Welcome to Inauguration Day. As our nation's second Catholic president, Joe Biden's inauguration events will feature many Catholic signs and symbolism. Rep. Paul Gosar, a Catholic, has divided his family with his support of President Donald Trump and his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
In 1961, when John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as the nation's first Catholic president, Boston Cardinal Richard Cushing began his invocation "in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Ghost."
Should Jesuit Fr. Leo O'Donovan choose to begin his invocation with the same trinitarian formula for the inauguration of the nation's second Catholic president, he'll likely use the now more common phrase "Holy Spirit" to begin his prayer.
And given his tendency to do so even when he's not in prayer, Joe Biden will almost certainly make the sign of the cross at the beginning and end of O'Donovan's prayer.
In the roughly 48-hour period of Biden's inaugural events, there will be no shortage of Catholic signs and symbolism. Some were already on display upon Biden's arrival in the nation's capital Jan. 19.
Read more of the story here.
More background:
While many Catholic families across the United States have struggled with ideological and political division in our increasingly polarized democracy, few have received as much national and international attention as the Gosars.
"The U.S. government is as fractured as my family," Bernadette Gosar, an 87-year-old mother of 10 adult children from Pinedale, Wyoming, told NCR. "This has been the most hurtful part of my life."
In recent weeks, three of Bernadette and her husband Antone Gosar's children have called for their brother Paul, who represents Arizona's 4th Congressional District, to be expelled from the House of Representatives. They allege that their brother, a Republican and staunch supporter of Donald Trump, played a role in inciting the Capitol riots on Jan. 6.
"We see this as our duty as citizens," Paul's brother, David Gosar, a lawyer living in Jackson, Wyoming, told NCR. "We cannot have our Capitol attacked and see no one pay the price except for the little boys playing soldier with their military gear. The people who instigated this also need to be held accountable."
You can read more of the story here.
More background:
This week, we continue our series, Building a Common Future, 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 introducing the series.
Today's commentary comes from NCR political columnist Michael Sean Winters and focuses on how Joe Biden needs to fulfill his responsibility as head of state. "Biden replaces a man who had no grasp of the value of democracy and, consequently, no ability to employ the powerful symbolic power of the job in ways that fulfilled his responsibility as head of state," Winters writes. "Biden needs to fill the void that Trump left the past four years."
You can read Monday's commentary from José Luis Vilson on a fair and equitable education system here. Tuesday's commentary from U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic can be read here.
Read the rest of Winters' commentary here.
More headlines
- In his latest column, Franciscan Fr. Daniel P. Horan says that the church teaches that the government is not intended to prioritize "individual liberties" over communal flourishing, as so many right-leaning Americans wish, nor is the state intended by the church's teaching to be a hegemonic force for sectarian norms and partisan preferences.
- Transgender people take life-changing risks to honor their body-soul personhood, writes Sr. Luisa Derouen at Global Sisters Report. When they are not treated with respect when seeking medical care, their whole person is wounded and traumatized.
Final thoughts
To continue our Building a Common Future series, we are hosting weekly livestream events with some of the writers of those commentaries. Join us on Facebook at 1:30 p.m. Central time tomorrow 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.
NCR Forward members are also invited to a conversation at 2 p.m. Central tomorrow with Jennifer Reyes Lay and Felician Sr. Maryann Agnes Mueller, both leaders working against human trafficking. You can register for the session here.
Until Thursday,
Stephanie Yeagle
NCR Managing Editor
[email protected]
Twitter: @ncrSLY
