At a moment of the year associated with renewal and new birth, reflection on inspiring acts of solidarity and courage can point the way to a better future<\/p>\n
In the introduction to a new, seasonal compilation of his speeches on hope, Pope Francis reflects<\/a> on the legacy of the great German theologian Johann Baptist Metz<\/a>. Shaped by the early experience of living through the horrors of the Nazi era, Metz\u2019s political theology was a passionate warning against the danger of a self-absorbed Christian piety. Instead he urged a hopeful \u201cmysticism with open eyes\u201d \u2013 one that clear-sightedly bears witness to, and seeks to alleviate, the suffering of others.<\/p>\n At a time of the year associated with renewal and new birth, it is not necessary to share Metz\u2019s religious convictions to feel the power of that message. This year\u00a0has been filled with heart-rending images from the\u00a0ongoing wars in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan and elsewhere. The weekend brought reports<\/a> of yet more innocent casualties of Israel\u2019s relentless bombing campaign, including children sheltering in a school. Meanwhile, more than 12,000 civilians<\/a> have been killed\u00a0since the start of Vladimir Putin\u2019s assault on Ukraine, along with more than 43,000 soldiers,<\/a> according to Kyiv\u2019s estimates.<\/p>\n Continue reading…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At a moment of the year associated with renewal and new birth, reflection on inspiring acts of solidarity and courage can point the way to a better future In the introduction to a new, seasonal compilation of his speeches on hope, Pope Francis reflects on the legacy of the great German theologian Johann Baptist Metz. … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29049\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}