July 10, 2018 Edition
St. Ignatius Helps Provide Diapers and Essential Baby Gear to Baltimore Families in Need
ShareBaby is a local organization dedicated to providing diapers and other essential baby gear to Baltimore families in need. ShareBaby collects diapers and gently used baby gear, and redistributes these items to families in need through a network of community agencies.

One in three families in Baltimore suffers from diaper need. Families dealing with diaper need face financial burden, maternal depression and increased barriers to work and childcare. Their children suffer consequences ranging from diaper rash, urinary tract infections, and increased incidence of child abuse.

Federal and state assistance programs do not specifically cover diapers and other essential baby gear. People cannot use Food Stamps or WIC to purchase diapers. Money from the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program (TANF) can be used, but that money also needs to cover rent, utilities, transportation and many other essential family costs. Diapers alone can account for up to 12% of gross income.

In 2017, ShareBaby distributed 240,698 diapers, and 52,193 other essential baby items. That year, 3,299 children in Baltimore were served.

The Loyola Early Learning Center is already a ShareBaby partner, and they receive baby supplies for the children who attend the school. St. Ignatius’ Respect For Life Committee is currently on the waiting list to receive supplies for the Angel Moms program through the Gabriel Network.

St. Ignatius is happy to announce its partnership with ShareBaby to assist in collecting diapers, wipes, and other essential baby items for these families in need. This weekend we will have a collection bin, located in the Gallery where parish members can leave donations of diapers, wipes, and other new or gently used baby items such as Pack and Plays, portable bassinets, formula, and clothing. 

Donations to this week's Poor Box will also be directed to ShareBaby .

For more information, visit the ShareBaby website by clicking here , or contact parishioner Mindy Merlo at mindymerlo@gmail.com .

A Great Big Thanks
We Now Have 3 Angel Babies!

St. Ignatius now has three Angel Babies! The Respect For Life Ministry’s (RFL) "Angel Mom" team is delighted to report that Grace, our mom from Burkina Faso, gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Sam Zorrino on 7/2. Our newest Angel Mom , Irene, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo here in the US for one year, delivered a healthy baby girl, Joieuse Merciane on 6/21. Our first mom, Deborah, is from Baltimore and her baby girl Siege, born last November, is now 8 months old!
 
The RFL ministry wants to thank St. Ignatius parishioners for their generosity in the most recent parish-wide outreach to support these families. Your generosity has provided diapers, clothing, baby furniture, changing tables, cribs, and other much needed items for these poor families. In addition, the Angel Mom team has been helping with transportation to doctor's appointments, immigration help, referrals, friendship, and other support.
City Walls
Mural Art in Baltimore 

When Baltimore’s towering Washington Monument was built around 200 years ago, its construction was unprecedented in the newly formed United States and Baltimore earned the nickname “The Monumental City.” The city is now dotted with an impressive number of public works that honor the past, including many statues, memorials and murals. If you've driven much throughout the city you will find the buildings and bridges have become the canvases for many a muralist. We thought it would be fun to list several sites that give you information about these artistic masterpieces and how to find them.

Open Walls Baltimore
Where: Station North Arts & Entertainment District
Thanks to local street artist Gaia, the walls in Station North Arts & Entertainment District are now an impressive outdoor gallery. He brought muralists from around the country and world to Baltimore to create 34 murals throughout the district in both 2012 and 2014. Murals range widely in size, type and subject. Get a preview of the murals on this  Open Walls virtual photo tour.

Other Projects

On Spiritual Discernment
Pope Francis listens to his message being delivered in several languages during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, on March 21, 2018. (AP/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Francis Teaches Discernment for Coping with Spiritual Battles


by Thomas Reese

Spirituality, whether Christian or Muslim, frequently uses the language of battle, so it is not surprising that Pope Francis promotes the Christian equivalent of a spiritual jihad. Many in the West think jihad only means warfare, whereas it can also mean the spiritual struggle within oneself against sin. In the final chapter of "Gaudete et Exsultate" ("Rejoice and Be Glad"), Francis uses similar language when he writes that "the Christian life is a constant battle." For him, this battle is not just against the world and our human weakness but also against the devil himself.

(In earlier columns, I discussed chapters  1 ,  2 ,  3  and  4 .)

