The Chicago Archdiocese runs a schedule of radio shows. Until recently, those programs appeared on Relevant Radio's Chicago outlet. For reasons that aren't entirely clear to me, the Archdiocese no longer is on Relevant Radio. Instead, it leases airtime (or some similar arrangement) on a local AM radio station, WNDZ 750 AM, the existence of which I confess I was previously unaware. There are a number of parishioners who listen to Relevant Radio (which, for those of you who may not know, is a network of radio stations that carries Catholic content. I hesitate to describe it as "EWTN on the radio", in part because I don't think that's strictly accurate, and in part because, inasmuch as I've never actually listened to it, I'm not entirely sure). Until last Sunday, I had never heard of anyone listening to WNDZ. What I learned last Sunday is that there are at least two people in the world who listen to it, because they both told me they heard me on it.
On archdiocesan radio, the Vicar of Deacons for the Archdiocese, Deacon Richard Hudzik, and the Associate Director, Deacon Dave Brencic, host a half-hour talk show once a month, on Thursday mornings. Last Thursday, having previously run through their entire list of interesting guests, they interviewed me. If you feel your life wouldn't be complete without hearing what my voice sounds like, and you have a media player on your smartphone or computer, you can go to this link and select the program entitled Rest in His Arms. You can choose either Stream or Download. I chose Stream, selected Windows Media Player, and it worked.
Rest in His Arms is the name of a ministry I'm affiliated with. Its website is here. But if you are so inclined, you can also learn about it by listening to the radio interview.
Plagued with insomnia tonight. Has to stop reading when I got to the babies of 2016. I have to believe these children are the tragic ends of stories that started long before their births--with family addiction, sexual trauma, mental illness, poverty, fear, and the evil that spawns hopelessness.
ReplyDeleteGod bless the people doing this work.
The Jewish Fund, a local funeral home and casket maker, and Our Lady of Hope cemetery in Detroit have provided burial for unclaimed indigents at the Wayne County Morgue.
Many urban areas have dozens of unclaimed bodies it cannot afford to bury except in mass graves and without services. If you have a church group looking for a project, may be worth a call to your county medical examiner to see how this is handled in your area.
Isn't burying the dead one of the corporal acts of mercy we are all called to perform?
Jean, thanks for your wonderful comment. You struck a chord with me on every single point.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more about the tragic "back stories" that result in these burials. If I had to point to three common threads, it would be: teenage moms; undocumented immigrant moms; moms with addictions.
You're right about the unclaimed bodies. This particular ministry just does children. We've talked about extending it to adults (there are many more unclaimed adults than children) but it would require more funds than we have, and more time than we have - we're all doing this in addition to our day jobs and our other responsibilities. Once or twice, the archdiocese has stepped up to provide burial plots and a funeral service when the Cook County medical examiner has proposed a mass burial of unclaimed adults in a so-called pauper's gravesite.
And you're right on about burial being a corporal act of mercy. I think it's one that is worthy of more consideration and discussion.
Couple of resources about unclaimed bodies. Sad reads, but reveals something about how we cared (or, more accurately, didn't care) for these people when they were alive. These dead are the failures of all of us.
ReplyDeleteOffers demographic study of who the unclaimed dead are https://journalistsresource.org/studies/government/unclaimed-bodies-burial-medical-examiner-cremation/
Discusses current crisis of unclaimed bodies and stresses they place on communities
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/02/unclaimed-bodies-problem/582625/
Thanks, Deacon Jim. That's an amazing story. You'd think that in this day and age there would be an SOP for unclaimed bodies. The story of Rest in His Arms sounds like the story of some of the saints and blesseds that Robert Elsberg writes about, who started religious orders to deal with the missing mercy of the societies of their day. But those stories come from the 16th through 18th centuries, with a few from the industrializing England of the 19th. You'd have thought we would be beyond that in the enlightened 21st. You are doing good, man.
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