I painted his icon of Fr. Frans van der Lugt, in the hopes of promoting awareness about his life and death.
Why I cried in Arabic class
I don’t know what exactly brought tears to my eyes, but the combination of the beautiful culture and its tragic loss; the foreign sound of bombs and the familiar sound of Shami Arabic; and the human goodness that somehow persists in the midst of evil made a lump rise in my throat. I looked over and noticed that my teacher was fighting back tears, too.
Diet Advice from the Caliph
The walls of the priest’s office were lined with black-and-white photographs of his father donning a checkered Jordanian kufiyyeh and his little sister wearing her white First Communion dress. Newer pictures of Jordan’s king, Abdullah II, Roman Catholic bishops of Jordan, and Pope John Paul II, flanked the family shots. But the most striking images …
Peeling Kiwis: “Peeling Oranges” Series
October 27, 2013 This afternoon I found myself sitting on the front porch of a woman named Maggie. No, I wasn’t with my own mother on our front porch on Pennsylvania Street in Indianapolis, but it was about as close as I could get here in Amman. I had been walking to the Vatican library …
dotCommonweal: “Mercy-ing: A Starting Point for Dialogue”
My newest blog post on dotCommonweal. Start reading here and then continue by clicking "Read more." Amid all the excitement from the unprecedented interview with Pope Francis published by Jesuit journals worldwide, many Catholics may have missed one of the Pontiff’s more subtle communiqués: a letter sent to the head of al-Azhar University, a highly respected institution …
Continue reading "dotCommonweal: “Mercy-ing: A Starting Point for Dialogue”"
JORDAN DENARI DUFFNER 