Fifteen Things That Caught My Eye Today: Coptic New Year, Life Unites & More (September 11, 2020)

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3. Lebanon in crisis: ‘we need a miracle’

“We’ve come to a situation in Lebanon where the middle class have become poor and the poor have gotten poorer,” says Sister Marie Justine el Osta, from the Maronite Sisters of the Holy Family, who serves as director of the dispensary.  “This is a disaster.”

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“In this country, we live day by day.  We don’t know what will happen tomorrow.  We can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel,” says Sister Marie Justine.  “I always say that God always helps us.  Thank God, He sends us helpers,” she said, such as Aid to the Church in Need.  “We are so grateful.”

4. Catholic Herald: Big rise in abortions in England and Wales during lockdown

5. Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 should not be held in China, human rights groups say in letter to IOC

6. A young boy died alongside his dog in the Oregon wildfires

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8. Bahrain becomes latest Arab nation to recognize Israel

9. Maureen Ferguson: New Court Shortlist Adds More Female Judicial Role Models

The first female justice on the Supreme Court, Sandra Day O’Connor, was a Reagan appointee, but her judicial philosophy turned out to be anything but conservative. Among other disappointments, O’Connor read a right to abortion into the Constitution as a necessity for women to achieve economic and social equality. She even voted in 2000 to strike down a state ban on late-term partial-birth abortion.

The women on the president’s current list have an entirely different outlook on the Constitution. All are highly respected judges and lawyers who have demonstrated a commitment to the Constitution’s original meaning and text. Many also represent a broader idea of who might make a great justice. They transcend the narrow central casting tropes. All were educated at top-notch law schools (but not necessarily Ivy League ones, those impeccably elite but doctrinally progressive institutions). A judge from “Middle America” might be refreshingly uninterested in the approval of the proverbial Georgetown cocktail party crowd.

10.  What it takes to preserve friendship amid deep divisions over politics and COVID-19

11.  Alex Trebek of ‘Jeopardy!’ Has Questions About God That Need Answers 

12. Sad, but not surprising — Half of U.S. Christians say casual sex between consenting adults is sometimes or always acceptable

13. Brace yourself before you listen to this podcast about scandal in the Catholic Church, but I’m grateful my alma mater is doing it.

14. Life Unites is the theme of the 48th March for Life in January

15. Trained Like The Master, a homily for today (Fr. Roger Landry)