Some items to note today at America:
Pope Francis on Pope John XXIII 'Faith Leads to Interior Peace': The life of Blessed John XXIII is a lesson in how obedience and trust in God lead to an interior peace that is naturally recognized by and shared with others, Pope Francis said. Joining a pilgrimage of 3,000 people from the late pope's home diocese -- Bergamo, Italy -- Pope Francis prayed at the tomb of Blessed John June 3, the 50th anniversary of his death.
Plans Begin for Immigrant Legalization: Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc., known as CLINIC, is already gearing up to help a potential pool of 11 million people apply for legalization.
And around the web:
The Turkish Spring will not be televised, but it will be tweeted. Syrians and Iraqis see too much that is familiar in protests against Erdogan's authoritative ways.
“Scouting is still the best youth-serving program available to all youth,” Edward P. Martin, chairman of the National Catholic Committee on Scouting, wrote in a May 29 letter addressed to “fellow Catholic Scouters," attempting to hold off a Catholic stampede after the Boy Scouts of America voted to allow gay scouts (more from RNS here). Baptists are heading south over same.
CNS revisits its coverage on the death of John XXII and shares some JXXIII moments. At National Catholic Reporter, John Allen reviews the perils of (media)handlng the "improv pope." And while we're on the subject, Pope Francis this week speaks of war as madness, the "suicide of humanity" and reassures, in case you were wondering, that "eternity will not be boring."
But Pope Francis was not the only Vatican figure who has had a busy week. Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the UN and Other International Organizations, at the 23rd Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on the plight of workers in Dhaka, Bangladesh; expresses concerns about the persecution of Christians worldwide (including the annual slaughter of as many as 100,000 Christians each year (#notatypo); and worried over the possible "military intensification" in Syria following decisions by Russia and European Union states to lift an arms embargo to both sides in the Syian conflict.
Meanwhile the Melkite Bishop of Aleppo sees only "chaos and destruction in a conflict that is against everything and everyone. In a country disfigured..."
