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Last October, when I was in California visiting Jim and Roberta McLaughlin, returned Maryknoll Lay Missioners who had worked with me in Cambodia, Jim introduced me to the workings of the St. Vincent de Paul Society food pantry in their home parish of St. Columba. I learned a lot in my time at St. Columba.
Today I had the opportunity to visit a comparable SVDP operation in Louisville at the invitation of Ken and Diane Golliher who volunteer there. And again I learned a lot.
The BBC reported today that the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) recorded a false positive when they tested produce blamed for the widespread outbreak of cyclosporiasis and that lettuce used by Taco Bell was NOT responsible for the thousands of cases being investigated.
The Guardian newspaper reports “federal agencies like the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have hemorrhaged staff and expertise under the second Trump administration” and “the CDC has lost about one-third of its staff, and the majority of permanent leadership positions are empty.”
Could the false positive testing be attributed to the reductions in the federal agencies set up to protect us?
• Cyclospora was officially identified July 1, 2026 and warnings were issued
• Michigan is a center of the outbreak. It normally experiences 40 to 50 cases a year. As of two days ago, Michigan has reported more than 5,000 cases.
• More than 7,000 cases are being investigated across 27 states.
• The Guardian reports “The outbreak comes after the Trump administration cut $12bn in public health funding in March 2025, including laboratory capacity, disease monitoring and outbreak investigation.”
[Headlines and information come from The Guardian, a major British newspaper.]
Laudato Si’ challenges us to “hear the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” through ecological conversion, changes in lifestyle and society, and strong political action. What are Catholic Christians to do? Here are some suggestions:
5. JOIN with others who believe caring for our common home is a responsibility given to us by God when God asked us to care for the garden in Genesis.
Laudato Si’ challenges us to “hear the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” through ecological conversion, changes in lifestyle and society, and strong political action. What are Catholic Christians to do? Here are some suggestions:
4. DISCERN what you can do to change your own way of living to one that is more sustainable for the whole community. This includes reducing water usage, reducing use of plastics and eliminating Styrofoam, switching to LED lighting, planting trees and native plants, and by becoming an eco-consumer doing eco-investing.
In an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, historian Richard Rhodes spoke about a certain kind of dying: “the deaths caused not by microbe or misfortune but by policy—by war, by neglect, by privation deliberately imposed. Artificially induced famine. The willful dismantling of the infrastructure that keeps the poor alive. Rhodes gave the thing a name. He called it public man-made death….”
Two reports were quoted. One in The Lancet said: “… in the single year since USAID was destroyed, on the order of seven hundred thousand human beings have already died who would otherwise be alive. The Lancet study calculated that the agency had saved some ninety-two million lives over the previous two decades.”
From a commentary by Msgr. Arthur Halquin.
Laudato Si’ challenges us to “hear the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” through ecological conversion, changes in lifestyle and society, and strong political action. What are Catholic Christians to do? Here are some suggestions:
Today I had to take my Trek e-bike to the shop where I bought it to have an ordered part installed. On the shop floor were these three boxes with newly arrived Trek bikes to be sold.
Notice what the labels on the box ends say: “Made in Cambodia”! My bike was also made in Cambodia where bicycles are becoming a major export.
Laudato Si’ challenges us to “hear the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” through ecological conversion, changes in lifestyle and society, and strong political action. What are Catholic Christians to do? Here are some suggestions:
2. LEARN by reading Laudato Si’ for free at: http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html