Prayers amid trauma: Survivors respond to funeral as Archdiocese of Milwaukee honors Rembert Weakland
The Archdiocese of Milwaukee held a funeral Mass on August 30 for former archbishop of Milwaukee Rembert Weakland, who died on August 22 at age 95. The service stands as a difficult day for many sexual abuse survivors and their loved ones, and the celebration of...
Mike Larson: Personal reflections on remaining Catholic in spite of the ongoing sex abuse crisis
When the news of the McCarrick scandal hit the headlines in November 2020, the blow to my family and our faith was devastating. Normally, I am an unabashed enthusiast full of love for the Catholic Church, sharing my faith even with secular friends, but these...
When words hurt instead of heal: What never to say to someone who has survived abuse by Catholic clergy
As the daughter of a clergy abuse victim-survivor and a lay person who works for the Church, Jerri von den Bosch speaks often with fellow Catholics about her family’s experience with the abuse crisis. In June of 2021, I wrote 10 Things Never to Say to Survivors of...
Democracy is not guaranteed: President Biden sounds alarm about extremism by Trump’s “MAGA Republicans”
“With an opposition party that has largely embraced the lie that the last election was stolen and remains in thrall to a twice-impeached and defeated former president who encouraged a mob that attacked the Capitol to stop the transfer of power, Mr. Biden’s...
Political violence as the norm: Trump signals plans to pardon January 6 insurrectionists if re-elected in 2024
Ex-President Donald Trump said on September 1 that if reelected in 2024, he would “look very, very favorably” at full pardons for the insurrectionists who attacked the U.S. Capitol last year. In an interview with right-wing radio host Wendy Bell, Trump...
Tax records show GOP candidate Tim Michels gave $175K to Wisconsin anti-abortion groups during pandemic
Wisconsin Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels donated nearly $200,000 of his own money to anti-abortion groups in Wisconsin and New York in 2020, according to tax documents. Michels and his wife made the donations through their charitable organization, the...
Election Scheming: New details highlight how Ginni Thomas lobbied to overturn Wisconsin’s 2020 results
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas faced fresh calls to step down on September 1 after new reporting revealed that his wife’s involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election was broader than previously known, extending to the...
A manufactured crisis: Beijing resents when a democracy like Taiwan gets too close to America
In early August, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a Democratic delegation commanded headlines when they traveled to Taiwan, an independently governed East Asian country made up of 168 islands on which about 24 million people live, and which China claims. Since 1979 the...
The Belt and Road Initiative: Why China’s ambitious global development plan will chiefly benefit China
By Amitrajeet A. Batabyal, Distinguished Professor and Arthur J. Gosnell Professor of Economics, Rochester Institute of Technology China’s well-publicized Belt and Road Initiative to invest in infrastructure projects in other countries has helped it expand its...
The concept of Han: Understanding how the ancestral heart of Korea’s spirit can teach us solidarity
At the heart of the Korean spirit is a concept called “Han.” It is central to Korean-ness in the same way “aloha” is to Hawaiian-ness. Oddly, however, it is rarely mentioned in conversation or in the media. Its English translation is nonexistent. But I will try to...
Paid for by Big Pharma: Mandela Barnes hits at Ron Johnson for selling out to big corporate donors
The campaign of Wisconsin Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes, who is running to unseat U.S. Senator Ron Johnson, declared on August 16 that the Republican incumbent “is bought and paid for by Big Pharma.” That charge came in response to Johnson’s comments...
Economic impact: Experts doubt that Milwaukee could actually see $200M in revenue from the RNC in 2024
Fifty thousand visitors and $200 million in economic impact — these are the estimates two years before the 2024 Republican National Convention is set to take place in downtown Milwaukee. The estimates were widely cited during the city’s push for the convention...
