twice as many blacks than have heart disease, cancer, accidents, violent crimes, and AIDS combined. Though blacks make up only 12 percent of the U.S. population, they account for almost 32 percent of abortions, with about 1,450 black babies aborted every day. To publicize these and other facts about abortion, Childress has a website, BlackGenocide.org. Childress said the facts of Black abortion support the conclusion that the abortion industry targets black and other minority women. Planned Parenthood, in particular, he said, operates a disproportionately high number of clinics in black and other minority areas.
YOU'RE BLIGHTED — GET OUT! Culver City's gentrification has called for the removal of affordable housing in the city, said the January 22 Los Angeles Times. The city has declared two mobile home parks on Grand View Boulevard "blighted" and has asked a private developer to come in and draw up plans for redevelopment of the residential and adjacent retail properties, possibly into shopping and upscale townhouses. Residents of the mobile home parks, though they own their coaches, rent park space at rates that average in the $350-$500 a month range. Since many of the coaches are old, they probably cannot be moved nor can they be sold. The city has an obligation under law to relocate residents "to a comparable dwelling," Jerry Ichien, a city redevelopment specialist said. But, he said, "I really don't know we can make a statement where people would be relocated. We hope the new project could be structured so some of them could be relocated there." Such responses make residents nervous. Said one resident, Sugar White, "people are saying we'll have to move out of state to find a comparable rent. I'll be homeless — I'm going to be out on the street. They won't give us a clear-cut answer. They say, 'Some of you will be better off. Some of you won't.'"
Though property under a city redevelopment agency may be taken by eminent domain for other than public purposes, Culver City has forbidden this power to its agency. The city has asked Olson Urban Housing to negotiate a sale with the mobile home park owners. Residents are exploring different options, such as buying the parks themselves, to save their homes.
SOME JANITORS WORKING for Vons stores are being worked long hours with little pay, despite a court-brokered agreement between three major grocery store chains to the contrary, alleges a union lawsuit. The January 25 Los Angeles Times reported that previously, Ralphs Grocery Company, Albertsons, Inc., and Safeway, Inc. (which owns Vons) hired janitors on contract and so claimed they were not responsible for salaries. But in 2000, the Service Employees International Union filed suit saying that since the stores exercised control over employees' hours and working conditions, they were in effect joint employers and so were responsible for wages. In 2003, the three chains signed contracts with the union saying they would hire janitors at union wages or contract only with entities that paid union wages. Despite the contract, union representatives and janitors claimed in a lawsuit filed January 24 that some Vons stores still pay many of their janitors (most of whom are Mexican nationals) too little and work them too long. Janitors work, it is alleged, six to seven days a week and do not receive overtime premiums. Some janitors are paid below the state minimum wage, the lawsuit alleges. Albertsons and Ralphs are not implicated in the latest lawsuit.
Two years ago federal investigators accused Wal-Mart of similar practices by federal investigators.
MONSIGNOR JOHN COFFIELD, a Los Angeles archdiocesan priest known for his advocacy for the poor and his run-ins with the late archbishop of Los Angeles, Cardinal John Francis McIntyre, died February 2 at the rectory of St. Edward the Confessor Church in Dana Point. Coffield was 91. In the 1940s, Father Coffield, called "Juanote" by parishioners, led residents to improve living conditions in the El Monte barrio Hicks Camp. In the 1960s, Coffield became involved in the civil rights movement, marching with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Selma, Alabama, and leading residents of Los Angeles and Orange County barrios to demand better living conditions from county and city officials. In 1964, Coffield publicly opposed Proposition 14, which would repeal the Rumsford Fair Housing Act banning discrimination in the sale and rental of housing. Cardinal McIntyre opposed Coffield's public activism against the proposition, and when it passed, Coffield went into, as he himself said, "self-imposed exile" in Chicago to protest against McIntyre. In Chicago, Coffield worked under Saul Alinksy and the Industrial Areas Foundation. Coffield returned to Los Angeles in 1968; "the cardinal is much more open on racial matters than was the case four years ago," Coffield said and confessed that his own "understanding has grown." In California, Father Coffield worked with César Chavez and the United Farm Workers and as a parish priest among poor Hispanics.
In his autobiography of Francis Cardinal McIntyre, His Eminence of Los Angeles, Monsignor Francis Weber says Coffield fell into the category of "saints that are difficult to know and impossible to live with." Though Coffield possessed zeal and devotion to the poor, and was "kind, gentle and saintly," he was also, according to Weber, a "loose cannon for many years." After his return to Los Angeles in '68, however, Coffield carried on his ministry to the poor and oppressed quietly.
A MISSION VIEJO HOMOSEXUAL COUPLE have asked a federal judge to overturn the federal Defense of Marriage Act and California's Proposition 22, which defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, said the January 28 Los Angeles Times. Richard Gilbert, the attorney for Arthur Smelt and Christopher Hammer, claim these laws violate their rights under both the federal and state constitutions. Santa Ana U.S. district judge Gary Taylor said on January 25 that he would take the matter under submission. He could overturn both federal and state marriage laws, overturn the federal law and let the state law stand, or refuse to decide the constitutionality of both laws.
Attorneys for Orange county clerk-recorder Tom Daly, state attorney general Bill Lockyer, the Bush Administration, and marriage protection groups, including the Campaign for California Families, opposed Gilbert in court. Oddly, Jennifer Pizer, representing Lambda Legal, which defends homosexual rights, asked Judge Taylor to abstain from deciding the case. Six San Francisco cases, she said, are being considered by the state supreme court, and "the California Supreme Court has consistently said that the state Constitution is more protective [of civil rights] than the federal Constitution," Pizer said.
