An 11 year old hangs himself over antigay bullying at school

HE WAS 11 for God's sake! 

Have your ever hear your child say someone was gay as a joke?

"An 11-year-old Massachusetts boy, Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, hung himself Monday after enduring bullying at school, including daily taunts of being gay, despite his mother's weekly pleas to the school to address the problem. This is at least the fourth suicide of a middle-school aged child linked to bullying this year. Carl, a junior at New Leadership Charter School in Springfield who did not identify as gay, would have turned 12 on April 17, the same day hundreds of thousands of students will participate in the 13th annual National Day of Silence by taking some form of a vow of silence to bring attention to anti-LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) bullying and harassment at school. The other three known cases of suicide among middle-school students took place in Chatham, Evanston and Chicago, Ill., in the month of February."

Friday Five-Adoramus Te

Sophia posted this friday five:

1. How will you pray and worship today?
I should be doing the stations of the cross right now, with Pax Christi, across 42nd St. I've done this a number of time. It's a social justice thing with stops at major offenders, companies that do business with nations that use slave labor or other bad things, recruiting stations etc. I got up early enough, but the seder in NJ was so late and long last night...maybe I'll go back to bed. I may go to General across the street or Holy Apostles up the Street. later.

2. Share a powerful memory or memories of Good Friday past.
When I was in 7th and 8th grade at St. Rose School in Girard, Ohio, I sang in the girls choir. We really participated in all the Easter services, and they were still in latin, at least some of them were. It made me feel entitled.

3. How have you grown and experienced God's love during this past Lent?
I haven't. Too personal to talk about.

4. In whom do you see the face of the suffering Christ most clearly?
In the homeless I see on the street everyday and on the faces of the clients that come through my office.

5. Where do you find hope for resurrection?
Still checking...

The Popes Planner

from Religion Dispatches:

1. Pope Benedict wakes up and dons his gold lined robes and red Prada shoes.
2. He goes to 7 am Mass in a private chapel.
3. After Mass, he eats breakfast alone. (by this point in the day, it should be noted, President Barack Obama would already have been briefed by about a billion people on situations ranging from homeland security to the economy.)
4. He meets a few visitors in the morning (you may have heard about his recent five minute meeting with the US Speaker of the House).
5. He eats lunch.
6. Then, the Pope goes to his study for the rest of the day to read and write.

Sounds pretty nice. I'll bet there's a little couch for a nap in that study. Maybe he can take off his robes a put on some comfy clothes!