knowyourneighbor

Can the Burning of a Chapel Lead to the Building of Bridges?

I am mourning the loss of the Longfellow Park Chapel; this church symbolized our centuries-old ties to New England.

For a time, three congregations will be displaced, and need somewhere to worship.

What if the civic and religious leaders of Cambridge were to reach out, and we reached back across the aisle?

What if the three Cambridge-based wards were to temporarily meet in a local university or church?

What if the burning of a chapel led to the building of bridges?

Boston Globe's Jeff Jacoby on Harvard's Mary Ann Glendon

In Jeff Jacoby's piece Courage, and the lack of it he describes Carrie Prejean and Mary Ann Glendon, a Harvard Law Professor and former US Ambassador to the Vatican, as having "greater respect for honesty than political correctness, and for the obligations of moral witness than for their own personal prestige."

Ms. Glendon "declined to accept the University of Notre Dame's illustrious Laetare Medla, the most distinguished honor in American Catholic life..."

"In a letter to Notre Dame's president, Glendon expressed dismay that the university would bestow a high honor on someone [President Obama] so hostile [unrestricted abortion rights] to such a fundamental Catholic principle, in flat disregard of church guidelines."

Who within our sphere -- that is also not of our faith -- is standing for something'?

How do we best reach out, honor and partner with people like Carrie Prejean and Mary Ann Glendon?