A Light in Very Dark Days: Nancy Pelosi and AIDS; The New York Times, November 7, 2025

Adam Nagourney, Heather Knight, Kellen Browning and Laurel Rosenhall, The New York Times ; A Light in Very Dark Days: Nancy Pelosi and AIDS

"Ms. Pelosi, the new member of Congress representing San Francisco at the time, asked the nurses if they had what they needed and if any patients were up for a bedside visit. Then she would slip into their rooms alone.

“Early on, it was not seen as a wise or popular thing to do, to champion people with AIDS, of all things,” Mr. Wolf, 74, recalled. “You didn’t want to align yourself too closely, but she didn’t care. We were her constituents, and she went to bat for us over and over and over again.”...

Ms. Pelosi, who announced on Thursday her plans to retire from Congress, is known nationally as a Washington leader praised by Democrats for standing up to President Trump and derided by Republicans as a symbol of the radical excesses of the left. But back home, her reputation was shaped by how she stepped forward at the earliest and most terrifying moment of a local crisis and how she fought to help her constituents deal with the AIDS epidemic and fight for L.G.B.T.Q. rights.

The public side of this is by now well-known: How over decades spent in Congress she fought for money for AIDS research and treatment or invited prominent AIDS and gay rights activists to be at her side at the State of the Union address and other events. But much of it took place away from the public eye. It’s those moments many of her gay constituents in San Francisco talk about as she approaches the end of her congressional career."

The Tull Family Foundation donated a large sum of money and over 1,300 pounds of meat and produce to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank; The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 7, 2025

LINDSAY SHACHNOW , The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; The Tull Family Foundation donated a large sum of money and over 1,300 pounds of meat and produce to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank

"A delivery of more than 1,300 pounds of meat and produce to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank on Thursday came as the Tull Family Foundation stepped up to help out amid an ongoing government shutdown that has left millions across Pennsylvania without access to food assistance.

The food bank, which works in more than 10 counties in southwestern Pennsylvania, estimates a hefty food and monetary donation from the foundation founded by Thomas and Alba Tull will provide more than 150,000 meals to people in need.

The contribution from the foundation tied to the billionaire minority owner of the Steelers reflects a surge in efforts across the community and the country to keep food supplies flowing to those in need. 

On Nov. 1, SNAP cards used by 2 million Pennsylvanians to supplement their grocery budgets were emptied as a result of the shutdown of the federal government. Local food banks — which are designed to provide added support to people receiving SNAP benefits — have been overwhelmed."

Trump is threatening the basic needs of poor Americans. How low he has sunk; The Guardian, November 7, 2025

Robert Reich , The Guardian; Trump is threatening the basic needs of poor Americans. How low he has sunk

[Kip Currier: This is a very persuasive opinion piece by Robert Reich on moral authority and moral sustainability. I encourage everyone to reflect on these observations (excerpted below) about the contrast between FDR's actions in the 1930's and Trump's actions now and share them with others. Each of us has a choice we can make as to which approach we support and advance: adding more and more wealth to the ultra-rich or showing compassion and generosity to persons in need.

For those who follow a religious tradition, too, ask yourself which approach your higher power would support? Giving more money to a billionaire -- even potential trillionaire Elon Musk -- or providing compassionate assistance to a school with hungry children, a military family experiencing food scarcity, or a disabled individual with ongoing healthcare needs who is unable to work?

Realistically, we can't imbue a moral conscience or basic sense of decency upon those who even now emulate the Gilded Age Robber Barons, as Trump's Halloween Great Gatsby party unequivocally demonstrated while SNAP food benefits were being eliminated. However, we can make a choice each day about what each of us can do to help someone in need and support political candidates and organizations who are helping those less fortunate than we are.]

Eighty-eight years ago, in his second inaugural address, Franklin D Roosevelt told America that “the test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”

It was not a test of the nation’s military might or of the size of the national economy. It was a test of our moral authority. We had a duty to comfort the afflicted, even if that required afflicting the comfortable.

The Trump regime has adopted the reverse metric. The test of its progress is whether it adds to the abundance of those who have much and provides less for those who have too little.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/07/trump-snap-medicaid-moral-authority

[Excerpt]

"How low Trump has sunk.

Eighty-eight years ago, in his second inaugural address, Franklin D Roosevelt told America that “the test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”

It was not a test of the nation’s military might or of the size of the national economy. It was a test of our moral authority. We had a duty to comfort the afflicted, even if that required afflicting the comfortable.

