"The news in recent weeks has carried an unusual number of stories about awful tragedies that have occurred around the globe.
"I’m thinking of the sinking of the Indonesian submarine in which 53 sailors were lost in the depths of the ocean; the inferno at the hospital in Iraq that killed 82, mostly Covid patients; the 41 refugees who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea when their rickety boat sank as they attempted a perilous crossing; and the growing, horrendous Covid disaster in India where more than 200,000 people have died, the hospitals are filled, and the fields are littered with too many bodies to count.
"This sad litany now includes the panicked stampede at a holy site in Israel where 45 were trampled to death and many more were injured; and here, closer to home, the thousands of abandoned immigrant children who have been warehoused in crowded conditions because of failed immigration policies and political gridlock.
"As we encounter these terribly sad stories, it’s a temptation to gloss over them, and then move quickly onto the challenges and events of our own daily lives.
"But our faith calls us to something more, and that is to consider the human cost of these tragedies and to picture the people involved . . ."
In a recent commentary, Bishop Thomas J. Tobin, of the Diocese of Providence (RI), reflected on the importance of remembering the individuality of each person affected in these and other tragedies.
The Imitation of Christ: The Faces Behind The Headlines (8 MAY 21)
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