Monthly Archives: April 2009
Mich. bishop tapped for St. Louis Archdiocese
By Kevin Eckstrom — April 22, 2009
Pope Benedict XVI has named Bishop Robert Carlson of Saginaw, Mich., as the next Roman Catholic archbishop of St. Louis.
Court says Wyo. erred in Jehovah’s Witness death
By Kevin Eckstrom — April 22, 2009
Wyoming incorrectly withheld death benefits from the family of a Jehovah’s Witness who died from low blood pressure because it couldn’t prove that treatment refused by the family would’ve saved the man, the Wyoming Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.
Hire me this
By Mark Silk — April 22, 2009
Pastordan is a bit befuddled by Michelle Boorstein’s God in Government post reporting that the Advisory Council of the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships (OFANP) is not, after all, going to take up the thorny faith-based hiring issue. Since I reported a month ago that the Council was going to take it up, let […]
Catholic coalition unveils environmental `covenant’
By Tracy Gordon — April 22, 2009
(RNS) On the eve of Earth Day, a coalition of Catholic groups launched a broad initiative Tuesday (April 21) to encourage Catholic churches, institutions and families to combat climate change and advocate for the poor in the debate over the environment. The Catholic Climate Covenant asks the nation’s 65 million Catholics to connect their religious […]
Promise Keepers invites women to 2009 gathering
By Adelle M. Banks — April 22, 2009
(RNS) Promise Keepers, the evangelical ministry known for its focus on making men better fathers and husbands, is inviting women for the first time to its main 2009 conference, the ministry announced. “This year we are calling men to bring the women in their lives,” founder and chairman Bill McCartney announced Monday (April 20). “To […]
Reform seminary may cut two of three U.S. campuses
By Tracy Gordon — April 22, 2009
(RNS) The Reform Jewish movement’s central seminary is considering closing two of its three U.S. campuses amid what the school’s president calls “the most challenging financial position (the school) has faced in its history.” Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, with campuses in New York, Los Angeles, Cincinnati and Jerusalem, is facing a deficit of […]
The Dalai Obama question
By Daniel Burke — April 22, 2009
Speculation has already begun on whether President will meet with the Dalai Lama in October. Says the AP: “Obama must make a delicate calculation as he considers a meeting with the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet’s Buddhists, seen by his supporters as a symbol of peace but vilified by China as a […]
The king’s ear
By Daniel Burke — April 22, 2009
King Abdullah II of Jordan met in Washington on Monday with the Rev. Mark Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; the Rev. Michael Kinnamon, general secretary, National Council of Churches; Imam Mohamed Majid, vice president, Islamic Society of North America;and Imam Sayid Hassan Al-Qazwini, scholar and religious leader, Islamic Center of […]
SNAP at Paraguayan prez
By Daniel Burke — April 21, 2009
A second woman has come forward accusing Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo of fathering her child while he was a Catholic cleric. Last week, Lugo admitted that he had fathered a child with a different woman, Viviana Carrillo, while he was a Catholic bishop. News accounts say Lugo, who took off his cleric’s collar to become […]
Valedictorian okay with Obama
By Daniel Burke — April 21, 2009
Notre Dame’s class of 2009 valedictorian Brennan Bollman says she has no problem sharing the stage with President Obama. She tells her hometown paper: “The reason it’s so meaningful for many of us to have this president speak is because we see him as someone who lives by example. He began as a community organizer […]
Axing `the Muslim world’
By Daniel Burke — April 21, 2009
Scholar and author Parag Khanna says the phrase “the Muslim world” is so broad it’s meaningless, and encourages President Obama and others to drop it. Moneyquote: Just as there has not been any meaningful “Christian world” since the Holy Roman Empire, there has been no unified “Islamic world” since the Middle Ages. For centuries thereafter, […]
COMMENTARY: Yearning on the everlasting arms
By Tom Ehrich — April 21, 2009
(UNDATED) My father and I were eating lunch at Marquette Manor, the retirement center in Indianapolis where he has lived since my mother’s death five years ago. A friend walked up and put his hand on my father’s shoulder. The two began singing, my father on melody, his friend on harmony. They do this every […]
In hard-hit Indiana, cash-strapped churches reach out
By Tracy Gordon — April 21, 2009
GOSHEN, Ind. — The annual “Family Fest” at Bethany Christian Schools is usually a joyous event as families auction off handmade quilts, furniture and other goods in the annual school fundraiser. But this year, double-digit unemployment rates overshadowed the event with a sense of anxiety. The event failed to meet last year’s proceeds. “People … […]
The purpose-driven schism
By Daniel Burke — April 21, 2009
The newly formed Anglican Church in North America, which aims to supercede the Episcopal Church as the rightful U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion, announced the line-up of keynoters for its June assembly. They’ve invited an ecumenical group, I’ll give them that: There’s Rick Warren, California megachurch pastor and bestselling author; the newly installed Metropolitan […]
Columbine Revisited
By Adelle M. Banks — April 21, 2009
Ten years after the tragic killings of students at Columbine High School, a new book and media reports about it reveal that the two teens who went on a rampage in Littleton, Colo., on April 20, 1999 were not specifically targeting Christians or other kinds of students. “That story about a student being shot in […]