The Trump regime has adopted the reverse metric. The test of its progress is whether it adds to the abundance of those who have much and provides less for those who have too little. It is passing this test with flying colors.

What is the Democrats’ demand amid the shutdown? That lower-income Americans continue to receive subsidized healthcare. Otherwise, healthcare premiums for millions of lower-income Americans will soar next year in large part because the Trump Republican One Big Beautiful Bill Act (really, Big Ugly Bill) slashed Obamacare subsidies.

Republicans had rammed the Big Ugly Bill through Congress without giving Senate Democrats an opportunity to filibuster it because Republicans used a process called “reconciliation”, requiring only a majority vote of the Senate.

The Big Ugly Bill also requires Medicaid applicants and enrollees – also low-income – to document at least 80 hours of work per month

Many people dependent on Medicaid won’t be able to do this, either because they’re not physically able to work or won’t be able to do the required paperwork to qualify for an exemption from the work requirement.

The Congressional Budget Office, as assessed by KFF, estimates the work requirement will be the largest source of Medicaid savings, reducing federal spending on the low-income Americans by $326bn over 10 years and causing millions to become uninsured.

All told, the Big Ugly Bill cuts roughly $1tn over the next decade from programs for which the main beneficiaries are the poor and working class, and gives about $1tn in tax benefits to the richest members of our society.

It is the most dramatic reversal of FDR’s moral test in American history.

By the time of FDR’s second inaugural address in 1937, most of the country was still ill-housed, ill-fed, and ill-clothed. Yet we were all in it together. The fortunes of the robber barons of the Gilded Age had mostly been leveled by the Great Crash of 1929...

Trump is throwing a huge party for America’s wealthy – giving them tax cuts and regulatory rollbacks to ensure that their wealth (and support for him) continues to grow.

Meanwhile, he is throwing to poor and working-class Americans the red meat of hatefulness – hate of immigrants, people of color, the “deep state”, “socialists”, “communists”, transgender people and Democrats.

This is the formula strongmen have used for a century – more wealth for the wealthy, more bigotry for the working-class and poor – until the entire facade crumbles under the weight of its own hypocrisy.

On Tuesday, millions of American voters refused to go along with this unfairness. They repudiated, loudly and clearly, the formula Trump and his regime have used.

It is the responsibility of all of us to return the nation to a path that is morally sustainable."

Episcopal churches, food pantries prepare to aid 42 million Americans on food assistance; Episcopal News Service (ENS), October 30, 2025

Melodie Woerman, Episcopal News Service (ENS); Episcopal churches, food pantries prepare to aid 42 million Americans on food assistance

 "Food ministries across The Episcopal Church have been offering aid to federal workers furloughed or working without pay since the Oct. 1 start of the government shutdown, and they are also gearing up to help even more people if food assistance benefits for an estimated 42 million Americans run out on Nov. 1.

Nourishing Bethesda, a nonprofit that began five years ago as an outreach ministry of St. John’s Norwoodin Chevy Chase, Maryland, already has seen an increase in the number of people seeking food help, executive director John Ross told Episcopal News Service. That largely is because many furloughed and unpaid federal workers are in metro-Washington, D.C...

Here are ways other churches are working to provide food to those who need it, based on replies to ENS queries across various platforms:

