Monthly Archives: September 2005
COMMENTARY: Katrina and Sept. 11 Teach Us the Same Lesson
By Frances Kennedy — September 15, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Hurricane Katrina has been compared with Sept. 11 as a sudden unexpected disaster. It resembles the latter, all right, but for deeper reasons than the surface ones cited by reporters, pundits and the politicians who circled and cawed as wildly as birds of prey over the wasted city. While […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — September 15, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service Statue of Opus Dei Founder Added to St. Peter’s Basilica VATICAN CITY (RNS) A marble statue of St. Josemaria Escriva, the founder of the conservative Opus Dei movement, was added to the exterior of St. Peter’s Basilica on Wednesday (Sept. 14), receiving a blessing from Pope Benedict XVI. The 20-foot […]
California Court Finds Pledge of Allegiance Unconstitutional _ Again
By Adelle M. Banks — September 15, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) A federal judge in California ruled Wednesday (Sept. 14) that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional, deciding a case that had been refiled by an atheist whose previous challenge to the term “under God” reached the Supreme Court. Judge Lawrence K. Karlton of the U.S. District Court in Sacramento […]
Mother Angelica, Slowed by Strokes and Age, Continues to Draw Fans
By Greg Garrison — September 15, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service HANCEVILLE, Ala. _ The lines of people waiting to meet Mother Angelica at her monastery hinted at how beloved a figure she remains, though she hasn’t done a live TV show in years. “I think she’s a saint,” said Marlon Roa, 43, an American Airlines aircraft mechanic from Miami who […]
Revving Reverends Take to the Wheel of Stock Cars
By RNS Blog Editor — September 15, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service AMHERST, Ohio _ The Rev. Jason Russ of Church of the Open Door in Elyria was closing in on the leader in a stock car race here at the Lorain County Speedway west of Cleveland. The owner of the car he was driving had encouraged him to be aggressive and […]
Revving reverends; and the power of Mother Angelica
By RNS Blog Editor — September 15, 2005
David Briggs writes in Wednesday’s RNS report about “revving reverends” who compete against each other in stock car races to benefit charities: The Rev. Jason Russ of Church of the Open Door in Elyria, Ohio, was closing in on the leader in a stock car race at Lorain County Speedway. The owner of the car […]
RNS Weekly Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — September 14, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service Unitarians Form Commission to Probe Charges of Church Racism (RNS) The Unitarian Universalist Association has established a special review commission to investigate allegations of institutional racism after a series of conflicts at the church’s annual meeting in Fort Worth, Texas. Tensions flared at the five-day meeting in June when white […]
Lamenting the destruction
By Tracy Gordon — September 14, 2005
Quote of the Day: Orthodox Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb “The destruction of a synagogue is akin to a knife being thrust into our very being. When synagogues are destroyed, with … lack of action of a governing authority, we can only ask, `What kind of government is this?'” -Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, executive vice president […]
Vatican v. China; church growth
By RNS Blog Editor — September 14, 2005
Tuesday’s RNS report includes a story about relations between the Vatican and China-the world’s largest church and most populous country, respectively. Stacy Meichtry reports that: Since the death of the late Pope John Paul II a wave of optimism has been building over the possibilitythat decades of icy relations between China and the Vatican were […]
Hopes for Improved China-Vatican Relations Hit a RoadBlock
By RNS Blog Editor — September 14, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ After months of backroom negotiations aimed at harmonizing relations between the globe’s largest church and most populous country, China and the Vatican find themselves locked in a bureaucratic wrestling match with little room to maneuver. Ever since the death of Pope John Paul II this past April, […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — September 14, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service Leading Archbishop Says Gays Should be Banned from Seminaries (RNS) The U.S. archbishop who will oversee a Vatican review of all Catholic seminaries says gay men, even if celibate, should be barred from them. Archbishop Edwin O’Brien told the independent National Catholic Register newspaper that he expects a Vatican policy […]
A `Breakout’ Church’s Formula for Explosive Growth
By RNS Blog Editor — September 14, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service MIDDLEBURG HEIGHTS, Ohio _ The success and qualities of Grace Church in this suburb southwest of Cleveland convinced evangelical consultant and author Thom Rainer that it is one of America’s most flourishing Protestant churches. He described Grace and others in a new book, “Breakout Churches” (Zondervan), in which he examines […]
COMMENTARY: Seeing the World Through Another’s Eyes
By Tom Ehrich — September 14, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Stirred by the sight of a large truck pulling alongside, my 14-year-old son and I accelerate our dreaming about a Grand Crossing-America Drive. Next summer perhaps. Drive north to Minnesota, west across South Dakota and Montana, on to Seattle, down the coast to California, and back across Colorado and […]
W. Todd Bassett on relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina
By Tracy Gordon — September 13, 2005
Quote of the Day: W. Todd Bassett, Salvation Army National Commander “Certainly, in my history of 41 years as a Salvation Army officer, this is the greatest mobilization of churches in general, but definitely the Christian churches, who in my mind have come to truly realize what Jesus said in Matthew in the 25th chapter: […]
New Pope to Put His Personal Stamp on U.S. Hierarchy
By RNS Blog Editor — September 13, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) As Pope Benedict XVI prepares to make his first major personnel move in the United States, American Catholics can expect the beginning of a subtle but substantive change in the makeup of the church’s hierarchy. Church observers expect the new pope to put his own stamp on the U.S. […]
