Life in Community

Joe Nangle 3-01-1999

The final column of a six-year run gives the author permission to write in the first person, wouldn't you say?

Joe Nangle 1-01-1999

Early in the 1980s, I served a parish in Woburn, Massachusetts. This suburban city, some 12 miles north of Boston, had boasted of tanneries for 300 years.

Joe Nangle 11-01-1998

Ecology does not begin and end with the human, but it certainly includes us. All other beings share the planet and the cosmos with us, and we with them.

Joe Nangle 9-01-1998

Put aside the Holy Scriptures for a while and read God's first revelation—nature itself. Such was the advice offered some years ago by a profound, Christian thinker.

Joe Nangle 7-01-1998

Some days ago I received an unexpected call from Lima, Peru. A brother Franciscan there told me that Olga Valencia had died and, knowing of my friendship with her, he had attended the funeral. The news brought a flood of memories.

It's hard to pinpoint my first encounter with Olga. Surely it had to do with some request of hers for help—work, food, a handout. For she was the quintessential Third World mother, continually asking, begging, cajoling those of us in positions of privilege for charity on her own behalf and that of her numerous offspring. I must confess that in those early years she struck me as a whining, bothersome, pestering person, whom I tended to dispatch as quickly as possible.

One day her oldest child, 9-year-old Jose, was killed by a hit-and-run driver. It took Olga four days to bury him, and I walked alongside her during those terrible hours. From a halting investigation of the accident, to a still more halting autopsy in the city morgue, to a funeral director who wanted his money up front, to dealing with the accused driver—everything stood in the way of Olga's burying little Jose with dignity.

In the end, out of desperate necessity (no embalming in Peru) this mother, her husband, and I took Jose's body to the paupers' graveyard and buried him there. Then I drove them home, sat with them for a while, and left them to pick up once again the threads of their miserable existence. That day forever changed my relationship with Olga, and in some ways forever changed me.

Joe Nangle 5-01-1998

Once in a while you get to see people assimilate a value from a different culture. It’s an enriching experience for everyone concerned.

Joe Nangle 3-01-1998

The drama that unfolded in the arrest and court proceedings of Theodore Kaczynski deserves serious, even prayerful, reflection. In part it focuses our attention on that most basic of all communi

Joe Nangle 1-01-1998

"The hardest part in this is seeing the pain, not only the pain of those I love, but the pain of everybody involved.

Joe Nangle 11-09-1997

A unique faith community gathered recently in Washington, D.C., to celebrate its Silver Jubilee.

Joe Nangle 9-01-1997

School in all of its dimensions inevitably marks our later efforts at community living.

Joe Nangle 5-01-1997
Ecumenism will happen not so much as a result of doctrinal discussions, but through real-life activities on behalf of a suffering world.
Joe Nangle 3-01-1997

The many communities that Father Jim Healy served during 35 years as a Catholic priest came together recently at his memorial service.

Joe Nangle 1-01-1997

For the first time in memory, the Latino community took to the streets of Washington, D.C., in large numbers on October 12, 1996.

Joe Nangle 11-01-1996

A recent survey, taken in a school for upper-middle-class American children, surfaced a startling statistic.

Joe Nangle 9-01-1996

A visit to the United Nations stimulates reflections and emotions regarding humanity's striving for community. Approaching the U.N. complex from 46th Street and First Avenue, you see the flags of the 185 member nations flying at the same height, placed in the alphabetical order of their country's names. The sight speaks of equality—the Stars and Stripes of the world's superpower is number 175 in this even row of national banners.

Stepping from the sidewalk onto U.N. property, you learn that technically you have left the United States and now stand on international soil. The scene around you changes dramatically (or is this one's imagination?). It seems that most of those entering the U.N. building are people of color, a visual reminder of global population realities. Clearly the human community comes in all shades of black, brown, yellow, and white.

A guided tour of the United Nations calls to mind the significant moments in humanity's quest for community as represented in the 51-year history of this organization. From the dark days of World War II, when the Allied nations foresaw international collaboration in the service of peace, to the actual Charter of the United Nations and its ratification in the spring and fall of 1945, to the first General Assembly of the then-51 member states in January 1946, you get a sense of early gropings toward the "one world" that those pioneers envisioned.

The list of secretaries-general recalls the names that have become identified with the innumerable issues, dialogues, dramatics, and sheer boredom that have characterized this five-decade pursuit of a truly global community: Trygve Lie (Norway), Dag Hammarskjold (Sweden), U Thant (Burma), Kurt Waldheim (Austria), Javier Perez de Cuellar (Peru), and Boutros Boutros-Ghali (Egypt). Each name speaks eloquently of humanity's yearning that "all may be one."

Joe Nangle 7-01-1996

Catholic religious congregations these days find themselves in uncharted waters as they increasingly move toward internationalizing their communities.

Joe Nangle 5-01-1996

One can only marvel at couples who successfully manage life in community alongside their own needs as spouses.

Joe Nangle 3-01-1996

Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller once criticized Little League baseball for its interference in children's spontaneous play.

Joe Nangle 1-01-1996

Sojourners has invaded cyberspace. Or perhaps it's the other way around.