Monthly Archives: January 2010
COMMENTARY: Four films you might not see—but should
By Tracy Gordon — January 28, 2010
PARK CITY, Utah (RNS) The Sundance Film Festival facilitates epiphanies. I know because I’ve been here only one day and I can already feel, in the words of Carole King, the earth move under my feet and the sky tumbling down, all because of four simple little student films. An epiphany is a sort of […]
Thursday’s roundup
By Kevin Eckstrom — January 28, 2010
Friends of Scott Roeder (left), the anti-abortion militant accused of killing abortionist George Tiller last year, say he’s eager and anxious to tell his side of the story in court today. In Colorado, a man facing drug charges is eager and anxious to get high again — all in the name of God, he says. […]
No women need apply
By Mark Silk — January 28, 2010
You figure the crackdown on women in (some quarters of) American Catholicism has gone pretty far when the popular music director of a major Fairfax, Virginia church is canned for the following paragraph in a WaPo story on the women’s ordination question: Sylvia Mulherin, 69, a former nun married to a former priest, said that […]
Church of England loses $78 million in N.Y. real estate deal
By Tracy Gordon — January 28, 2010
(RNS) The Church of England will lose about $78 million in a New York real estate investment gone sour, according to Episcopal News Service. The Anglican church’s investment was part of a record-setting $5.4 billion deal put together in 2006 by two New York-based firms to buy two massive apartment complexes in Manhattan. After defaulting […]
Custodian indicted in stabbing death of priest
By Tracy Gordon — January 28, 2010
MORRISTOWN, N.J. (RNS) A former custodian of St. Patrick Church in Chatham, N.J., was indicted Tuesday (Jan. 26) on charges of murdering the parish priest last October by stabbing him repeatedly with a knife. Jose Feliciano, 64, of Easton, Pa., is accused of killing the Rev. Edward Hinds, 61, in the parish rectory on Oct. […]
Child-welfare worker disputes parents’ faith-healing claims
By Tracy Gordon — January 28, 2010
OREGON CITY, Ore. (RNS) A state child-welfare worker has denied he told two parents accused in the faith-healing death of their 16-year-old son the boy had the right to refuse medical care. Jeffrey and Marci Beagley, charged with criminally negligent homicide in the death of their son, Neil, have based part of their defense on […]
SIDEBAR: Excerpts from Gayle Haggard’s `Why I Stayed’
By Tracy Gordon — January 28, 2010
(RNS) Excerpts from “Why I Stayed: The Choices I Made in My Darkest Hour” by Gayle Haggard: “I believed Ted had been honest with me, and our physical relationship certainly didn’t indicate that homosexuality was even a possibility. Our sexual relationship had always been strong and satisfying, and I didn’t believe for one instant that […]
Wednesday’s roundup
By Daniel Burke — January 27, 2010
Fifty-six national faith groups and dozens of regionall religious organizations have signed a letter to Congress asking them to “take heart and move meaningful health care reform forward.” The U.S. Catholic Bishops, who did not sign the document, put out their own strongly worded statement, declaring that the “health care debate, with all its political […]
10 minutes with … Andrea Strongwater
By Tracy Gordon — January 27, 2010
(RNS) Six million Jews perished during the Holocaust, a tragedy mourned every Jan. 27 on International Holocaust Remembrance Day and during the Jewish observance of Yom HaShoah, which falls on April 12 this year. But for Andrea Strongwater, 60, a Polish-American Jew whose grandfather tried to save Jews during World War II, the devastating death […]
Faced with scandal, Haggard’s wife tells why she stayed
By Tracy Gordon — January 27, 2010
(RNS) Under similar circumstances, many women would have kicked their husbands to the couch. Or the curb. But for Gayle Haggard, the gay sex-and-drug scandal that toppled her husband’s ministry was simply ” the mountain we had to go over.” And now, on the other side of that mountain, she’s preaching a message that many […]
COMMENTARY: Redemption and renewal
By Cathleen Falsani — January 27, 2010
(RNS) We all love a redemption story. There’s profound appeal in a rags-to-riches-to-rags-to-riches tale. The fall-from-grace-followed-by-a-spectacular-comeback is about as ingrained in our American psyche (and soul) as rooting for the underdog, generosity to those in distress and second chances. So when I walked into the movie theater recently to see the new Jeff Bridges film […]
USCCB Wants Health Care Reform?
By Mark Silk — January 27, 2010
According to David Gibson, the Catholic bishops have been shocked and dismayed at the rapidity with which health care reform has gone from near sure thing to near death. So they’ve written yet another letter to Congress, urging passage of a comprehensive bill despite the changed “political contexts.” Color me not so impressed. Had the […]
Doctor testifies for parents in faith-healing death
By Tracy Gordon — January 27, 2010
OREGON CITY, Ore. (RNS) When their son became ill, Jeffrey and Marci Beagley were confronted by several symptoms that would concern any reasonable parent but gave no indication that death was imminent, a pediatrician told jurors on Monday (Jan. 25). Dr. Douglas Diekema was the first defense witness called in the trial of the Oregon […]
French panel recommends partial ban on Islamic veils
By Tracy Gordon — January 27, 2010
PARIS (RNS) Six years after banning Muslim girls from wearing headscarves in public schools, French lawmakers appear close to a measure to ban women from wearing face-covering veils in some public spaces. On Tuesday (Jan. 26), a parliamentary commission delivered a long-awaited report recommending that women be barred from wearing the full veil in public […]
Polish bishop, under fire from Jews, steps back from statement
By Tracy Gordon — January 27, 2010
VATICAN CITY (RNS) A Polish Catholic bishop who has been denounced for calling the Holocaust a “Jewish invention” distanced himself from the statement on Tuesday (Jan. 26), saying that he had been misunderstood. In an interview published Monday (Jan. 25) on an Italian Catholic Web site, Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek was quoted as saying that Jews […]
