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Welcome to Tuesday. More than one third of President-elect Joe Biden's incoming Cabinet is made up of his fellow Catholics. One of the insurrectionists during the attack on the Capitol carried a Confederate flag, a reminder that there have always been two competing forms of nationalism and patriotism in this country, writes an NCR commentator.
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** Joe Biden's very Catholic Cabinet ([link removed])
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Personnel is policy is an old Washington adage, and if it remains true, then Catholics fretting about how the incoming Biden administration might treat the church may be misguided. More than one third of Biden's incoming cabinet are his fellow Catholics.

"There never has been a more Catholic administration in U.S. history," tweeted Stephen P. Millies, director of the Bernardin Center at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, when Biden first began announcing cabinet positions in December.

As Biden is set to become the second Catholic president in American history, he will be joined by more co-religionists than any other faith group in his cabinet. While Biden has been adamant that he doesn't proselytize, he has also insisted that people of faith will be taken seriously by his administration.

And, by the look of his cabinet composition, it's now clear they will also be very much a part of that administration, too.

You can read more of the story here ([link removed]) .

More background:
* Joe Biden's Cabinet has embedded backgrounds in environmental issues ([link removed]) throughout its ranks. Faith-based organizations say these prior records raise optimism about the federal response to climate change.

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** Choose civic patriotism over ethnic nationalism ([link removed])
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One of the most vivid and troubling images from the insurrectionist attack on the Capitol was a man carrying a large Confederate flag through the halls of the Capitol, writes Robert Christian in a commentary for NCR. The presence of this flag, carried by people who imagine themselves to be patriots, is a reminder that there have always been two competing forms of nationalism and patriotism in this country.

"On the one hand, you have civic nationalism, rooted in universal commitments — the belief that all persons are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights," Christian writes. "To be an American means to be devoted to those rights, to freedom, to democracy."

"The foundation for this devotion could be the philosophical liberalism or republicanism of the Founders, but it can also be found in the personalist commitments at the heart of the Catholic faith: our belief in the equal dignity and worth of each person, endorsement of universal human rights, preference for resolving conflict peacefully, and recognition of people's right to participate in their own government."

You can read more of this commentary here ([link removed]) .

More background:
* Among those with some culpability for the Jan. 6 failed insurrection are more than a few leaders in the Catholic Church, NCR writes in an editorial ([link removed]) .

* In the televised scenes of the Jan. 6 attempted coup at the U.S. Capitol, we saw alarming images of a "collective delusion" in our national psyche, write Franciscan Sr. Fran Ferder and Fr. John Heagle ([link removed]) .

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** Building a Common Future ([link removed])
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This week, we continue our series, Building a Common Future ([link removed]) , in which we asked Catholic politicians, activists and scholars to offer advice to President-elect Joe Biden.

"Building our common future: It's what the United States, indeed, the entire world needs right now," we wrote in an editorial ([link removed]) introducing the series.

Today's commentary ([link removed]) comes from U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. and focuses on the coronavirus pandemic and how it has impacted all of our lives. "The common good must be based upon a solid foundation of justice for all," Casey writes. "Justice cannot abide the anguish that millions of seniors, parents and children face in the midst of the greatest public health crisis our nation has seen in more than a century."

You can read Monday's commentary from José Luis Vilson on a fair and equitable education system here ([link removed]) .

Read the rest of Casey's commentary here ([link removed]) .
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** More headlines
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* There has to be a national effort to begin to repair the great divide among us, says Sr. Nancy Sylvester in a column at Global Sisters Report ([link removed]) . That effort has to seep down into each of our families and local communities. And it has to start with each one of us.

* In today's Francis, the comic strip ([link removed]) , the world holds its breath for Jan. 20.

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** Final thoughts
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To continue our Building a Common Future series ([link removed]) , we are hosting weekly Facebook Live events with some of the writers of those commentaries. Join us at 1:30 p.m. Central time Thursday ([link removed]) as NCR executive editor Heidi Schlumpf, NCR political columnist Michael Sean Winters and Social Service Sr. Simone Campbell of Network talk about the series. The event will also be streaming live on our YouTube page ([link removed]) .

Until Wednesday,

Stephanie Yeagle
NCR Managing Editor
[email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
Twitter: @ncrSLY ([link removed])

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