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Spokesman-Review features writer Rebecca Nappi, along with Catherine Johnston, an Olympia, Wash., writer who works in hospital administration, write about issues of grief when facing serious illness, dying, death and other forms of loss.
Ask a question: Rebecca and Catherine answer grief questions in their syndicated EndNotes column for McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. Email them at endnotescolumn@gmail.com.
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DeadHandsofChe on Catholic nonsense on May 26 at 6:08 p.m.
Is anyone forced to be a Catholic? If not, what is the problem with the Catholic Church having a set of beliefs? If one doesn’t like it, I suppose they could start their own church.
Al_Loysius on The Dwindlers: A must-read on May 24 at 9:12 p.m.
The “Culture of Death” is dressed up and made to look acceptable in a society that views human beings with deficiencies, health issues and mental deficits as being a drag on society. We don’t like to be hassled by old people and the handicapped, so please do all of us a favor and go quietly die. After all, we can go buy a new RV if Mom would hurry up and die before the care facility sucks up any more of her assets (and ours). Plus, we don’t like being sad and watching it all.
For those who are the elderly, handicapped and on the road to dementia, Mr. Wolff is a propagandist with a mission to shame them into killing themselves and feel noble about it.
We are a sick society that would rather live in a Brave New World where everybody is artificially happy instead of having to deal with compassion with old people who crap their pants and smell bad.
You will no doubt accuse me of wanting everybody to be a saint like Mother Theresa. Perhaps. After all wanting to be a saint is something terribly gauche’ , is it not?
katielou on The Dwindlers: A must-read on May 24 at 6:41 p.m.
This was difficult and painful to read. Thank you for linking the article.
As far as where the article was printed—is it from New York Magazine? This is different than the New York Times, correct?
Al_Loysius on Catholic nonsense on May 24 at 3:26 p.m.
Apstyle, you have missed the critical issue entirely. The critical issue is the right of religious bodies to be free from government action to define what consitutes a “religious activity.” The Obama Administration would essentially limit it to going to church on Sunday.
Krauthammer summarizes it well in this clip, and I will challenge you and Cathy to be open-minded enough to check it out:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/special-report-panel-catholic-voters_645817.html
apstyle on Catholic nonsense on May 24 at 1:14 p.m.
Thank you, Catherine, for your post. My aunt is a former Franciscan nun who is now married, and all of her nun friends are shocked and appalled that they are being chastised for such causes as being in favor of health care that doesn’t allow lifetime caps, prevents kids with pre-existing conditions from being denied coverage, and covers preventative care—including birth control—without co-pays.
For all of the previous commenter’s moral shaming, he forgets to mention that Obama already made a compromise with the Chruch—Churches do not have to provide birth control in their insurance coverage, but if women wish to seek it the insurance company must provide it. Your religious liberty argument is moot—it absolutely is about birth control, just as Catherine says.
As a Catholic myself, I miss the days of Vatican II when it said we would move beyond these inquisitions and take on a teaching role. But I can only speak with my dollars at Mass—and those dollars are going toward nun’s retirements now.
Al_Loysius on Catholic nonsense on May 23 at 12:29 p.m.
Wow, Catherine. Maureen Dowd is incredibly anti-Catholic and would say anything to destroy the Roman Catholic Church.
A little refresher course from your CCD classes long ago:
1.) The Roman Catholic Church is not a democracy. Its positions are based on scripture and tradition. You have fallen into the trap of “the dictatorship of relativism” that Fr. Robert Spitzer writes about. Truth is objective, whereas you are esposing the position that “conscience”, however, ill informed and however poorly formed trumps doctrine. In other words, you are advancing the view that “truth” is whatever 50.1% of the community “feels good” about.
2.) This so-called “inquisition” of certain orders of women religious is no such thing. When nuns start talking about “moving beyond Jesus” or belong to groups like “Nuns for Choice” then some serious action needs to be taken by the Bishops to correct the problem. The issue is not whatever good works among the poor or immigrants, etc. the nuns have done; it is quite blunty the fact that some significant numbers have totally flipped out and gone “New Age” on us.
3.) The lawsuits filed this week by Catholic Church organizations are a matter of religious liberty. The First Amendment protects us from government action that seeks to define what a religion can maintain as doctrine. It is excessive entanglement in setting up standards. The HHS regs go directly towards dictating what we as Catholics may do in pursuing work among the poor, among the sick and among those who seek an education. The regs say that if we as Catholics seek to do our good works among non-Catholics, then we are outside the protection of the the First Amendment.
Good summary of these issues by George Weigel at
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/300627/mandate-war-george-weigel
The movie “For Greater Glory” opens June 1. It is about the war touched off in Mexico in the early 20th Century when the Mexican government sought to agressively supress the Catholic Church and martyred many priests and Catholics without trial in firing squads.
You might just review the story of St. Thomas More, whose martyrdom has much to say to Catholics dealing with an over-reaching government.
cjwriter on Remembering the wedding people, some now gone on May 17 at 2:01 p.m.
Becky and Tony,
I remember that day! So fun…a lovely ceremony…Italian energy everywhere…reception at Town and Country…dancing with the happy groom. I wore a Laura Ashley dress. Ha! And now, here we are…27 years and you the co-author of two books on marriage. May you be blessed with many more years of happily ever after…
Truthbtold on Motherhood …a journey of grace on May 12 at 10:44 a.m.
Congratulations, mother hood is the best blessing ever bestowed on me!!!!!
Happy Mother’s Day Catherine
pjc on Life: The great blindsider on May 07 at 3:10 p.m.
Yep - life is full of terrible things. It is simply a matter of time when those terrible terrible things happen.
Life is also extremely unfair and random. Then again, nobody ever said it was supposed to be fair and anyone who believes otherwise is delusional.
On the other hand, life can occasionally be very wonderful. I guess you just have to enjoy it during the good times and endure it through the bad times.
Al_Loysius on Holding our breath…again on May 07 at 10:44 a.m.
Sorry for the typo. I meant to write George ‘Goober Pyle” Lindsey.
Al_Loysius on Holding our breath…again on May 07 at 10:43 a.m.
It is interesting to see how the media decides who is “worthy” of a lot of media coverage upon death. Adam Yauch, a fairly obscure rocker got a big splash last week. The beloved George “Goober Pyle” died yesterday and got a small article and no big splash on the news websites. I can make the case that Goober touched more lives and brought more joy to adults and kids alike through his TV work and work on Disney cartoons.
(I say Yauch was obscure because his musci never made Amercian Bandstand or Kasey Kasem’s American Top 40. Yes, i know he made the R & R HOF in Cleveland, but a lot of the people there are ones you never heard of)
What drives these decisions in the editorial offices?
greenlibertarian on What would Jesus think of it all? on May 02 at 12:16 a.m.
My god talk about stalker behavior. Creepy.
Rebeccan on Goodbye table, thanks for the memories on April 27 at 12:12 p.m.
And stuck with you for the Spokane chapters, and you know what I mean!
lynns on Goodbye table, thanks for the memories on April 27 at 12:10 p.m.
SIGH. I need to do the same with Mary Sue, my car of 14 years who I learned to drive on and has stuck with me for three states and 100,000 miles. It. Is. Hard.