For Francis, the devil is not a mythical figure but real. "It is precisely the conviction that this malign power is present in our midst that enables us to understand how evil can at times have so much destructive force," he writes. "We should not think of the devil as a myth, a representation, a symbol, a figure of speech or an idea. This mistake would lead us to let down our guard, to grow careless and end up more vulnerable." READ MORE
Summer Review and Recommendation
The Mr. Rogers documentary  Won’t You Be My Neighbor? is a tearjerker with a purpose


by Noel Murray

In the 15 years since Fred Rogers died, the television pioneer has enjoyed a second life as an internet celebrity. At least once or twice a year, usually during another of the federal government’s endless debates about budgetary priorities, someone will dig up and pass around the video of “Mister Rogers” testifying before Congress about the necessity of funding PBS. Or in the wake of any tragedy or disaster, people almost reflexively share his simple advice to “ look for the helpers .” Between all the memes, clips, and urban legends, Rogers long ago stopped being a real person, at least in the public eye. He’s more of an ideal.

There’s a lot to like about Morgan Neville’s moving, inspiring new documentary "Won’t You Be My Neighbor?"; but the film’s one major flaw is that it can’t quite bring its subject back down to Earth. That’s not for lack of trying. Neville talks to just about everybody alive who knew Fred Rogers intimately: his wife, his two sons, his longtime casts and crews on the PBS series "Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood." They all share anecdotes about how, yes, Rogers could be cranky sometimes, and yes, he was known to laugh at a dirty joke. But more often, everyone speaks in awed tones about a man who practiced what he preached: greeting each new day with wonder, always endeavoring to treat other people kindly. READ MORE
Father Mark, His Summer in Baltimore, and the Plight in His Homeland.
Welcome Back Fr. Mark Ebosele!


Here are two things we wanted to share with you.

First: Father Mark Okojie Ebosele is returning to St. Ignatius Church this week for his 12th summer of ministry with us. Our parish supported Father Mark during his eight years of seminary training. In 2006 Father Watters flew to Nigeria to attend Father Mark's Ordination to the Priesthood and to invite him to come to Baltimore to meet the people who had supported his seminary education.

In summer of 2007 he arrived and became a much-loved priest whose work and original parish of St. Bede the Venerable our parish supported i n multiple ways. We assisted Father Mark with financial gifts to build his church, rectory, school and water tower. We are pleased to welcome you back, Father Mark!

Second: We wanted to include with the news of Mark's summer return the following article and podcast about Christians under attack in Nigeria entitled "'Pure Genocide'" in Nigeria. This is the land of Mark's calling and ministry and it is good for us to know of the disturbing things occurring in Nigeria that we might pray for our brothers and sisters.
BreakPoint: “Pure Genocide” in Nigeria

Christians Under Attack


It’s one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a Christian. What’s going on right now in Nigeria is “pure genocide.”

Recently on BreakPoint, I said that it took a lot of courage to be a Christian in Iraq. Just two years ago, the Obama administration called what ISIS was doing to Iraqi Christians “genocide.”

Unfortunately, there are other places in the world where being a Christian requires a lot of courage as well, and, where the treatment of Christians merits the word “genocide.”

One such place: Nigeria. By most estimates , the population of Nigeria is almost evenly divided between Muslims and Christians. That religious split largely follows geographic lines: The northern part of the country is predominantly Muslim, the eastern and southern parts of the country heavily Christian. The middle, sometimes called the “Middle Belt,” is ethnically and religiously diverse.

Not surprisingly, what makes Nigeria so dangerous for Christians originates in the Islamic north. There, Christians have been on the receiving end of a campaign Open Doors calls “religious cleansing,” that is, an attempt “to eradicate Christianity” from the region.

One of the most notorious Islamist terrorist groups in the world, Boko Haram, is responsible for killing thousands of Christians and displacing countless more in northern Nigeria. But Boko Haram isn’t the only group targeting Christians there. READ MORE
Viva House Collection on the Weekend of July 28 & 29
To celebrate the Feast of St. Ignatius, we will be collecting groceries for the neighbors of Viva House, the Catholic Worker community in southwest Baltimore. When you come to Mass on July 29, please bring to Ignatian Hall a doubled brown paper bag (or, better still, a reusable bag) filled with: 1 cereal, 1 box spaghetti, 1 spaghetti sauce, 2 cans meat (chicken or such), 2 cans soup, 2 cans beans (no pork), 2 boxes macaroni and cheese, 1 canned vegetable (collards are a favorite), 1 peanut butter, 1 jelly/jam. An admirable way to honor our patron saint.  Click here  for print out of list.  

Reusable Bags: Because it’s so much better to bring the groceries for our Viva House neighbors in a reusable bag, several parishioners have been collecting them for this purpose. Need a bag? Take a bag. Have a bag? Bring a bag. If you don’t have a reusable bag, please take one from the gallery table. If you have extras to spare, please bring them so that others may put them to use. Questions? Contact Pat Messick at  pcmessick@msn.com .  
Worship with Offerings, Liturgy and Prayers for Others
POOR BOX 
Each weekend St. Ignatius specifies a Poor Box collection for a needful cause. This week's support goes to support ShareBaby.

