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Disturbing the peace

29 Mar 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The psalmist appeals to the greatness of God’s compassion to “wipe out my offense.” The government of South Africa may want to approach the Dalai Lama, known for his compassion, with a similar plea after having barred him from entering the country for a peace conference this week that was later cancelled because of the public outcry over the Dalai Lama’s exclusion. The government had said Monday that the Tibetan leader would not be allowed to come to South Africa to attend the conference, meant to promote the 2010 World Cup, because his presence would have distracted attention from South Africa and drawn it instead to the contentious debate over the status of Tibet. Two of South Africa’s Nobel Prize winners, Desmond Tutu, the retired Anglican archbishop, and former President F. W. de Klerk, condemned the government for giving in to pressure from China and said they would refuse to participate in the conference if the Tibetan leader were not there. The executive director of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Geir Lundestad, also said he would stay away. “It is disappointing that South Africa, which has received so much solidarity from the world, doesn’t want to give that solidarity to others,” Lundestad said, referring to the decades-long fight against apartheid. South Africa is China's largest trading partner on a continent in which China is heavily and increasingly involved. China’s exports to Africa last year rose 36.3 percent from 2007 to $50.8 billion, while imports of African goods rose 54 percent to $56 billion, according to customs data reported by Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency. “South Africa is a newly emerging country and China is giving it considerable economic resources so it is understandable,” said Samdhong Rinpoche, the prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile Monday in Dharmsala, India. “Every country has to protect its economic and political interests.” After the cancellation Roman Catholic Cardinal Wilfrid Napier told the SAPA news agency: “I am concerned that this man of peace is not allowed into our country at this time when we need people of peace to inspire us. I’m very concerned that our rights to association, freedom of religion, and freedom of expression have been sold out to economic and political expedience once again.” Sources: Articles by Celia W. Dugger for the New York Times, Donna Bryson for the Associated Press, and Agence Presse France

Peace south africa world cup tibet f w de klerk desmond tutu nobel prize geir lundestad samdhong rinpoche wilfrid napier china dalai lama
U.S. scientists win Nobel Prize for Medicine

11 Oct 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In the reading from the Letter to Hebrews we hear that the word of God is sharper than any sword, "penetrating even between . . . joints and marrow." Three U.S. researchers have been awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their penetrating analysis into the health of cells and how chromosomes are protected against degradation, work that has proven important for understanding of cancer and other diseases, as well as aging. Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider, and Jack Szostak will share the $1.4 million prize for research on structures at the end of chromosomes called telomeres and an enzyme that forms them, called telomerase. Some scientists speculate that telomeres could play a role in the aging of organisms as a whole. In addition, the telomerase enzyme appears to be overactive in most human tumor cells, lengthening their lives and allowing them to grow out of control. Efforts are now being made to turn that idea into a cancer therapy, including vaccines against cells with overactive telomerase. Certain inherited diseases, in contrast, are characterized by defective telomerase, which results in damaged cells. Source: An article by Carolyn Y. Johnson for the Boston Globe

aging telomerase telomeres jack szostak carol greider elizabeth blackburn chromosomes nobel prize in physiology or medicine cells cancer
Nobel calling

18 Oct 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In the long version of this Sunday's gospel, brothers James and John ask Jesus for the honor of being seated at his side when he comes into his glory. When it comes to being honored with the glory of a Nobel Prize, it has been an exceptionally strong year for the United States. U.S. citizens--some of them immigrants with dual citizenship--account for 11 of the 13 Nobel winners. Last Friday President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, and Monday Elinor Ostrom of Indiana University became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in economics. Ostrom was also the fifth woman recognized this year, another first. Ostrom said it's an honor to be the first woman Nobel economics laureate--and promised she won't be the last. She said people had discouraged her from seeking a Ph.D. when she applied for graduate school, but she loved studying economics. The choice of Obama for the Peace Prize has proven controversial; some said it came too early in his presidency to be appropriate. Reacting to the criticism, members of the Norwegian committee that awarded the Prize took the unusual move Tuesday of defending their choice. "We simply disagree that he has done nothing," committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said. "He got the prize for what he has done." Jagland singled out Obama's efforts to heal the divide between the West and the Muslim world and scale down a Bush-era proposal for an anti-missile shield in Europe. "All these things have contributed to--I wouldn't say a safer world--but a world with less tension," Jagland said. He said most world leaders were positive about the award and that most of the criticism was coming from the media and Obama's political rivals. Source: Articles by Ian MacDougall, Karl Ritter, Jeannine Aversa, and Matt Moore for Associated Press