• St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia, is asking members to contribute more items to its food pantry, which is open weekly. It also provides bags of groceries to people who can’t get to the pantry and to people served by Virginia Supportive Housing, a local nonprofit. It also offers a weekly farmer’s market.
• St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Jamestown, New York, is partnering with the Jamestown Farmers Market to provide $15 in market vouchers, up to $60 per family, for SNAP recipients and unpaid and furloughed federal workers. The effort has provided more than $7,000 in assistance so far. The church also is providing space in its building this winter for the market, beginning Nov. 1.
• St. Columba’s Episcopal Church in Kent, Washington, is gearing up to double the amount of food in its food bank, while awaiting word on whether the state will extend benefits beginning Nov. 1. If needed, Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Federal Way, Washington, will provide additional volunteers for St. Columba’s food minstry.
• St. Francis Episcopal Church, Stamford, Connecticut, is setting up a financial “virtual food drive” to support Connecticut Foodshare, the local affiliate of Feeding America.
• St. John’s Cathedral in Jacksonville, Florida, already asks parishioners to bring a bag of groceries to church each week but is encouraging them to increase the amount of food they bring.
• St. John’s Episcopal Church in New Braunfels, Texas, is providing parishioners with an Amazon Wish List of items needed by the local food bank. Items will be shipped to the church for delivery in bulk, taking a load off food bank workers.
• Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Hastings, Michigan, is planning to buy gift cards for the Thanksgiving meal the supermarket chain Aldi is offering. They also are hoping to provide a sack of groceries to guests at their Saturday community breakfast.
• Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge, New Jersey, is providing special donation boxes made by parish children to help people who are food insecure. It also has added “SNAP Aid” to its online giving options.
• St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Arlington, Virginia, is asking everyone attending the parish annual meeting Nov. 2 to bring food for the local food pantry. In addition, undesignated offerings that day will benefit the pantry. The church also will be launching a “food and fund” drive to run through January, which the pantry reports is its hardest month.
• Church of the Holy Communion in Memphis, Tennessee, is hoping to expand its annual Advent canned-ham drive to a ham-plus effort to collect hearty soups, canned meals and more.
• St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, Durham, North Carolina, is asking members to bring more food than usual for donation to Urban Ministries of Durham, the local shelter and food pantry the church helped found years ago.
• St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Barnstable, Massachusetts, is continuing its food efforts – preparing and serving meals at local sites and helping to provide 300 Thanksgiving meals – as the rector, the Rev. Michael Horvath, encouraged all parishioners to explore how they could do more in light of the expected loss of SNAP benefits, asking “What can we offer that makes love tangible?”"

Something Is Stirring in Christian America, and It’s Making Me Nervous; The New York Times, October 16, 2025

 David French, The New York Times; Something Is Stirring in Christian America, and It’s Making Me Nervous

"Despite what you may have heard about the renewal of interest in religion in America, we are not experiencing a true revival, at least not yet. Instead, America is closer to a religious revolution, and the difference between revolution and revival is immensely important for the health of our country — and of the Christian church in America...

Incredibly, Christians are attacking what they call the “sin of empathy,” warning fellow believers against identifying too much with, say, illegal immigrants, gay people or women who seek abortions. Empathy, in this formulation, can block moral and theological clarity. What’s wrong is wrong, and too much empathy will cloud your soul...

In other words, revival begins with the people proclaiming, by word and deed, “I have sinned.”

MAGA Christianity has a different message. It looks at American culture and declares, “You have sinned.”

And it doesn’t stop there. It also says, “We will defeat you.” In its most extreme forms, it also says, “We will rule over you.” That’s not revival; it’s revolution, a religious revolution that seeks to overthrow one political order and replace it with another — one that has echoes of the religious kingdoms of ages past...

Similarly, when a pastor named Doug Wilson calls transgender Americans “trannies,” or gay Americans “gaytards,” or women he doesn’t like “lumberjack dykes” and “small-breasted biddies,” he is imitating Trump, not Christ.

In the Book of Galatians, Paul contrasts the fruit of the spirit with what he called the “acts of the flesh,” the sins that can destroy the soul. Those sins include the very characteristics that mark America’s religious revolution: “hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions.”

The fruit of the spirit — “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” — in contrast, is present when Christ is present. This is the fruit of a real revival...

We will know when revival comes because we will see believers humble themselves, repent of their sins, and then arise, full of genuine virtue, to love their neighbors — to help them, not hurt them — and in so doing to heal our nation."

The virtues of Superman; Thinking About..., September 25, 2025

TIMOTHY SNYDER, Thinking About... ; The virtues of Superman

[Spoilers for 2025 Superman film]

"Superman’s victory, in the end, is crowned with an argument about humanity. For Luthor, humanity is genetic. He is human because he is genetically so. And whatever he does is therefore human, in the interest of humanity. The better it feels, the more human it must be. Superman counters with an ethical definition: to be human is to be humane. It is to try to do what is right. It is to take risks and pains to try to find the truths, including about oneself. Luthor, naturally, laughs at all of this. 

Luthor has himself raised a super-clone of Superman to be loathsomely obedient. But whose point does that really prove? Superman was genetically the child of parents who wanted him to take over the earth in a display of his own genetic superiority. But he was raised by kind people and became a kind person. Parenting, it turns out, makes the difference."

Utah’s Republican governor makes case for unity – in stark contrast with Trump; The Guardian, September 12, 2025

David Smith , The Guardian; Utah’s Republican governor makes case for unity – in stark contrast with Trump

"In a nation seemingly on the brink, they were words that Americans needed to hear – coming not from the president but a politician with civility, compassion and rhetorical grace notes.

