Isn’t that the way of the Spirit?

Print by Nina Fioriti Butts, based on a photograph from 1962, Venezuela, Priest and the Dying Soldier.

This week!

President Biden visited Ukraine and pledged U.S. support for the defense of Ukraine. China’s top diplomat Wang Yi visited the Kremlin and made not-so-veiled criticism of the United States. North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea east of the country Monday in its second test launch in three days, prompting Japan to request an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council. (npr.org). Massive anti-regime protests, Iran’s merciless crackdown and its supply of weapons to Russia have left the Islamic Republic more isolated than at any point in decades just as a crisis over its nuclear program is brewing. (crisisgroup.org). Since the murder of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021, Haiti has been paralysed by political gridlock and rampant gang violence. Public services have collapsed, and cholera is spreading. Things are so bad that some Haitians now pin their hopes on foreign troops, despite the dismal legacy of earlier interventions in Haiti. (crisisgroup.org).

Wars. Humanitarian Crises. Rumors of War. Breakdown of Whole Societies.

I’ve been watching the Last of Us on HBO. It is a zombie apocalypse show, and government is ineffectual and totalitarian. It is enough to keep you up at night!

What to do? I follow the Franciscan Peace Group, a group that sends a periodic newsletter…