barack obama nobel prize united states elinor ostrom nobel prize in economics thorbjoern jagland
Nobel calling

18 Oct 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In the long version of this Sunday's gospel, brothers James and John ask Jesus for the honor of being seated at his side when he comes into his glory. When it comes to being honored with the glory of a Nobel Prize, it has been an exceptionally strong year for the United States. U.S. citizens--some of them immigrants with dual citizenship--account for 11 of the 13 Nobel winners. Last Friday President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, and Monday Elinor Ostrom of Indiana University became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in economics. Ostrom was also the fifth woman recognized this year, another first. Ostrom said it's an honor to be the first woman Nobel economics laureate--and promised she won't be the last. She said people had discouraged her from seeking a Ph.D. when she applied for graduate school, but she loved studying economics. The choice of Obama for the Peace Prize has proven controversial; some said it came too early in his presidency to be appropriate. Reacting to the criticism, members of the Norwegian committee that awarded the Prize took the unusual move Tuesday of defending their choice. "We simply disagree that he has done nothing," committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said. "He got the prize for what he has done." Jagland singled out Obama's efforts to heal the divide between the West and the Muslim world and scale down a Bush-era proposal for an anti-missile shield in Europe. "All these things have contributed to--I wouldn't say a safer world--but a world with less tension," Jagland said. He said most world leaders were positive about the award and that most of the criticism was coming from the media and Obama's political rivals. Source: Articles by Ian MacDougall, Karl Ritter, Jeannine Aversa, and Matt Moore for Associated Press

barack obama nobel prize united states elinor ostrom nobel prize in economics thorbjoern jagland
Father of in-vitro fertilization awarded Nobel Prize

10 Oct 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Faithfulness even in the face of scorn and suffering is a theme running through today’s readings. Fidelity to the principle of human dignity is what the Catholic Church says is behind its objection to in-vitro fertilization (IVF). The committee awarding Nobel Prizes sees things differently. The 2010 Nobel Prize in medicine will go to Robert Edwards of the University of Cambridge, who pioneered the process in 1978. Since that time, more than 4 million “test-tube babies” have been born. In a press release the award committee said: “A new field of medicine has emerged, with Robert Edwards leading the process all the way from the fundamental discoveries to the current, successful IVF therapy. His contributions represent a milestone in the development of modern medicine.” Lucio Romano, president of the Italian association Science and Life, told Vatican Radio that while Edwards did make a huge mark on modern science, he did so by applying techniques used for breeding livestock to human beings. “This absolutely does not represent progress for the human person,” said Romano, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Frederick II University in Naples, Italy. In the process of IVF, human eggs are removed from a woman and fertilized in a laboratory. The fertilized eggs are then implanted in a woman’s uterus with the hope the pregnancy will progress normally from that point. Usually, multiple eggs are fertilized at once with only a select few being implanted. Awarding the Nobel to Edwards ignores all the ethical problems connected with that process, said Romano. A 2008 document on bioethics issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith repeated earlier Vatican condemnations of IVF because it separates procreation from the conjugal act in marriage and because in practice unused embryos are often discarded, thus violating the principle that “the human being is to be respected and treated as a person from the moment of conception.” Supporters of IVF point out that the procedure overcomes many previously untreatable causes of infertility and has not led to the doomsday scenario of monstrous birth defects, artificial wombs, and “baby farms” predicted by opponents when the procedure was first introduced. In-vitro fertilization is now used in an estimated 3 percent of all live births in developed countries. Source: Articles by Carol Glatz for Catholic News Service, Nicholas Wade for the New York Times, Karl Ritter and Malin Rising for Associated Press, and an op-ed piece by Robin Marantz Henig for the New York Times

lucio romano nobel prize in medicine robert edwards in vitro fertilization
Particle prediction wins prize