MASS MUSIC   
Attached is the listing for the music selections at next Sunday's 10:30 Mass. 
 
PERSECUTED CHRISTIAN REPORT
Weekly updates on Christian persecution around the globe. Keep a prayerful watch on what is
happening with your
brothers and sisters! 


Upcoming Events and Meetings
Interfaith/Ecumenical Meeting
Thursday, July 12 - 6:30 PM
Click here for complete information
Justice & Peace Committee Meeting
Thursday, July 12 - 6:30 PM
Click here for complete information
Prayer Walk with Bishop Madden for Peace in the CIty
Tuesday, July 17 - 5:30 PM
Click here for complete information
Women of the New Testament
Tuesday, July 17 - 6:45 PM
Click here for complete information
Mary Magdalene & the 7 Marys of the New Testament - Why Are They Important?
Saturday, July 21 - 9 AM
See box below for complete information
Embracing God's Gifts
Tuesday, July 24 - 7 PM
Click here for complete information


Ignatian Day Video Lecture by Bishop George V. Murry, S.J
Sunday, July 29 - 11:45 AM
See box below for complete information
Save the Dates
Mary Magdalene and the Seven Marys in the New Testament - Why Are They Important?
Saturday, July 21, 9 - 11:50 AM
To explore answers to this question, the Women of the New Testament Ministry of St. Ignatius Catholic Community will present a Morning of Reflection in observance of the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, Apostle to the Apostles, on Saturday, July 21, in Ignatian Hall.

After a period of readings and discussions, our guest speaker, Dr. Pat Fosarelli, will focus on St. Mary Magdalene: her importance and role in the early church; her being misidentified and maligned through its history; and her honoring by Pope Francis, who in 2016 announced the elevation of her memorial celebrated on July 22 to the status of feast day of the same importance as those of the 12 apostles.

Dr. Fosarelli, a physician and theologian, is the Associate Dean of St. Mary’s Ecumenical Institute, where she teaches in the areas of Spirituality and Practical Theology. She was also named a Permanent Distinguished Dunning Lecturer at the school. The author of twelve books, she is a strong advocate for developing women for leadership roles in the church.

Continental breakfast will be served from 9:00-9:30 AM. The program will end at 11:50 AM. Mass of the Solemnity of St. Mary Magdalene will follow at 12:10 PM in the Chapel of Grace.

The program is free and open to all.
Ignatian Day Event: A Video Lecture by Bishop George V. Murry, S.J.
This year we will be celebrating the Feast of St. Ignatius on Sunday, July 29. We will honor the day by having a special reception after the 10:30 AM Mass and a short video lecture given by Bishop George V. Murry, S.J. Chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism. On January 27, 2018 he presented this talk at the 18th  Annual Kennedy Lecture at St. Peter Catholic Church in Charlotte, NC. His lecture, entitled  The Times Demand it, the Gospel Demands it: Confronting the Sins of Racism , covers key historical actions perpetuating slavery and racism in the Catholic Church and the United States, and actions the church can take to confront racism in concrete, tangible ways.

It is our pleasure to offer this lecture – with a brief discussion to follow as we honor our own founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola.

There is no cost for this event.
In the Media
Sojourners Magazine asked students one question at the #MarchForOurLives on March 24. Take a look at their answers.
Brett Kavanaugh has been nominated. What’s the future of Roe vs. Wade?


President Trump’s nomination of D.C. circuit court Judge Brett Kavanaugh  to fill the seat on the United States Supreme Court vacated by Justice Anthony Kennedy may furnish the fifth vote needed to overrule  Roe v. Wade , the 1973 landmark ruling that legalized abortion in every jurisdiction of the United States. Judge Kavanaugh is a textualist who is suspicious of the kind of judicial innovation that led to the court’s ruling in Roe. That decision removed a matter of grave moral concern—about which there was and remains no public moral consensus—from the democratic process.

Reversing Roe will not make abortion illegal in every jurisdiction. It would simply affirm the right of the people, through their legislators, to make the law, while upholding the right of the judiciary to say what the law is. Thus more than 40 years after the court ushered in an era of abortion virtually on demand, voters may once again have the right to debate the issue and determine what public policy should govern. This should be a welcome development for the millions of people who in  dozens of public opinion polls  have registered their objection to the expansive permissibility of the Roe settlement. It should also be welcomed by all those who believe that democracies should settle such matters by argument and voting rather than judicial fiat. The prospect of reversing Roe increases the stakes in this nomination battle. That potential reversal, however, effectively returning abortion politics to the states, offers the way to prevent the issue from continuing to dominate future Supreme Court nominations. READ MORE