People receive bread during the May 8 distribution of humanitarian aid in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, during the Russian invasion. (CNS/Reuters/Alexander Ermochenko)
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In The New Yorker, Jessica Winter decisively draws the connection that Fox News and the Republican Party refuses to acknowledge between the policy choices of the gun lobby and the dead children in Uvalde, Texas. Her concluding lines are spot on: "If America were not afraid to know itself, we could more readily accept that gun-rights advocates are enthralled with violent sorrow. This is the America they envisaged. It is what they worked so hard for. Their thoughts and prayers have been answered."
At the website of the European Centre for Communications and Culture, a Jesuit retreat and conference center in Warsaw, some new photos of the Ukrainian refugees they are assisting. My Global Sisters Report colleague Chris Herlinger wrote about the work being done there early on in the war. It continues still, although now, in addition to the refugees being sent on to other countries, there are some just waiting to be able to return to Ukraine. In any event, the need continues and I encourage everyone to be generous, either supporting ECCC directly, or helping Catholic Relief Services in their work throughout the region.
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At The Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, Joshua Blank looks at Texans' attitudes about guns and concludes that even the horror in Uvalde is unlikely to change those opinions: Democrats and Republicans simply have different narratives about the causes of violence. He also offers some thoughts on the runoff elections on May 24.
At NPR, Rachel Martin interviewed Baltimore Archbishop William Lori, chair of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities, about the church's position on abortion. Lori did well, differentiating the church's position from that of some GOP lawmakers who want to send women who procure abortions to jail and promising the church's support to women facing crisis pregnancies.
At Architectural Digest, a look at some of the garish — they call them "luxurious" — interiors of those dreadful skyscrapers on "Billionaires Row" in New York City. Some of them look like they could be the lobby of a bank, not an apartment building. It is a good thing the inside of the one apartment they show has such a good view because all the art and furniture inside is ugly. America's super wealthy class has such bad taste. The Bourbons — in France, Naples and Spain — built beautiful buildings. Frederick the Great built Sanssouci. St. Petersburg is filled with exquisitely beautiful buildings. New York? Not so much.
