The Catholic - Labor Network

Documents & Articles which concern Catholic and Labor Issues Papal Social Encyclicals Other Catholic Social Teachings Catholic Hospitals & Labor Catholic Schools & Labor Msgr. George Higgins Catholic Worker Connection General Articles of Interest Home Page The Catholic-Labor Network E-Mail List The Catholic-Labor Network is dependent on interested persons sharing their activities struggles, victories and prayers with other like minded men and women of faith. We strongly invite all those who visit this page, and who share a common interest in issues effecting the Catholic Church and the Labor Movement to subscribe. Occasionally, notices will be sent when this page is updated. When important events happen, we will pass on the information through the e-mail list, and most of all, the e-mail list is a means by which we can pray and support each other. Some Catholic and Labor Links The Holy See The National Conference of Catholic Bishops Human Rights for Workers The Labor Issues Guide National Association of Catholic School Teachers The Houston Catholic Worker Catholic Online National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice The Seamless Garment Network The International Labour Organization The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations The International Transport Workers Federation Union Web

Life After Macular Degeneration By Msgr. George G. Higgins The Yardstick April 9, 2001     In the code of journalistic ethics it is written, at least between the lines, that columnists should never refer to themselves in the first-person singular. “Mea culpa,” I often have broken this rule, and, with apologies, will do so again here for reasons I hope readers will look upon sympathetically. During all my adult life I have been an avid, not to say compulsive, reader of serious books. Thus it came as a bit of a shock when, a few years ago, a team of ophthalmologists determined that I was suffering from macular degeneration, an incurable eye disease common among the elderly, and never again would be able to do serious reading at a normal pace.     I can still read newspapers and magazines without too much strain, but reading a serious book from cover to cover, even with the help of an electronic reading machine, is out of the question. A priest friend who also suffers from macular degeneration has given me some sound advice on how to deal with this problem: Do whatever you can as well as you can for as long as you can, and don't complain about those things that you can no longer do.     That's easier said than done, of course, but I am working at it, conscious that millions of people are suffering from ailments that make macular degeneration almost too trivial to mention.     My only purpose in mentioning the problem in the first-person singular is to encourage other people with similar vision problems to realize, as I have been pleased to discover, that there is life of a different kind at the end of the tunnel. By that I mean that listening to audio books and taped lectures is a wonderful substitute for reading. Fortunately high-quality audio books and tapes on a wide variety of subjects are readily available at a reasonable price from a number of private companies and are also available free of charge from public libraries, including notably the Library of Congress, which is just down the pike from my residence.     For present purposes I enthusiastically recommend the products of one private source in particular: The Teaching Company, located in Springfield, Va., a suburb of Washington. The Teaching Company specializes in lectures and tapes in 80 or more different fields of study, including, among others, philosophy, theology and Scripture; American, European and world history; economics; American, European and world literature; music and musicology; science, etc.     The company justifiably prides itself on selecting lecturers who are not only recognized experts in their specialized fields of study but have deservedly earned the reputation of being superbly good teachers -- a rare combination in even the best of our colleges and universities.     I've listened to a wide sampling of The Teaching Company's products -- mainly in philosophy, theology, sacred Scripture, history and economics. Each of the tapes provided by the company includes an outline of the course and a working bibliography for people with normal vision. Moreover, audio books and lectures, unlike real-life university lectures, can be stopped and restarted at any point.     It goes without saying that audio books and tapes in general, and those of The Teaching Company in particular, are not meant only for people whose sight is failing. I suspect that most of those who have acquired them have almost 20-20 vision and are simply intent on rounding out their formal education.     For those interested in securing the illustrated catalogues of The Teaching Company, the address and toll-free telephone number are: 7405 Alban Station Court, Suite A107, Springfield, VA 22150-2310. Telephone: 1-800-832-2412. Papal Social Encyclicals Other Catholic Social Teachings General Articles of Interest Catholic Worker Connection Msgr. George Higgins Home Page E-Mail: Fr. Sinclair Oubre