Our dear friend, Franciscan friar, and peacemaker Louis Vitale died. He helped found various peace initiatives, including the Nevada Desert Experience protesting the Nevada nuclear test site, as well as Pace e Bene, known for its training course in nonviolence. He was arrested on hundreds of occasions for nonviolent acts of civil disobedience against war. He took inspiration from Jesus of Nazareth, Francis of Assisi, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

This month we celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Catholic Worker. On May 1, 1933, the first issue of The Catholic Worker newspaper was printed and distributed in New York’s Union Square, and a movement was born. What started as an 8-page paper to report on the conditions of workers and the unemployed and to share the social teaching of the Catholic Church has evolved into an interfaith network of some 200+ houses of hospitality, farms, and yes, newspapers, blogs, and podcasts.

A friend recently invited me to join him at the Arlene Schnitzer concert hall in Portland for a performance by the Oregon Symphony, where we were treated to Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 5 and Symphony No 2. What an immersive experience! From our seats in the front row of the Orchestra section (A7 and A8), we didn’t so much listen to the music as absorb it with our bodies.