by Tamara Z. Horsburgh

We live in a tense time with multiple wars raging, and corrupt governments treating the poor and the refugees as criminals. Everything feels as if the end is near – maybe some of those Evangelical Americans and the handful of 20^th century Catholic Mystics are not wrong about the imminent ‘end times’. And yet – one could argue that all eras have been fraught with danger, fear, violence, war and global threat.

A very wise woman (my grandmother) once said to me when I lamented at the state of the world during the first Gulf War: ‘Oh, we always thought the world was at its worst. I was a little girl during World War 1; a young adult in the Depression; a mother during World War 2 and the Cold War; a grandmother by the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War and the Nuclear Arms Race -  there’s hardly been of era of my life when people haven’t said ‘this is it’.

Those words from grandmother were strangely comforting – and yet, they were also sad and harrowing. Have we always been intent on destroying each other and our planet?

A number of years ago I read a book about Catherine of Siena – one of Dorothy Day’s favourite saints. I remember having the distinct feeling that I was reading about our current era – as Catherine battled greedy bankers, corrupt church men, and insincere politicians; while she tried to make peace between warring family factions, and she tried to tell rich families with exceptionally decadent lifestyles that their souls were at risk;  as she took care of those dying of the plague on the streets of Siena – I thought ‘Well – look at this – nothing has changed in 700 plus years’. The Epstein Files rightfully shock and appal us all - yet, after reading that book, I came away with the sad knowledge that we have always had this level of cruelty to children and the vulnerable in our midst.

What do we do with this? How do we, as Catholics, respond to the dismal truth that we have always been fallen – that we have always been at war – and that we have always let the poor die in the streets?

Dr Tamara Z. Horsburgh is a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Social Work and Social Policy, University of Strathclyde and member of the Glasgow Catholic Worker

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Image: Brian Quail with Catholic peace activist and Dorothy Day's granddaughter, Martha Hennessy, when they visited Faslane in 2024 .

See also Open House Scotland Issue 316