Whatever Taylor's decision, both sides have said they will appeal an adverse ruling.
FREEDOM FOR BOOBS. "At some point, men's breasts became liberated and women's didn't," reflected Liana Johnsson, a Ventura County public defender. Johnsson has a crusade, according to the January 22 Los Angeles Times: removing the ban on topless sunbathing on California beaches. And she's not alone; a group of lawyers has joined her to try to get a bill through the state legislature to legalize topless sunbathing for women. Johnsson and her insurgency pectoral are in part motivated by the belief that women convicted of indecent exposure could be listed as sex offenders under Megan's Law. But Attorney General Bill Lockyer's office said that since topless sunbathing is not considered lewd under California law but merely indecent, a woman arrested for going topless would not be treated as a sex offender.
In October, Johnsson addressed the California Bar Association, showing the 400 plus delegates slides of a big-breasted male villain from the movie Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. (She also has a short video featuring big-breasted men sunbathing on California beaches — just more evidence that men and women are not treated equally under the law.) The state bar voted to approve a resolution asking the state to remove topless sunbathing from the criminal code.
FREE HEALTH CARE. The Los Angeles archdiocese and two health systems, Providence Health and Catholic Healthcare West, have joined together to provide health care for the working poor in the San Fernando Valley, said a January 16 Los Angeles Times article. The Access to Care Collaborative in Pacoima, staffed by volunteer doctors and nurses, seeks to identify and treat medical conditions among the mostly Latino poor of the San Fernando Valley in order to cut down on emergency room visits and costly treatment for undiagnosed and untreated diseases. The clinic works by financial backing from Providence and Catholic Healthcare West, as well from a grant from the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation. It operates out of space donated by a service group, Meet Each Need With Dignity. The clinic is open for appointments the first and third Fridays of the month from 1 to 4 p.m. About ten people are seen each day.
CLARIFICATION, PLEASE! Orange County parishioners and parents upset over the attendance at a Catholic school of two boys adopted by homosexual parents have asked the diocese of Orange to clarify its position on homosexual marriage and domestic partnership, said the January 14 Los Angeles Times. The parents/parishioners group have demanded that the pastor of St. John the Baptist parish in Costa Mesa, Norbertine Father Martin Benzoni, remove the children from the parish school's kindergarten and require prospective parents at the school to sign a "parental moral covenant" before their children are admitted to the school. Father Martin has said he will not dismiss the children, since they "have been baptized Catholic and the adults who are responsible for them have an obligation to raise them in the Catholic Faith." He also clarified that his parish does "not approve of homosexual unions nor of the law that permits adoptions by homosexuals."
But this explanation did satisfy the parishioners' group. On January 13, Michael Sundstedt, a lawyer representing the group, asked the diocese both to clarify its own position on homosexual unions and send to St. John the Baptist parish papal writings condemning same-sex unions and adoption of children by same-sex couples. "This parish has virtually no idea what the church's teachings are on these issues," Sundstedt told the Times.
"ONCE A YEAR, we try to pick a feminist issue to discuss," Peggy Ford, president of the Laguna Beach Women's Club, told members in mid January. According to the January 21 Laguna Beach Coastland Pilot, the club's 2005 feminist issue was "spirituality." To develop this topic, the club invited four feminists to speak. One, K Turner, whose "New England background [was] reflected in her dignified mien," was a "hard core" Baptist until she was 19, when she realized she was a lesbian. She searched until she found the Church of Religious Science, for which she serves as international director of education. "It's what my life is all about now and it's a nice place to be," Turner said.
The next feminist, Joan Trivett, found spirituality through keeping a journal. She "includes the feminine in her concept of God," said the Coastland Pilot, "including 'Grandma God.'" A Presbyterian, Trivett said reading St. Ignatius (whether of Antioch or Loyola is unclear) made a significant change in her life. "I am happier, more peaceful, less selfish, able to live in the moment more often and a better listener," Trivett said. "I am not perfect, but I am not angry about it any more. I have made the journey from head to heart."
Avivah Winocur Erlick was once named Diane but took on the name Avivah (meaning life) when she became a rabbinical student. Though she tends more to Orthodox Judaism, she said she is a Conservative Jew, since the Orthodox do not countenance female rabbis.
The final feminist speaker was Karen Polek, also from New England, though her dignified mien went unnoted in the article. Polek, who said she was raised a strict Catholic, now says she is "spiritual, not religious. I pick and choose from them all." Through her mother's "worship" (as the Coastland Pilot termed it) of Mary, Polek came to see the goddess in herself. Angered that her brother could be an altar boy and she couldn't and that she had to wear a hat in church, she stopped practicing her religion. "When I was about 19 or 20, my parents gave me an ultimatum: go to church or get out," she said. And she got out and got into sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll. Divorced at 33 ("the best thing I ever did"), she became a physical therapist and finally, in 1999, a nondenominational minister. She is writing a book about the spirituality of nature.
AND FOR THOSE WHO LIKE TO MIX a little entertainment with their Lenten discipline, the February 5 Tidings reported that the Pauline Center for Media Studies in Culver City and the Daughters of St. Paul were to offer a Lenten movie night on February 12. This "Movie Lectionary Night," as the Tidings called it, was to feature the film Phenomenon, starring John Travolta and Kyra Sedgwick. Sister Rose Pacatte, a Daughter of St. Paul and movie reviewer for the Tidings, said Phenomenon "evokes images of the transformative power of the Transfiguration," the Gospel reading for the First Sunday of Lent. "The film creates a space for meaningful conversation for our Lenten journey."