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December 22
Lottie Moon, Henry Budd, Mary Burchell, Doctors Without Borders, and the Acteal Massacre
David Barnhart
December 22, 2025
Virgin of Mercy, by Michael Erhart, 1522, Bode Museum, Berlin. Own photo from 2022.
On this day in 1971, Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) was founded in France to provide medical humanitarian assistance to people in vulnerable places in the world “irrespective of race, religion, gender, or political affiliation.”
The Episcopal Church, USA, recognizes today as the feast days of Lottie Moon (1840-1912) and Henry Budd (1812-1875). Budd was of the Cree nation and became the first Native American ordained as an Anglican priest. Lottie Moon was a Baptist missionary to China. While she is often celebrated for her missionary efforts, less well-known was her advocacy for women to have equal standing to men in church leadership.
Today marks the death, in 1986, of Ida Cook, better known as romance novelist Mary Burchell, who, with the help of her sister Louise Cook, helped dozens of Jews escape Nazi Germany.
Today marks the anniversary of the 1997 Acteal Massacre, in which a right-wing paramilitary group killed 45 Oaxacan indigenous Roman Catholic peace activists at a prayer meeting.
Reflection
Lottie Moon wrote:
“How many there are … who imagine that because Jesus paid it all, they need pay nothing, forgetting that the prime object of their salvation was that they should follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ in bringing back a lost world to God.”
Prayer: Jesus, help us balance urgency with equanimity as we purse the renewal and healing of all things. Amen.