(RNS2-sept22) Pope Francis officiated at the weddings of 20 couples at St. Peter’s Basilica earlier this month. For use with RNS-MARRIAGE-POPE, transmitted on September 22, 2014, Religion News Service photo by Cathleen Falsani
Fallout from the terrible synagogue attack in Jerusalem continues. Some links:
- The NYT profiles the four “wise scholars” who were killed while praying, three of them American-Israeli citizens, the other a native of England.
- The Times’ Jodi Rudoren has a must-read piece on the “War of Neighbors,” including this chiller:
“When you bring the religious dimension, it absolutizes the conflict — you can divide land, you can divide security, but the sacred is indivisible,” said Moshe Halbertal, a philosophy scholar at Hebrew University. “And it also globalizes the conflict, because it’s every Muslim, it’s not anymore an Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
- The WaPo lead is about Jewish worshipers returning this morning to the synagogue while Israeli authorities start razing homes of Palestinian attackers.
- In Rome, Pope Francis denounced “unacceptable episodes of violence that do not spare even the places of worship” and added: “Building peace is difficult, but living without peace is a torment!”
Meanwhile, in retro but resonant news:
Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address this day in 1863:
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.
Missouri matches execution record
The “Show-Me State” takes no prisoners: with the execution of Leon Taylor early Wednesday morning, the state has killed 9 men this year, a mark not matched since 1999. Another execution is scheduled for December, so Missouri looks to break that record.
Bury suicides in the church cemetery?
Radical notion, but Harry de Quetteville thinks the Church of England should change its canon law to allow it. What do you think, he asks here?
Brittany Maynard’s mom blasts Vatican criticisms
The mother of the young woman who took her own life while battling terminal brain cancer says a Vatican official’s criticism of her daughter’s actions were “more than a slap in the face.”
Patti Smith doesn’t care what her critics think
The “Godmother of Punk” is going to play for Pope Francis in Rome at Christmas, even though left and right rip her for selling out or for a seemingly anti-religious line from an old song:
“I had a strong religious upbringing and the first word on my first LP is Jesus,” Smith explained. “I did a lot of thinking. I’m not against Jesus, but I was 20 and I wanted to make my own mistakes. And I didn’t want anyone dying for me. I stand behind that 20 year old girl, but I have evolved. I’ll sing to my enemy! I don’t like being pinned down and I’ll say what the f–k I want – especially at my age.”
Smith is now 67. Rock on.
What WON’T this Pope do?!
In latest shocking move, Pope Francis absolves accordion players. https://t.co/bN22gAb5ZY pic.twitter.com/82B8UT0RLL
— Steve Silberman (@stevesilberman) November 18, 2014
Want some of the Francis’ personal souvenirs?
You’re free to bid on them, at an auction for charity. You can get his panama hat, a new four-wheel-drive Fiat Panda, a bicycles, or an espresso coffee machine he was given. Or buy all of those and you’ll be a hipster!
Chicago’s new archbishop is pretty chill
Even though Blase Cupich has a big job ahead of him and a big mitre to fill following his installation on Tuesday, succeeding Cardinal Francis George.And the gospel reading was about jesus walking on water!
I have to admit, I had a bit of a panic attack when I saw the Gospel provided in the Lectionary for this day, which we have just heard. I realize this new responsibility is going to be demanding, but seriously folks, I don’t do “walking on water.” I can barely swim. So I hope this image in today’s Gospel is not reflective of anyone’s expectations.
Crux has the full homily. And…
Today's clear, albeit unspoken message: Chicago's back in business in its traditional role – i.e. the seat of progressive Catholicism in US
— Rocco Palmo (@roccopalmo) November 19, 2014
Best Pope-to-USA jokes
USA Today has the late-night roundup, and this video. Tip: Wait for the final clip with Conan. It’s worth it.
There he goes again
Cardinal Burke, newly-minted head of the Order of the Knights of Malta and vocal Francis oppo, urges the pontiff not to allow discussion of cohabitation or Communion for civilly remarried at the next Synod like he did at this last one:
“Even within the Church there are those who would obscure the truth of the indissolubility of marriage in the name of mercy,” he said last weekend. “We are engaged in a very great struggle and it strikes at the very heart of the Church.”
Pope Benedict’s ‘pentimento’
In 1972, then-Father Joseph Ratzinger wrote that communion for divorced and remarried Catholics was a possibility — a passage that has been cited by supporters of such a proposal today.
In an official edition of his works, now-Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has cut that passage.
The Jesuit and the Journo
No, not Pope Francis and moi. The Rev. James Martin, author and America mag writer, and Ross Douthat, the NYT columnist and conservative Catholic who has bandied the “S-word” around (“schism” for the unwashed), go several rounds — 6,000 words worth actually — about the future of the Catholic Church in the Age of Francis. Good stuff.
Interesting Tweet
Even though it’s mine:
How abortion foes react when Catholic leaders say immigration is a pro-life issue http://t.co/8CqAvSACCw @RNS pic.twitter.com/xQUaue7U56
— David Gibson (@GibsonWrites) November 18, 2014
Speaking of immigration …
Let’s get off the Catholic bandwagon and check out this new LifeWay survey that finds most Protestant pastors support immigration reform of the sort that Congress has not been keen to pass:
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The nation’s Protestant senior pastors want the U.S. government to mix justice with mercy when it comes to immigration reform.
Most say it’s the government’s job to stop people from entering the country illegally.
They also support reform that includes a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already in the country.
The Best of the Rest from RNS:
- World Magazine column demonstrates evangelicals’ double standard, says Jonathan Merritt
- Religion survey babble confuses 103% of readers. Here’s why.
- Richard Dawkins stands by remarks on sexism, pedophilia, Down syndrome
- Sexual revolution is destroying families, Russell Moore tells Vatican conference
Religious objects from weapons of war
Finally, this post is in Italian, but worth checking out the photos of the devotional objects that these Catholic sisters in Aleppo, Syria, have fashioned from the hardware of death that rains down almost daily on their convent.
Pax et bonum.
David Gibson
