MEDIA COVERAGE

NEWS – Ayala: San Antonio blessed with a peace laureate that feeds the hungry
Sunday’s Blessing of the Peacemakers began with a review of peace initiatives by a San Antonian long involved in those efforts. The Rev. Ann Helmke didn’t speak long but she ticked off a timeline that I wanted to slow down. t was history deserving of its own award....

OP-Ed- “Plant and nurture the seeds of peace”
by Rosalyn Falcon Collier Express-News, 23 January, 2021 Since 2006, the peaceCENTER has celebrated San Antonio’s peacemakers with a Blessing of the Peacemakers, held the last Sunday of January to dovetail with the start of the internationally recognized Season for...

NEWS: Commentary: How we can harness, share compassion
From the San Antonio Express-News, 26 November, 2020 By Dennis Slattery The word “compassion” entered the fringes of social discourse years ago and has now moved closer to the center of discussion for many. Etymologically, its history reaches back to ancient periods....

NEWS: Ayala: San Antonio becomes first city to develop ‘compassionistas’
Elaine Ayala, San Antonio Express-News, September 12, 2020 A hint of fall this week gave us a reprieve, however temporary, from a summer that was long and hot and steeped in shared stress. No one in the United States was spared the effects of a mismanaged pandemic, a...

NEWS: Essential services — Worship has evolved amid the disruption of COVID-19, minister says
By Peggy O’Hare STAFF WRITER San Antonio Express-News, 10 May, 2020, page H1 The Rev. Ann Helmke, a Lutheran minister who serves as the city’s liaison to its faith-based communities, discusses how churches and temples can best meet the needs of their congregations and...

COMMENTARY: On other side of this crisis, what will humanity be?
By Ann Helmke FOR THE EXPRESS-NEWS May 9, 2020 page A13 Who are we in the midst of COVID-19? Sometimes I find myself imagining the God’s eye view of our human movement during these surreal times. The image is daunting and more than the eye of my heart can take in...

NEWS: San Antonio joined Compassionate and Sister Cities in prayer and in tears
by Elaine Ayala Express-News, 13 August, 2019 Despite a searing noontime sun bearing down on the stone pavement between city council chambers and San Fernando Cathedral, about 100 people gathered Monday for prayer. The service drew Christians, Jews and Muslims. Among...

Father Ron Rolheiser: Christ’s call for true compassion is the goal of all religion
Published in the Express-News Faith section, 11 August, 2019 Dictionaries define compassion as a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering. What does it mean to offer...

Sr. Martha Ann Kirk: A person’s ‘compassion muscle’ can be strengthened
by Sister Martha Ann Kirk “Total Death List Eight” — so read the October 1912 San Antonio Express headline. I was doing research in the Archives of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, when our archivist showed me newspaper clippings describing the fire that...

Nickie Valdez: Affirming the LGBTQI community as children of God
by Nickie Valdez Dignity USA is a national organization of LGBTQI Catholics and allies primarily concerned with the spirituality of the LGBTQI (lesbian-gay-bisexual-trans-queerintersex) individual. Dignity’s statement of position and purpose declares that we are...