Last week Pope Leo XIV issued his first major writing to the global Catholic church, an Apostolic Exhortation – an urgent word of encouragement – on love for the poor, Dilexi Te. As a Mennonite, this theme caught my attention.
News
‘Freedom for everyone’
Jun 19 2025
The "Absolute Equality" mural in Galveston, Texas. Photo by 2C2K Photography
Every day is a good day to learn a little more about history. Today, Juneteenth, is an especially good day to listen to a story that has shaped our present day through a long and painful struggle for freedom. In the words of Opal Lee, the grandmother of Juneteenth, the freedom we celebrate through the telling of this story is freedom not only for enslaved people, or Black people, or Texans, but for everyone.
I encourage you to watch this short video by historian Heather Cox Richardson, as she narrates the story of Juneteenth with historical drawings and photographs of the actual events.
It is good to remember as well the long commitment of Opal Lee, now 98 years old, who advocated and educated for decades to make Juneteenth a national holiday. Listen as she expresses what the day and the movement mean to her.
I am inspired to learn that Ms. Lee led a 2.5-mile walk on June 19 for more than two decades, as a living reminder of the 2.5 years that it took for the news of the emancipation of enslaved African Americans to reach Galveston, Texas. That walk is taking place again this morning, as I write this blog.
I plan to walk 2.5 miles today in honor of Ms. Lee. Would you like to join me in your own way?
Rebeca Stoltzfus
An urgent word from the Pope
‘Even in darkness, ever-rising joy’
We have experienced another hard week of gun violence in America. For me, it has been a week of intense emotions – heavy emotions as well as joy and hope. How do we escape the doom loop? How do we stop partaking when it is dished up to us from all sides of the media and culture that we swim in?
Directors’ Corner
Goshen College’s “SST for all” makes global education more accessible with flexible study options at home and abroad.