I am a daughter, sister, wife and mother, blessed with two wonderful children, now adults who, like me, have been raised in the Catholic faith. We call Hawaii home now and find in its aloha spirit much that is akin to what Catholicism at its best teaches.
My religious sense is something I gained first from my mother, Gladys Morais whose vibrant and independent faith is perhaps best reflected in her constant exhortation to us that “what you receive from God in one hand, you give away with the other.” No, she is not a Communist nor a Socialist–whatever those labels mean in the perverse public rhetoric of today. She is however a champion of social justice. It is that same sense of social justice that I gained through my education with Franciscan nuns in Malaysia. I learned about Pope John XXIII and Vatican 2 in catechism class with Sr. Enda (Sr. Mena Ryan) headmistress of Assunta School in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.
I remember her saying that Pope John XXIII opened the windows of the Vatican to let the fresh air in …and encountered a gale!
The winds that are blowing through the Church today are less invigorating than they are threatening. Like the fundamentalism and xenophobia that threatens the peace in so many places, the sometimes hostile rhetoric of the institutional church today is turning away thinking Catholics who find some of the Church’s teachings and positions in direct contradiction with what we believe we are called to do as followers of the social teachings of the Gospel.
This blog is an attempt to reconnect to those central teachings and to find community with others who refuse to be blind followers of a largely out-of-touch Church bureaucracy but who continue to try to be Catholic in ways that promote peace and justice in today’s troubled world.
This blog is designed and initiated with the help of a talented designer and fellow Catholic, Sun Hee Kim. Mahalo!
Dawn Morais Webster
Sep 10, 2010
Dawn Morais 
Thanks Dawn for that GLBT article and mention in Star Advertiser (Jan 31st, 2011). Terima kasih!
Dear Dawn,
Love your piece in The Hawaii Independent. I reposted on the Catholics for Equality and Maryland Catholics for Equality Facebook pages. Check out Catholics for Equality at: http://www.catholicsforequality.org
Would you be interested in helping form a Hawaii chapter?
Peace,
Joe Palacios
Director, Catholics for Equality Foundation
I stumbled upon your blog somehow from twitter. I will pray for you tonight because it seems you, like me, seek the truth! My friend, Jesus Christ IS the truth and He left us his Holy Spirit to guide the Church on earth. He left Peter to be the first Pope and the Catholic Church has unbroken apostolic succession–for that reason, when the Pope speaks for the official Church and on matters of faith and morals–it is infallible. I want you to know that you can relax and trust that the ONE true church, the Church that Jesus Christ founded is the Catholic Church. So be obidient–that is what you are being called to…don’t reject what you don’t like as crazy fundamentalism–that will ultimately be to your detriment and what you type on this blog that hurts the church is already written in eternity forver. Be careful!! Try these two websites followingthetruth.com and biblechristiansociety.com Again, I will pray for you. Pax.
Be careful of choosing legalism over His Spirits guidance.