Monthly Archives: April 2010
Pope meets with investigators of disgraced Legion
By Tracy Gordon — April 30, 2010
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI met on Friday (April 30) with the leaders of a Vatican investigation of the Legion of Christ, a conservative Catholic movement whose founder fathered at least one illegitimate child and sexually abused minors. Five prelates from Europe and the Americas, including Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver, met with Benedict […]
British judge: Christian beliefs have no legal standing
By Tracy Gordon — April 30, 2010
LONDON (RNS) A top British judge has ruled that Christian beliefs have no standing under secular law because they lack evidence and cannot be proven. Lord Justice John Grant McKenzie Laws made the declaration on Thursday (April 29) in throwing out a defamation suit by Christian relationship counselor who refused to offer sex therapy to […]
Belgium poised to ban Muslim veil
By Tracy Gordon — April 30, 2010
PARIS (RNS) Belgium is poised to become Europe’s first country to ban the face-covering Islamic veil, after lawmakers approved such a measure Thursday (April 29) — just a week after the French President Nicolas Sarkozy ordered similar legislation in France. Deputies in Belgium’s lower house of Parliament voted almost unanimously for banning the face veil, […]
Is high court’s cross ruling good for Christians?
By Tracy Gordon — April 30, 2010
WASHINGTON (RNS) Evangelicals cheered when a Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday (April 28) allowed a cross to remain as a war memorial in California’s Mojave Desert. Some Christians, however, caution that a celebration may not be in order. The high court’s decision was largely based on Justice Anthony Kennedy’s determination that “one Latin cross in […]
A war over water dries up good will between Jews, Arabs
By Tracy Gordon — April 30, 2010
JERUSALEM (RNS) Given the choice, Fatmeh Kawasmi has put her guests ahead of her flowers. With a limited supply of water, it’s comes down to giving a drink to her flowers or serving tea to her guests. So Kawasmi, as a good Middle Eastern host, pours water into the little cups instead of the soil, […]
Friday’s roundup
By Kevin Eckstrom — April 30, 2010
Pope Benedict XVI held meetings today over the fate of the Legionaries of Christ (photo, left), the conservative order that was devastated by abuse and out-of-wedlock children involving founder Marcial Maciel. The NYT says the abuse scandal spreading around the world is producing “nothing less than an epochal shift” for the Catholic Church. Washington state […]
Chaplains ret., in favor of DADT
By Mark Silk — April 30, 2010
The letter sent to President Obama and Secretary of Defense Gates by a group retired chaplains begging for retention of Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell is not exactly a testament to intellectual honesty. The chaplains–evangelicals and other conservative Protestants–are exercised that if the military “normalizes homosexual behavior” it will impinge upon their own religious liberty. But as […]
New Vatican figures show Catholic growth is outside Europe
By Tracy Gordon — April 30, 2010
ROME (RNS/ENI) The world’s Catholic population grew 11.55 percent between 2000 and 2008, from 1.045 billion 1.166 billion, which was slightly faster than the world’s overall population growth of 10.77 percent, according to new statistics published by the Vatican. The 2010 edition of the Vatican’s statistical yearbook shows that while the number of Catholics in […]
Retired chaplains oppose Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell repeal
By Tracy Gordon — April 29, 2010
WASHINGTON (RNS) More than 40 retired military chaplains warned President Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates that allowing gays to serve openly in the military will force current chaplains to choose between obeying God or men. “This forced choice must be faced, since orthodox Christianity — which represents a significant percentage of religious belief in […]
La. moves to allow armed worshippers
By Tracy Gordon — April 29, 2010
BATON ROUGE, La. (RNS) People qualified to carry concealed weapons should be able to keep them strapped on in a church or temple as a way to enhance security, a state House committee decided Wednesday (April 28). The House Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice voted 8-3 for bill that would allow a church […]
Panel faults Obama for lagging on religious freedom
By Tracy Gordon — April 29, 2010
WASHINGTON (RNS) The U.S. government is not doing enough to protect religious freedoms abroad, the independent U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said Thursday (April 29) in its annual report to Congress and the White House. “The problems are above and beyond what we saw last year, and the administration must do more,” said Leonard […]
Thursday’s roundup
By Daniel Burke — April 29, 2010
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom named 13 countries – including Saudi Arabia and China – as serious violators of religious freedom. The congressionally mandated panel also included as “countries of particular concern”: Myanmar, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam. President Obama is among the hundreds of mourners […]
Why does Tariq Ramadan cause such a stir?
By Tracy Gordon — April 29, 2010
WASHINGTON (RNS) With an open collared baby blue shirt and Dolce & Gabbana jacket hugging his slim frame, Tariq Ramadan appears the epitome of Western sophistication. But from 2004 until just a few months ago, the Department of Homeland Security viewed him with suspicion. Ramadan, a 46-year-old Oxford University professor and a golden child of […]
COMMENTARY: Inflamed passions over Oberammergau
By Tracy Gordon — April 29, 2010
(RNS) Since 1634, the Bavarian village of Oberammergau has staged an elaborate Passion play that has become of the largest and longest-running stage depictions of the last week of Jesus’ life. The show now runs once every 10 years. During this year’s run of 102 performances between May 15 and Oct. 3, an estimated half-million […]
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