Welcome to Friday. The popular pilgrimages and processions for Our Lady of Guadalupe's feast day have been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. An NCR commentator says the federal government's death penalty killing spree is a modern-day lynching. And NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters argues for the elimination of the Electoral College.
Instead of popular pilgrimages and processions, the theme for this year's celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is to welcome her into your home.
In Los Angeles, a flower-laden truck with speakers playing Guadalupana songs will carry an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and parishioners at St. Patrick's Catholic Church were invited to decorate their homes with flowers and come out into their yards to welcome her.
The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City hosts the largest Catholic pilgrimage in the world every year for the Dec. 12 feast day, but this year's pilgrimage was canceled in November. The second-largest Our Lady of Guadalupe pilgrimage is held annually at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Des Plaines, Illinois. Catholics from the Chicago area and from neighboring states travel for miles to the shrine. But that pilgrimage has been canceled, too.
You can read more of the story here.
Until July 14, not one man or woman on the federal government's death row had been put to death in the last 17 years. In fact, until then, for the past 50 years, only three people had been executed by the federal government.
Yet in a three-month killing spree, writes Jesuit Fr. James Keenan in a commentary for NCR, Attorney General William Barr oversaw the executions of seven people. A little over a month passed, then the executions resumed. On Aug. 26, the federal government executed Lezmond Mitchell, the only Native American on federal death row. His own people — the Navajo — vehemently opposed his death.
The Trump administration will kill six more human beings before Inauguration Day. Of the six, one is a white woman and five are black men.
"Study after study demonstrates that the death penalty is infected with racial bias; the federal death penalty is no different," writes Keenan. "We are witnessing this Advent a modern-day lynching."
You can read more of the commentary here.
More headlines
- NCR political columnist Michael Sean Winters says the easiest way to make sure future generations have less chance of enduring another post-election mess is to eliminate the Electoral College, which turns our national elections into 51 micro-elections.
- The five-year mark for the Paris Agreement is no time to rejoice, but rather recognize "we're not doing well" in achieving its goals to curb greenhouse gas emissions and limit global climate change, top Vatican officials said this week.
- Read letters to the editor responding to a story on the exorcisms held by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone over the sites where statues of St. Junípero Serra were toppled.
Final thoughts
Every Friday, Global Sisters Report publishes Horizons, a column written by a younger sister reflecting on their religious life and ministry. This week's column, written by Tracey Horan, a member of the Sisters of Providence of St. Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana, talks about how Advent is a season of idyllic waiting. "But I am tired of waiting," Horan writes. "And some people have been waiting for way too long." You can sign up to receive an email each time a new Horizons column is posted.
Until Monday,
Stephanie Yeagle
NCR Production/Online Editor
[email protected]
Twitter: @ncrSLY
