Weekly News, April 12, 2021
Pandemic Precautions Can Assure a Joyous Ramadan
AROUND THE WORLD, a huge caregiving challenge is emerging in Muslim communities approaching their second Ramadan in the midst of the COVID pandemic. After last year’s enforced separation during this joyous month of gatherings, many people are especially eager to see relatives, enjoy big dinners when the daily fast ends at sundown, and return to mosques. In this story, published in the Dearborn, Michigan, newspaper, our author Najah Bazzy (who contributed to our new guide for caregivers, Now What?) explains some of the steps Muslims of all ages are taking this year to assure a safe and joyous month-long festival.
Download the Vatican’s ‘Old Age, Our Future’
OUR COLLEAGUE IN ITALY, journalist Elisa Di Benedetto (who also contributed to Now What?), recently reported on the Vatican’s efforts to raise awareness of the millions of older men and women around the world who need additional assistance. The Vatican’s latest teaching document, called Old Age, Our Future, is 11 pages long and was published to spark conversation about this moral imperative—especially since the COVID pandemic has affected caregiving relationships. Care to read and share this new document? A PDF of the Vatican text is free to download from a link in Elisa’s story, which was published by the International Association of Religion Journalists.
What Will Be Your legacy? Learn to write a ‘Spiritual Will’
BILL TAMMEUS, one of our nation’s leading journalists and the author of the new Love, Loss and Endurance, is extending a virtual invitation to anyone who would like to participate in a class he is teaching at 7 p.m. (CDT) on April 22, 2021, via Zoom. The class title is How to Write Your Spiritual Will. Bill explains: “In a last will and testament, people list the valuables they are giving away. But in a spiritual will, they pass along not their valuables but their values—to children, grandchildren, friends. Which is to say that they communicate to those who follow them what was important to them, how they drew meaning from life, what they stood for. I will be leading a Zoom class on how to write your spiritual will. Sign up by emailing me at [email protected] and receive some resources to be used that evening. Questions? Email me or call me at 816-926-0366.