Catholic Commission for Social Justice
Gospel: Lk. 19, 1 – 10
At that time, Jesus came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town. Now a man there named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man, was seeking to see who Jesus was; but he could not see him because of the crowd, for he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus, who was about to pass that way.
October 10 marked World Day against the Death Penalty. In the same week, on October 14 the Guyana Parliament by a significantly unanimous vote passed legislation to abolish the mandatory death penalty for people convicted of murder unless they have been convicted of murder for a very restricted category of persons including members of the law enforcement officers, prison officers or members of the judiciary.
Gospel: Lk. 18, 9 – 14
Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness
and despised everyone else. “Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity; greedy, dishonest, adulterous — or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’
The General Assembly of the UN meets from September in New York each year, when world leaders take the opportunity to address key issues for promoting world peace and development. This year in his address to the UN Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, Vatican secretary for relations with states reminded the world’s nations that genuine dialogue is the only path to peace in the world, and particularly for resolving critical issues such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the total elimination of nuclear arms, and ethnic conflicts worldwide.
Gospel: Lk. 18, 1 – 8
Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. He said, “There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being. And a widow in that town used to come to him and say, ‘Render a just decision for me against my adversary.’ For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought, ‘While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.'”