My new pieces at Midwest Socialist

In case you wanted some socialist reflections on Fratelli Tutti

Hi all - the big long piece on bishops Strickland and Barron will be arriving on the site this week, but in the meantime I wanted to let you know about two pieces I recently had go up on Midwest Socialist, a blog of four chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America (St. Louis, Dubuque, Milwaukee, and my home chapter of Chicago), which has editors nice enough to let me write about Catholicism.

“Conservatism Lives Loudly Within Her”, which ran on 9/27, is a condensed, swear-free version of my original G.O.T.H.S. piece from May on Amy Coney Barrett. This is basically chapters three and four of the original piece, and I took out the word “fingerblast” but kept in the references to the weird custom coffee mugs. Maybe worth revisiting as Judge Barrett begins her committee hearings this morning. Thanks to Zach at Midwest Socialist for his edits and feedback on this.

“We Have to Begin Anew”, up today, includes my reflections on Pope Francis’ new encyclical Fratelli Tutti and what socialists can find to like in it. There are also some thoughts on how Fratelli Tutti builds off of the ideas of Francis’ previous encyclical, which American politicians and bishops largely ignored, as I described in this earlier G.O.T.H.S. piece. Thanks to Holly at Midwest Socialist for her edits and feedback on this.

As always, thanks to all of you for reading, thanks especially to those of you who have donated to these organizations as part of the book sale/fundraising.