Why fundamentalism will fail Nov 8, 2009
Father Thomas Merton, the leading Catholic contemplative writer of the 20th century, died while staying at a Buddhist monastery in Bangkok. Martin Luther King attributed his commitment to non-violence to Gandhi, who in turn said he learned it from Jesus and Tolstoy. (Boston Globe)
Hearings begin in G-20 arrests Oct 1, 2009
Today at 5:30 p.m., several groups, including the university branch of the ACLU and the Thomas Merton Center's Anti-War Committee, are gathering at Forbes Avenue and Bigelow Boulevard to hold a demonstration. "As a community in shock, we need to know who gave unconstitutional orders to the police and why," Pitt ACLU President Genevieve Redd said in a news release. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA)
Groups decry police response to protesters at G-20 Sep 30, 2009
In all, 190 people, including at least two reporters, were arrested during the summit Thursday and Friday (Somerset Daily American, PA)
DA won't charge some arrested at protests Sep 30, 2009
At a Monday news conference at the Thomas Merton Center, some protesters and students accused the police of starting the Oakland confrontations. Keith DeVries, 23, said a police officer fired pepper spray in his face as he was lying on the ground near the Cathedral of Learning. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA)
Protesters hope to highlight issues at G-20 summit (2) Sep 21, 2009
One of the larger events, The People s March, is being organized for Friday by the Thomas Merton Center, a Pittsburgh activist group that cites peace and social justice as its objectives. I think part of this is public education and public involvement, getting the word out on the many issues that exist, spokeswoman Melissa Minnich said. (Park Hills Daily Journal, MO)
Some Businesses Near G-20 Protest Camp To Close Sep 18, 2009
The neighborhood is a microcosm of a what the world should look like, said Melissa Minnich, a spokeswoman for the Thomas Merton Center, a Pittsburgh activist group that cites peace and social justice as its agenda and plans to demonstrate during the G-20 summit. The Strip District is "a very good thing, local independent business owners and not being made of big box stores" means the profits go back into the community, Minnich said, adding that the neighborhood is an example of what "go-local"... (KCRA 3, CA)
Activists take G-20 debate to court Sep 12, 2009
Plaintiff the Thomas Merton Center wants to lead a Sept. 25 anti-war march from Oakland to the City-County Building, and then get as close to the convention center as possible. The ACLU said the city hasn't given it any options for an end-point other than the Strip District public access area, which they could reach only by taking a wide detour around the security perimeter. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA)
‘Nantucket Reader’ and ‘Place Apart’ dip into New England’s ample literary heritage Aug 23, 2009
Finch also includes two writers better known in other contexts: the critic Edmund Wilson and Trappist monk Thomas Merton. Wilson writes, with a crystal eye for detail, of going out one night in Truro to check the fish traps and finding butterfish, great flapping silver flakes, making a smacking crepitation of fireworks when they were thrown onto the floor of the boat. (Boston Globe)
Homes open for G-20 with right price Jul 29, 2009
The Thomas Merton Center and the Pittsburgh G-20 Resistance Project set up accounts for protesters to e-mail them with requests for or offers of housing. "This is supposed to be [about] people offering space for people who want to come in for the protest," said Leah Samuel, publication director for the Thomas Merton Center. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA)
City Beat (4) Jul 12, 2009
At 6 at United Methodist Church, Robert Toth and Frank Peabody of The Merton Institute for Contemplative Living speak on The life of Thomas Merton and peace of mind while at Federated Church, 2007 Cleveland International Piano Competition medal winner Dmitri Levkovich gives a recital. Rio Neon folk-jazz ensemble plays a free concert in Riverside Park at 7. (Cleveland Jewish News, OH)
Rev. Thomas King; blessed set, crews of ‘The Exorcist’ Jun 29, 2009
A prolific author, Father King wrote books on Trappist monk and writer Thomas Merton and the Jesuit priest and paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who sought to reconcile evolution with the doctrine of the Catholic church. Father King s other books included Sartre and the Sacred (1974) and Enchantments (1989), a meditation on religious experiences and the power of the written word. (Boston Globe)
City could need 4,000 officers at G-20 summit Jun 28, 2009
"We will not be put in cages," said Carole Wiedmann, of the Thomas Merton Center's Anti-War Committee. The center hosted a meeting yesterday at the First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh in Shadyside to discuss preparations for the G-20 among members of the city's social justice community. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA)
'In Due Season' traces circuitous path to a religion writer's life Jun 22, 2009
One day a priest handed him a copy of The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton. Wilkes was mesmerized by the famous Trappist monk s account of his conversion to Catholicism. (Boston Globe)
Spammer in Chief Jun 3, 2009
The answers are: Thomas Merton, who was electrocuted in his bath, and the late Harvard psychiatry professor John Mack, who failed to look to his right when crossing the road during a visit to right-hand-drive London several years ago. Mack was the proverbial man of many parts. (Boston Globe)
G-20 summit often a magnet for protests May 31, 2009
Too, there is the question of which local groups might find cause to march -- labor unions, anti-war and social justice groups such as the Thomas Merton Center and the Pittsburgh Organizing Committee have already signaled interest. Mr. Gerard would like to see representatives of organized labor invited inside the hall to address the G-20. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA)
Today in History Apr 17, 2009
Thought for Today: "A happiness that is sought for ourselves alone can never be found; for a happiness that is diminished by being shared is not big enough to make us happy." Thomas Merton, American poet and author (1915-1968). Related Searches. (Yahoo News)
4/13/2009, 2:08pm We are not our jobs Apr 14, 2009
In Life and Holiness, Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk who died in 1968, writes of the growing disconnection of people from faith and the problems that result, in part, from that disconnect. In a manner, he predicted the recent spate of shootings the United States has suffered at the hands of several individuals frustrated about losing their jobs and related issues. (Watertown Public Opinion, SD)
Some embrace God but turn from religion Apr 12, 2009
He was also drawn to social justice, and after reading Thomas Merton and Dorothy Day, sought out the Newman Center. Motherhood awoke something in 32-year-old Schwinn. (La Crosse Tribune, WI)
Trinity Episcopal Church offers two lent study programs Feb 25, 2009
Thomas Merton: A Spiritual Companion will be offered by the Rev. Richard Stowe on Sunday mornings from 9:30 10:15 a.m., between the 8 and 10:30 a.m. services, beginning March 1. There is no charge for this program. (Hamilton Wenham Chronicle, MA)
Leonard Cohen on the road, for reasons practical and spiritual Feb 25, 2009
That may not be surprising, coming from an artist whose best-known songs mingle sacred concerns with the secular and the sexual and sound like "collaborations between Jacques Brel and Thomas Merton," as the novelist Pico Iyer put it. "There's a similarity in the quality of the daily life" on the road and in the monastery, Cohen said. (International Herald Tribune)
Biographer takes on life of elusive O’Connor - Famed author difficult to pin down Feb 21, 2009
It s not that plenty hasn t been written about her; she has, Gooch tells us, become a one-woman academic industry, subject of countless dissertations and critical studies, as well as one very good group biography, Paul Elie s The Life You Save May Be Your Own, which discusses her through the filter of her Catholicism, along with Thomas Merton, Walker Percy and Dorothy Day. Yet 45 years after her death at 39 from lupus, O Connor resists biographical treatment, because other than her writing, not... (Missoulian, MT)
Teresa Heinz Kerry's Radical Giving Feb 14, 2009
The two most outstanding would be the Three Rivers Community Foundation and the Thomas Merton Center. Q: What's wrong with those organizations. (Townhall.com)
