A TSW Thanksgiving Tradition: Squanto, The Pilgrims, and the Pope
. . . This is the little known story of Squanto, and of how he saved the day for the pilgrims and strangers in this strange land who ventured here to be forever rid of the remnants of Catholicism in the Church of England. It's a story of how Catholic respect for human life reached across entire oceans and continents to save a man's life so he could in turn save others. It's a story of the triumph of grace and the twists and turns of a human soul venturing toward God. And if the Pilgrims knew a Pope was involved, they might just have climbed back aboard the Mayflower. This is an account of Thanksgiving we hope you will want to pass along to others, and include in your own Thanksgiving celebration. . . .
Holidays in the Hoosegow: Thanksgiving with Some Not-So-Just Desserts!
. . . One day late last month, I turned a corner outside on the long, concrete ramp winding its way up to the prison mess halls. I looked up to discover a spot I never noticed before.It was a place amid the concrete and steel that afforded a momentary glimpse of a tree-covered hill in the distance beyond the walls, and the setting sun had fallen upon that very spot. For a moment, the hill was clothed in a blaze of glory with an explosion of fall color. It was magnificent! I felt a bit like Dorothy Gale, stepping for the first time out of the gray gloom of her Kansas home into the startling glory of the Land of Oz. . . .
In the Land of Nod, East of Eden
. . . Many of the younger prisoners are just lost. There's a clear correlation between their presence here and the systemic breakdown of family - especially fatherhood - in our culture. There is an alarming number of young prisoners here who have had either abusive fathers or none at all. There is a direct and demonstrable correlation between the breakdown of family and the marked increase in prisoners in our society. . . . Anyone who is not alarmed by this statistic doesn't understand the relationship between religious values, family life, crime, and the abandonment of young people to wander east of Eden. Among young men now in the New Hampshire prison system, the recidivism rate is a staggering 57 percent. . . .
Before the Mayflower: Pilgrims and Priests
. . . G.K. Chesterton once famously remarked, “In America, they have a feast to celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims. Here in England, we should have a feast to celebrate their departure.” Despite their disdain for Catholicism, it is one of the great ironies of American history that the Mayflower's Puritan Pilgrims owe their very survival in the New World – indirectly at least - to the Catholic Church. It’s a reality that would have made the pilgrims wince, but there would have been no Thanksgiving without Pope Paul III and a group of Spanish Jesuit priests. It's a complicated story, but it's worth telling. . . .