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James Martin, SJ @JamesMartinSJ
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Fifty years ago today, on Dec. 10, 1968, #ThomasMerton died in Bangkok. It's not a stretch to say that Thomas Merton changed my life. There is no person (other than Jesus, of course) so responsible for my vocation to religious life. Like so many, I am so grateful for his life.
Here are the words that changed my life, from his book "No Man is an Island"...
"Why do we spend our lives striving to be something that we would never want to be, if only we knew what we wanted? Why do we waste our time doing things which, if we only stopped to think about them, are just the opposite of what we were made for?”
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Dear friends: This week was one of the worst weeks in the church and in the Society of Jesus. By January, all of the US Jesuit Provinces will have released the names of Jesuits credibly accused of sexual abuse. This was the right and moral thing to do. 1/
It is part of the process of confession, which we hope will lead to healing and reconciliation. And to be clear: any credibly accused Jesuit today is immediately removed from active ministry. And any Jesuit who may have committed a crime is reported to civil authorities. 2/
But the release of names means that the stories of abuse will be read and cause further outrage and despair. 3/
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Writing an introduction to a new book about my friend Cardinal Avery Dulles, whose 100th anniversary we celebrate this year, I came upon this interview with him, done after he was named a cardinal. What an amazing person. (Note his comments on division.)
americamagazine.org/issue/338/arti…
"We have to listen to one another and sit down and talk together in a civil spirit. I regret the way in which some go off in a sectarian way within the church and make their own little home in one wing or the other..."
"...and become either liberal Catholic reformist types or truly adamant conservatives."
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Dear friends: I don't often recommend films but last night I saw the extraordinary "Happy as Lazzaro," on @netflix. A combination of an Italian neo-realist film and a parable, it hints at the stories of Jesus, St. Francis of Assisi and of course Lazarus.
It is an exquisitely made film, at once moving and challenging, clear and confusing, consoling and shocking. The religious themes, Catholic and otherwise, are throughout what I would say is close to a masterpiece.
It's one of the most profoundly religious films you will ever see.
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Today's movies-on-TV thread is devoted to a single film. The debut, 60 years ago today, of Dieterle's brilliant HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1939) on WOR's "Million Dollar Movie.'' I first saw this masterpiece during at least one of its 16 showings on Channel 9 during New Year week.
HUNCHBACK was was the only film shown at the first Cannes Film Festival in 1939, cancelled after World War II broke out. It was among the most famous of the 700-plus movies acquired by WOR's parent company, RKO General, when it bought the failing studio from Howard Hughes in 1955
I'm going to focus on two issues: how WOR severely cut the film for its first TV showings, as well as its mysterious, little-known showing on another New York City TV station 14 years earlier, which is why I'm not labeling its first appearance on MDM 12/29/58 as a "NY TV debut.''
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RIP Mr. President. Your death will not be in vain.

55 years ago today evil took the life a great American. The Press hated him. His government hated him. The cabal hated him.

The people loved him. Sound familiar?

#JohnFKennedy 11/22/63
Free and independent.

#JohnFKennedy #Qanon
“The same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe--the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.”

-JFK

#JohnFitzgeraldKennedy
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It was 24 years ago today that Pedro Zamora died.
A hard truth is that he’s been gone longer than he was alive. He leaves behind an eternal legacy that still inspires people all over the world as well as a generation of young people who weren’t born when we all came to know him.
We still miss him. I wish he had been to our wedding. I wish he could meet our children. I wish he could have been a father. I wish he could still fight for us. We need heroes.
He’d be proud of what’s been achieved. He’d be enraged with all the injustice.
We fight in his memory.
@RealWorldMTV @learnthinkact @BunimMurray
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Fifty years ago today, two American Olympians showed what it meant to champion justice and equality. It would cost them their careers, test their sanity, and earn them the scorn of their fellow citizens. Their protest inspired multitudes and left a legacy that transcends sport.
As a race reporter I am often reminded that so much of our job is to simply state: This Happened. Here is the @AP story from the night of Tommie Smith and John Carlos’ protest on Oct. 16, 1968, as it appeared in many newspapers the following day.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Tommie Smith and John Carlos leveled a bitter racial blast at the white structure Wednesday night after winning the gold and bronze medals respectively in the 200-meter dash of the Olympic Games.
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Today actually makes it over two decades since the sad killing of Ken Saro-Wiwa by the Nigerian State under Abacha alongside 8 others: Felix Nuate, Baronem Kobel, Saturday Dobee, Daniel Gbooko, Nordu Eawu, Baribor Bera, Paul Levura and John Kpuinee.

I think it’s worth a Thread.
This thread captures history from various perspectives all blended together to reveal a fuller picture.

It shows that Saro-Wiwa was also human like any of us but he was exceptionally courageous and dogged in spite of his human flaws.
Saro-Wiwa was a diminutive man who invariably always smoked a pipe and was considered quite brilliant.

He wrote a popular play which was adapted for TV when we were younger “Basi and Company”.

He was from Ogoni - an oil-producing area in Rivers State which has several villages.
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Today is the 10-year anniversary of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Columbia speech
And now for a long, tedious thread about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's appearance at Columbia's World Leaders Forum, 10 years ago today
I have a few vivid recollections of the day—I was 3 or 4 rows from the front, sitting a seat back from a Tehran-based Iranian journalist...
Read 42 tweets

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