Monthly Archives: May 2010
Wright says Obama threw him `under the bus’
By Tracy Gordon — May 19, 2010
(RNS) The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, President Obama’s former pastor, said Obama “threw me under the bus,” according to a letter obtained by The Associated Press. During his presidential campaign, Obama resigned from Wright’s Chicago church after controversial and racially tinged comments by the pastor were widely reported. Calling himself “toxic” in a letter to Africa […]
Last detained missionary returns from Haiti
By Tracy Gordon — May 19, 2010
(RNS) Convicted of arranging illegal travel, Baptist missionary Laura Silsby on Monday (May 17) became the last of 10 Americans released for trying to take 33 children out of Haiti after the January earthquake. Silsby, released in Port-au-Prince, was sentenced to the three months and eight days she already spent in jail, according to The […]
Haggard denies he’s about to start a church
By Tracy Gordon — May 19, 2010
(RNS) Former Colorado megachurch pastor Ted Haggard, who resigned top evangelical posts after a sex-and-drug scandal, denied reports that he is starting a new church. “A corporation does not a church make,” Haggard, the former president of the National Association of Evangelicals, said in a brief interview on Tuesday (May 18). He said the incorporation […]
SIDEBAR: History of Catholic deacons
By Tracy Gordon — May 19, 2010
(RNS) Christian deacons date to the New Testament, which describes the apostles hiring seven men to wait on widows and the poor while the disciples preached. The word “deacon” is derived from the ancient Greek noun for “servant.” In his first letter to Timothy, St. Paul says deacons should be “grave, not double-tongued” and generous […]
Tuesday’s roundup
By Daniel Burke — May 18, 2010
The Vatican filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit in Kentucky that blamed the pope for allowing bishops to cover up clergy sexual abuse. Bishops are not Vatican employees, the church argued, therefore Rome is not responsible for their actions. A second motion to dismiss argues that the statute of limitations has passed. An Australian […]
As priests decline, deacons step in
By Tracy Gordon — May 18, 2010
BALTIMORE (RNS) He’s performed so many funerals, they call him “Burying Joe.” A recent Saturday afternoon found Joe Krysiak again at a cemetery, his white alb and paisley stole whipping in the wind as he recited the Rite of Christian Burial and sprinkled holy water drawn from a Smucker’s jar on the ground below the […]
COMMENTARY: Out of the church and into the world
By Tom Ehrich — May 18, 2010
(RNS) In a whirlwind month of yesteryear, I graduated from seminary, was married and ordained. I joined a team planning the consecration of our new bishop. Thinking no church large enough, planners had rented a basketball arena for this epic event. On the day itself, I kept waiting for eager Episcopalians to pour into the […]
(Almost) Everything about Hingham
By Mark Silk — May 18, 2010
Yesterday, Fr. James Martin, S.J. reviewed the situation at St. Paul’s parish in Hingham, and what he had to say will only confirm the views of my conservative commentators that it’s the Jesuits who are leading the church down the primrose path to progressive perdition. Martin not only takes the part of Cardinal O’Malley and […]
Thousands show up to support beleaguered pope
By Tracy Gordon — May 18, 2010
VATICAN CITY (RNS) More than 150,000 people filled St. Peter’s Square on Sunday (May 16), to show support for Pope Benedict XVI after months of controversy over clergy sex abuse. The unusually high turnout, which the Vatican estimated at 200,000, came in spite of unseasonably rainy and chilly weather. Buses and trains organized by a […]
No Protestants on high court? Does it matter?
By Adelle M. Banks — May 18, 2010
The Salt Lake Tribune (RNS): As Solicitor General Elena Kagan prepares for confirmation hearings to make her the newest justice, her nomination changes the religious makeup of the nation’s highest court. But does it matter that the bench would include six Catholics and, with her confirmation, three Jews and no Protestants? Full story.
Jesuit-run gang ministry cuts staff
By Tracy Gordon — May 17, 2010
LOS ANGELES (RNS) A prominent anti-gang ministry here run by a Jesuit priest has laid off 330 of its 427 staffers as its deals with a $5 million deficit and decreasing donations because of the poor economy. The Rev. Gregory Boyle’s Homeboy Industries has been life-changing for hundreds of Southern California gang members seeking redemption […]
Most Americans say moral values in decline
By Tracy Gordon — May 17, 2010
(RNS) Three-quarters of Americans say the country’s moral values are worsening, blaming a decline in ethical standards, poor parenting, and dishonesty by government and business leaders, Gallup reports. The number of Americans who say the nation’s moral values are in decline grew by 5 percent since last year. Other reasons Americans mentioned were a rise […]
Lesbian bishop consecrated in Los Angeles
By Tracy Gordon — May 17, 2010
(RNS) The Episcopal Church consecrated its secondly openly gay — and first lesbian — bishop on Saturday (May 15), provoking a relatively modest reaction from fellow Anglicans overseas. Episcopal leaders portrayed the consecration of the Rev. Mary Douglas Glasspool, 56, as a suffragan (assistant) bishop in Los Angeles as an affirmation of its aim to […]
End of `Lost’ may prompt more questions than answers
By Tracy Gordon — May 17, 2010
(RNS) Is it a show about a modern-day shipwreck, featuring misfit castaways trying to survive increasingly bizarre circumstances on an island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean? Or is “Lost” really a show about faith, redemption, evil, predestination, love, suffering, free will and human understanding of the supernatural? Either way, when “Lost” ends its six-season run […]
Monday’s roundup
By Daniel Burke — May 17, 2010
The Vatican will make its most detailed defense yet on Monday against claims that it is liable for bishops who allowed priests to molest children, the AP reports. The setting: a courtroom in Louisville, Ky., where the Vatican’s American lawyer is trying to get a lawsuit tossed out. More than 100,000 thronged to St. Peter’s […]
