heckit's blog: May 2025

Sunday, May 18, 2025

may you be happy

Happy 60th Birthday Adrian!

Saturday, May 17, 2025

Celebrating

Happy 50th Birthday Octavio!

Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Art for Older Adults

Paintings from my Art for Older Adults Class at City College of SF.

Monday, May 12, 2025

While I was at work, I got a text that a new pope had been chosen. I was searching to see who it was but I, and the whole world, was waiting for the announcement. The new pope was Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, the second pope from the Americas; he was born in the US and a naturalized citizen of Peru. He was from the Order of St. Augustine; he has been bishop of Chiclayo in Peru for 20 years and was elected prior general of the Order from 2001-2013. Most recently he had been appointed to head the Discastery of Bishops, the office responsible for selecting priests to be bishops. Pope Leo XIV.

I was actually surprised and not a little worried that the pope was from the United States, as the hierarchy of the US has become increasingly conservative, often aligning itself with the Republican Party, for its support for abortion restrictions, anti-gay restrictions, and other cultural issues. I have become disappointed with the US Catholic Conference of Bishops for its tepid response to President Trump’s treatment of immigrants, refugees and blind eye to corruption. The word on the street is that the cardinals would elect a pope who would temper the progressive initiatives of Pope Francis who championed dialog and people on the margins.

We have to see how Pope Leo guides his flock. There are indications that are hopeful. While he comes from the US, which is often parochial and self-referential in outlook, Pope Leo seems to have a global outlook; he has been a missionary, who speaks five languages (English, Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese), and has served the universal Church.

He has chosen the name Leo, in reference to Pope Leo XIII, who initiated the Church’s social teaching with the encyclical Rerum Novarum, which defended the rights of workers to fair wages, safe working conditions and rights to form trade unions, while defending the property rights and free enterprise. This began the church’s advocacy for the social conditions that are necessary for the full development of the human being. Sin was not only a personal failing; sin was also evident in the structures that oppressed and destroyed human lives, and as such the Church had a role in decrying such structures.

But ultimately, it is how Pope Leo XIV comes to bear Christ in our modern times. What does Jesus have to say to us in these times of war in Ukraine, in Gaza, in Sudan? What does the Gospel have to say to us in this time of political upheaval, closing borders and stark economic inequality? What we need now is a shepherd that speaks the gospel with clarity in these dark and confusing times. We need a shepherd that smells like sheep because he is among the sheep and knows the signs of the times. We need a shepherd that goes to the margins and is dirty, and smelling, and exhausted because he is not afraid of being with his flock. We need to hear words of faith, love and hope. In his first homily, Pope Leo XIV speaks of advocating for the poor and migrants, of aligning himself with ordinary people and not the rich and powerful.

This photo of the Vicar of Christ gives me hope.

via James Martin SJ

Sunday, May 11, 2025

Jumping for Joy

Felíz día de las madres

Sunday, May 4, 2025

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