“We can return violence with violence, we can return hate with hate, and that’s the problem with political violence – it metastasises because we can always point the figure at the other side,” said Spencer Cox, the governor of Utah. “At some point we have to find an offramp or else it’s going to get much, much worse.”

In a tone of moral urgency, Cox added: “These are choices that we can make. History will dictate if this is a turning point for our country but every single one of us gets to choose right now if this is a turning point for us.”

The governor was speaking at a press conference after announcing that authorities had arrested a suspect in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, a political activist who rallied young voters for Donald Trump, at a university campus in Utah on Wednesday.

It was an act of surging political violence in a country awash with guns, a moment that cries out for cool heads to lower the political temperature. Yet Trump wasted no time in blaming the “radical left”.

The two-term Republican governor has frequently worked with Democrats and issued pleas for bipartisan cooperation. He drew national attention with a deeply personal response to the 2016 shooting at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub and has long espoused a vision of politics rooted in unity and respect.

That was evident in the calm, measured yet impassioned remarks that he made on Friday as the Trump-appointed FBI director, Kash Patel, looked on. “Over the last 48 hours I have been as angry as I have ever been, as sad as I have ever been,” Cox said, a tremor in his voice.

The 50-year-old governor, who has four children who are teenagers and young adults, directed some of his remarks to young people. “You are inheriting a country where politics feels like rage,” he said. “It feels like rage is the only option.”But, Cox insisted, there was a different path. “Your generation has an opportunity to build a culture that is very different than what we are suffering through right now. Not by pretending differences don’t matter but by embracing our differences and having those hard conversations.”...

Trump, however, has a history of exploiting tragedies to berate opponents and sow further division. Cox, by contrast, has been a strong advocate for civility in politics across the country. In his 2020 campaign for governor, he and his Democratic opponent appeared together in television ads pledging to “disagree without hating each other”, a highly unorthodox move.

And as chairman of the National Governors Association, he promoted civility through an initiative he called Disagree Better. He made appearances across the country with Democratic governors and other public figures to emphasise unifying values.

Frank Luntz, a political consultant and pollster, says: “Spencer Cox has been the national leader in promoting a more civil, respectful dialogue and his voice is needed now more than ever. He has said: we’re better than this, we don’t have to choose anger and, even at our angriest, we can decide to search for what is better in mankind. The vast majority of the public agrees with him.”

Luntz adds: “This is a break point for the country and thank God we have people like Cox who realise this. We may look back at this and say either this was the end of our civility and decency or the beginning of getting control back in our country where calmer minds are in charge.”"

He could have been the GOP’s voice on crime, but his faith intervened; The Washington Post, August 7, 2025

 Emily Davies, The Washington Post; He could have been the GOP’s voice on crime, but his faith intervened

"“I want the world to know that I’ve forgiven Glynn,” Todd recalled saying to his parents, “and because of that, there have been benefits given to me.”

Incarceration, he felt, may not be the way to bring his assailant closer to God. Neal, now 44, already had served 13 years in prison after being convicted of luring two North Carolina women into prostitution in the District and repeatedly beating them when they resisted having sex with strangers, court records show. Neal, whose attorneys did not return requests for comment, was released on March 24, 2023 — the day before Todd was attacked.

“That clearly did not work,” Todd recalled telling his parents, meaning Neal’s years behind bars.

“At the same time,” he said to them, he recalled in an interview, “I also don’t want the world to misperceive forgiveness as ceding that this is okay.”"

James Gunn Explains Why Supergirl’s Secret Cameo Was Crucial For Superman; ScreenRant, July 19, 2025

Andy Behbakht

 , ScreenRant; James Gunn Explains Why Supergirl’s Secret Cameo Was Crucial For Superman

WARNING: This article includes SPOILERS from Superman.

"In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Gunn shared more about Alcock's Supergirl cameo and how it was used as a way to give the DCU audience an introduction to the Girl of Steel. Gunn stressed that it was important to have Supergirl at the end, as he shared the following:

James Gunn: But for me, the main reason for Kara showing up is to show that Superman not only risked his life to go save a dog that was his dog, that so many of us would do, he was watching the dog for somebody else. The dog's a pain in his ass. He didn't want to take that dog. She's off being irresponsible. He doesn't want to have to watch a dog. He's having to save the world every two seconds. And even still, he goes to the ends of the earth for that dog.