13 Oct 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In gratitude for his healing, Namaan asked Elisha to “please accept a gift from your servant," says Sunday’s first reading. Scientists François Englert of the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium and Peter W. Higgs of the University of Edinburgh will be showing their gratitude when they receive the joint 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics which they just won.Working independently of one another, they proposed a theory in 1964 of how subatomic particles acquire mass. In 2012 their theoretical proposal was confirmed by the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, the so-called Higgs boson or the somewhat misnamed “God particle,” by experiments at the Large Hadron Collider.The Standard Model of particle physics rests on the existence of the special Higgs particle, which originates from an invisible field that fills all space. Without it nothing would exist because it is from contact with this field that particles acquire mass.Homily hint: Discoveries about particle physics are among "the many scientific studies which have splendidly enriched our knowledge of the age and dimensions of the cosmos, the development of life-forms, and the appearance of man," as the Catechism of the Catholic Church says. "These discoveries invite us to even greater admiration for the greatness of the Creator, prompting us to give him thanks for all his works and for the understanding and wisdom he gives to scholars and researchers." Source: A press release from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

higgs boson subatomic particles particle physics françois englert nobel prize in physics peter w higgs
Homily story of the week

17 Jan 2016 - Preaching the News for Sunday

A Facebook post making the rounds consists of a row of wine bottles in a store with a sign above them that says, “Water.” The comment below the photo reads: “Jesus was here.” Changing water into wine is the first “sign” mentioned in John’s gospel and a favorite miracle of many Christians. But the keyword in that miracle is not “wine” but “change.” Alfred Nobel is someone who embraced the miracle of change. When Nobel’s brother died, a newspaper mistakenly ran a long obituary on Alfred, the inventor of dynamite. The newspaper described him as a person “who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before.” Dismayed that he would be remembered as a “merchant of death,” Nobel quickly went to work to establish the Nobel Peace Prize and other Nobel prizes that recognize achievements in science, medicine, economics, and literature that benefit humanity. Nobel changed his legacy from a man of war to a man of peace. Jesus invites you to transform in radical ways as well. Take your watered-down faith and turn it into a million-dollar bottle of Château Latour by simply following Jesus’ lead. Exploring the Word for Sunday, January 17, 2016

Authors Father Larry Janowski O.F.M.

Change nobel prize miracle at cana
Homily stories

22 Jul 2012 - Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

In her Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech given in Oslo in June 2012, 21 years after it was awarded, Burmese democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi said of the award, “Often during my days of house arrest it felt as though I were no longer a part of the real world. . . . When the Nobel committee awarded the peace prize to me, they were recognizing that the oppressed and the isolated in Burma were also a part of the world, they were recognizing the oneness of humanity. . . . The Nobel peace prize opened up a door in my heart.” Promoting peace has a way of opening doors and giving people access to something greater than themselves. Saint Paul says that the peace of Christ gives us access to God, who is love. Suu Kyi offered a similar sentiment: “Common endeavors to gain peace will unite individuals and nations in trust and friendship and help to make our human community safer and kinder.” And who wouldn’t welcome a little more kindness? As Suu Kyi said, “Every kindness I received, small or big, convinced me that there could never be enough of it in our world. To be kind is to respond with sensitivity and human warmth to the hopes and needs of others. Even the briefest touch of kindness can lighten a heavy heart.”

Authors Patrice J. Tuohy

nobel prize kindness

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