Moral Perspectives in America Gerry OShea The clear division between the traditionalists and progressives in the American Catholic Church has become more glaring during the last few decades. A more free-thinking membership has largely supplanted the old-time religion involving weekly attendance at mass and regular confession of sins to a priest. In my Yonkers neighborhood stretching along McLean Avenue from Broadway on the west to Bronx River Rd., which is still populated by large numbers of emigrants from Ireland, three Catholic schools have been closed in the last few years, and the number of people attending weekly mass has dropped dramatically from just a generation ago. A 2022 Pew Research Center survey highlights a major difference between Catholics identifying themselves as supporters of the Republican and Democratic parties. 82% of Catholics who are Democrats feel that global climate change presents a serious moral problem, while among Repub...
Trip to Honduras Gerry OShea I recently returned from a four-day visit to San Pedro Sula, the second-largest city in Honduras. I was accompanied by Vincent Collins, his wife Linda, and Patricia Alarcon Cavalie. We were representing the New York-based charity HOPe, which has a project in the region of Choloma on the outskirts of the city. All of us, except Linda, are members of the organization. HOPe was founded in Yonkers by a group of Irish people in 1997, the 150 th anniversary of the worst year of the Irish potato famine. The members of this group, led by Pat Buckley from Killarney, felt that bemoaning the awful laissez-faire policies of the British Government, which caused the Irish disaster, was an inadequate response to the Gorta Mor tragedy. We looked for other ways of honoring the lives of the million or more Irish people who died from starvation or related diseases in their family huts or on the streets, or in the coffin...