To me, that's one of the most touching things in the movie. Earlier, when Lois says, "It's just a dog," and he says, "Yeah, not even a very good one, but it's probably scared," it just shows you the depths of his empathy. I find that so touching. Then, when you find out at the end, it's not even his dog; she just left it with him."

James Gunn Says ‘Superman’ Is An “Immigrant” Story About “Basic Human Kindness”; Deadline, July 6, 2025

Natalie Oganesyan , Deadline; James Gunn Says ‘Superman’ Is An “Immigrant” Story About “Basic Human Kindness”

"Long established as an allegory for the immigrant experience, especially when viewed through the personal histories of Superman‘s comic book co-creators — second-generation Jewish immigrants Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster — DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn said his forthcoming film entry of Kal-El keeps in tune with the original 1938-created vision.

“I mean, Superman is the story of America,” the Superman helmer told The Times U.K. in a new profile. “An immigrant that came from other places and populated the country, but for me it is mostly a story that says basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost.”"

Trump administration ends 988 Lifeline's special service for LGBTQ+ young people; NPR, July 19, 2025

Rhitu Chatterjee , NPR; Trump administration ends 988 Lifeline's special service for LGBTQ+ young people

[Kip Currier: Like the suspension of PEPFAR medicines for HIV prevention throughout the Global South and the dismantling of USAID, terminating Lifeline's specialized services for at risk LGBTQ+ youth is another deeply cruel and indifferent policy decision by the Trump 2.0 administration that will result in losses of life. One has to wonder about the moral character of the individuals who are making these decisions.

California has introduced measures to provide these life-saving services for LGBTQ+ young persons, as reported in a July 16, 2025 press release:

Just weeks after the Trump administration announced that they would eliminate specialized suicide prevention support for LGBTQ youth callers through the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, California is taking action to improve behavioral health services and provide even more affirming and inclusive care. Through a new partnership with The Trevor Project, Governor Gavin Newsom and the California Health and Human Services Agency (CalHHS) will provide the state’s 988 crisis counselors enhanced competency training from experts, ensuring better attunement to the needs of LGBTQ youth, on top of the specific training they already receive.]

Where are the voices of, for example, Big Tech gay billionaires like Apple CEO Tim Cook, Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel, and OpenAI co-founder/CEO Sam Altman -- who are privileged and blessed to be in positions of leadership and influence -- to speak out against policy decisions like this? Or step up to the plate and donate a fraction of their wealth to support services like Lifeline?]

[Excerpt]

"The nation's Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, 988, shuttered the specialized services for LGBTQ+ youth this week. The move came a day after the Lifeline marked three years since its launch. During this period, it has fielded more than 16 million calls, texts and chats. Nearly 10% of those contacts have been from gay and transgender young people, according to government data.

"This is a tragic moment," says Mark Henson, vice president of government affairs and advocacy at The Trevor Project, one of several organizations that had contracts with the federal government to provide counseling services for this vulnerable population. The Trevor Project fields about half the LGBTQ+ contacts.

Data from the Youth Behavior Risk Survey, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, show that LGBTQ+ youth are more likely to experience persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness compared to their peers, and more likely to attempt suicide.

When these young people contact 988, they have had the option to press 3 to be connected to a counselor specifically trained to support their unique mental health needs, which are associated with discrimination and violence they often face. This service is similar to what 988 offers to veterans, who are also at a higher risk of suicide, and can access support tailored for them by pressing 1 when they contact 988. That service will be retained as 988 enters its fourth year.

"Many LGBTQ+ youth who use these services didn't know they existed until they called 988 and found out there is someone on the other end of the line that knows what they've gone through and cares deeply for them," says Henson.

Government data show that demand for this service grew steadily since it launched, from about 2,000 contacts per month in September 2022 to nearly 70,000 in recent months."

Yancey residents plan lawsuit in response to July 1 library takeover by county over Pride display; Asheville Citizen Times, June 13, 2025

Johnny Casey, Asheville Citizen Times; Yancey residents plan lawsuit in response to July 1 library takeover by county over Pride display

"Edwards pointed to the multiple protests in which residents marched on Burnsville Town Square in support of the local library, and said the local library has been a bright spot for many residents dealing with hardships, particularly during the county's Tropical Storm Helene recovery.

"I care that the little boy with Down Syndrome who gets his therapy at the library won't start his session without getting a hug from me," Edwards said. "I care that a woman who lost her father turned to reading and rediscovered a passion for reading to help her cope.

