Copy Desk Daily, Jan. 20, 2020

The Copy Desk Daily highlights recommended news and opinion articles that have crossed the copy editors' desks on their way to you: National Catholic Reporter, Global Sisters Report and EarthBeat.

Global Sisters Report's Soli Salgado brings us more positive news from her trip to Costa Rica. Sr. Daniela Cannavina, as one of just 10 women who participated in the Amazon synod, returned to Latin America eager to impart the wisdom from her experience at the Vatican to fellow religious, with anecdotes and summaries of the lively discussions from inside the hall. But mainly, Cannavina returned eager to keep the momentum of the synod alive. Read more.

On the other side of the world: Their convent is surrounded on three sides by the Israeli separation wall, but the Comboni Sisters told visiting bishops they are trying to build bridges of peace rather than walls.The convent, which serves as a spiritual retreat and includes the St. Mary Kindergarten, was founded in 1966 and has gone through numerous political changes since its founding on what was then Jordanian territory. Read more.

If you've been reading NCR columns a while, you probably know that bicycle-riding peace-teacher Colman McCarthy is also a vegan. He's pleased that plant-based meat alternatives are making strides, something he sees as vital for confronting climate crisis. Read more.

Another NCR columnist, Michael Sean Winters reflects on this Martin Luther King Jr. Day about the state of aspirational democracy, and the fate of our U.S. democracy in these days of division. Read more.

Also for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Arthur Jones, a former NCR editor and publisher, shares reporting from the 1963 March on Washington and the 1964 Democratic National Convention, where he met King. Read his commentary here.

The woman who co-founded The Catholic Worker newspaper and movement "was unflinching in her sense that this is my response to how God is calling me to behave," said filmaker Martin Doblmeier. "We're all called to do the same, and if we are, that's why I'm scared. Have I done my share? Have I done my part?" Read about a new Dorothy Day documentary.

In case you missed it,news about two people who helped make today's NCR what it is:

• Robert Heyer, acclaimed Catholic book editor, dies at age 87
• John Caron, former NCR board chair, mixed business and social justice acumen

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