ThursdayâÂ?Â?s Religion News Roundup: Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Roy Bourgeois, Vatican hacked

BREAKING: Mitt Romney wins! (Well, the Catholic vote. He reaches 50 percent after Super Tuesday. Isn’t that enough?) No, it’s not. Santorum, an actual Catholic, is still crushing it with evangelicals, and that could put Newt Gingrich out of his (our?) misery if Santorum can win the Mississippi and/or Alabama primary next week. Evangelical leaders […]

BREAKING: Mitt Romney wins! (Well, the Catholic vote. He reaches 50 percent after Super Tuesday. Isn’t that enough?)

No, it’s not. Santorum, an actual Catholic, is still crushing it with evangelicals, and that could put Newt Gingrich out of his (our?) misery if Santorum can win the Mississippi and/or Alabama primary next week.

Evangelical leaders like the FRC’s Tony Perkins seem ready to give Newt a nudge (a.k.a., a shove):


“Gingrich has never been in a more influential position in deciding the outcome of the nomination; he could be a kingmaker if he stepped out of the race and threw his support to another candidate,” Perkins said.

MSNBC has rejected an ad from a liberal religious group that targets the liberal cable network for having Perkins on its shows so often, even though they say he’s not a nice guy. At all.

Santorum says he’s “not a road to Damascus kind of guy.” That’s in a new Time profile of his religious pilgrimage. “It’s sort of a process,” he says. Like the primaries, I guess.

The Vatican reverses the Cleveland diocese's closing of 13 parishes. Take that, Bishop Lennon.

A top aide to Pope Benedict XVI sees a “strategy of confusion” behind the stream of leaks that are making the Vatican look like a “ship without a helmsman.”

At least something’s working over there. Because their website got taken down by the hacktivist group Anonymous. The group said the attack was a response to the Catholic Church's “doctrines,” its “absurd and anachronistic precepts,” and the “crimes” of the sexual abuse scandal.

Anyone else see the irony of a group whose symbol is a mask of Guy Fawkes attacking the Catholic Church for its crimes?


No? Okay, moving on…

The Maryknoll order has voted on the expulsion of Father Roy Bourgeois for his advocacy of women’s ordination, but the outcome is unclear, as is so much about this long-running saga.

Cremation is increasingly popular, but Catholics shouldn’t consider it the first option.

Contraception Mandate Update: Cui bono? Which is Latin for, someone is making money off it, and it’s not us.

By the by, it is International Women’s Day, which isn’t a big one in America. But the Google doodle knows all.

Popular preacher John Piper takes up Pat Robertson’s weatherman theology:

“Why would God reach down his hand and drag his fierce fingers across rural America killing at least 38 people with 90 tornadoes in 12 states, and leaving some small towns with scarcely a building standing, including churches?” Piper wrote in a blog post.

Questions are easy. Answers are hard.

David Gibson

Photo credit RT News

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