"I care about the thousands and thousands of people we've helped after Helene find resources, fill out forms, send paperwork to agencies, and mostly just by listening to their stories. I never once asked somebody who walked through those library doors who they voted for, who they pray to or who they have at home that they love. Every patron interaction starts with a simple question: 'How can I help you?'...

Landon Beaver is born and raised in Yancey County and has been following the library takeover in his hometown since 2023, when the commissioners proposed the takeover.

Beaver is helping organize a First Amendment lawsuit in order, according to the Our Voice Our Library website, "to try to prevent the Yancey County Board of Commissioners from wresting control of the library for political purposes...

According to the Our Library Our Voice website, the team hopes to set a legal precedent that will protect libraries like Jackson County and Yancey County all across North Carolina.​"

The Guardian view on coming-out tales: from A Boy’s Own Story to What It Feels Like for a Girl; The Guardian, June 8, 2025

 Editorial, The Guardian; The Guardian view on coming-out tales: from A Boy’s Own Story to What It Feels Like for a Girl

"Each of these coming-out stories is rooted in a specific time and place. They are about class as well as sex, the salvation of books and music as well as romance. They are about loneliness, desire and a longing for escape – being a teenager, in short. Despite heartbreaking scenes of abuse and pain, they are also bursting with excitement. One of the conditions of youth is that one’s “own story” feels like the only story. This is why the coming-of-age narrative endures.

In our digital age of toxic masculinity and intolerance, these memoirs call for truthfulness and compassion. They are reminders of the fragility of progress. “If gays have gone from invisibility to ubiquity and from self-hatred to self-acceptance,” White wrote in his last book, The Loves of My Life, published in January, “we should recognize we’re still being pushed off cliffs in Yemen – and from the top fronds of Florida palms, for all I know.”"

Humble Francis; Thinking About, April 21, 2025

 Timothy Snyder, Thinking About...; Humble Francis

"Awaiting Francis, I was sitting with the other honorees in a pew towards the front and on the left. The church was very full of people, sitting and standing. I noticed, though, that the people with disabilities were led carefully to the first pew on the right. In this setting, I was reminded of the practices of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, which is dedicated to the "martyrs and the marginalized," including the service of the disabled. I do not know whether Francis would have expected this particular arrangement when he entered the church. I can only report on what he did.

Francis was led down the aisle, resplendent in white, very erect, walking slowly and greeting people along the way. Just before he reached the sanctuary, he halted suddenly and turned to his right, noticing that pew. Then, as the rest of us waited, he walked to its far end, and bent himself to speak. He greeted each person in turn, touching them. As the people with whom he was conversing could not rise, he had to lower himself. So, over and over, Francis knelt down to look someone in the eye and to hold both of their hands in his. This took about fifteen minutes. It was a moment to think about others, and in that sense, for me, a liberation, from my own anxiety and selfishness.

Many words and much grandeur followed. But that moment is what I remember. None of us is perfect. Even Father Omelian Kovch was not perfect. Pope Francis was not perfect. The institution they represented has much to answer for. But imperfection can represent itself as service, in the acknowledgement that we can transcend ourselves when we see others first."

U.S. to End Vaccine Funds for Poor Countries; The New York Times, March 26, 2025

Stephanie Nolen, The New York Times; U.S. to End Vaccine Funds for Poor Countries

[Kip Currier: Luke: 12:48: "From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."

What a tragic policy decision -- by the richest country on earth -- to stop financial support for vital vaccines that save lives and protect at-risk Global South children and adults.

As a nation, we have a moral imperative and calling to share our abundance with people in need.]

[Excerpt]

"The Trump administration intends to terminate the United States’ financial support for Gavi, the organization that has helped purchase critical vaccines for children in developing countries, saving millions of lives over the past quarter century, and to significantly scale back support for efforts to combat malaria, one of the biggest killers globally.

The administration has decided to continue some key grants for medications to treat H.I.V. and tuberculosis, and food aid to countries facing civil wars and natural disasters.

Those decisions are included in a 281-page spreadsheet that the United States Agency for International Development sent to Congress Monday night, listing the foreign aid projects it plans to continue and to terminate. The New York Times obtained a copy of the spreadsheet and other documents describing the plans.

The documents provide a sweeping overview of the extraordinary scale of the administration’s retreat from a half-century-long effort to present the United States to the developing world as a compassionate ally and to lead the fight against infectious diseases that kill millions of people annually."