Monthly Archives: June 2011
Vatican tries to revive Eucharistic adoration
By Tracy Gordon — June 15, 2011
VATICAN CITY (RNS) For seven centuries, Eucharistic adoration — praying before an exposed consecrated Communion host — was one of the most popular forms of devotion in the Roman Catholic Church, the focus of beloved prayers and hymns and a distinctive symbol of Catholic identity. Following the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), […]
Goshen College silences national anthem (again)
By Jack Jenkins — June 15, 2011
(RNS) Goshen College will no longer play The Star-Spangled Banner at sporting events, school leaders announced, reversing last year’s decision to allow the use of the national anthem for the first time in the Mennonite college’s history. Some Mennonites had criticized the anthem’s lyrics as glorifying war and offensive to the school’s pacifist traditions. Goshen’s […]
Jesus is still surrounded by too many men
By Tracy Gordon — June 15, 2011
Letter to +Dolan
By Mark Silk — June 15, 2011
Archbishop Timothy DolanSt. Patrick’s Cathedral14 E 51st StNew York, 10022 Dear Excellency: You seem to be having palpitations at the prospect, ever more likely, that the Empire State will legalize same-sex marriage (SSM). This would represent, you say, a “perilous presumption of the state to re-invent the very definition of an undeniable truth-one man, one […]
Bachmann to the Fore
By Mark Silk — June 15, 2011
Mitt Romney may have won the New Hampshire debate but the big winner was Michele Bachmann, who by reason of her own zippy performance and Tim Pawlenty’s wimpish one has managed to vault into the top tier as Romney’s top challenger from the right. WaPo and NYT, sticking to the Beltway narrative that we now […]
Wednesday’s Religion News Roundup
By Kevin Eckstrom — June 15, 2011
House Homeland Security chief Peter King kicks off his second round of hearings on radicalized Islam this morning, this time focusing on prisons. A whole slew of local and national Muslim groups, not surprisingly, aren’t happy. We’re live-tweeting it over at @religionnewsnow. As New York lawmakers appear headed to approving gay marriage, Gotham Archbishop Timothy […]
Southern Baptists look to minorities to jumpstart growth
By Tracy Gordon — June 14, 2011
(RNS) Southern Baptists meeting in Phoenix adopted a plan Tuesday (June 14) to try to boost minorities in their top leadership posts as they face continuing reports of stagnant baptism rates and declining membership. Members of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination backed the recommendation for intentionally including minorities as nominees for positions, speakers at the […]
Religious freedom envoy condemns religious intolerance
By Tracy Gordon — June 14, 2011
GENEVA (RNS) The Obama administration’s new envoy for international religious freedom told a U.N. commission on Tuesday (June 14) that government, political, religious and business leaders must stand ready to condemn hateful ideology. Borrowing from recent headlines, Ambassador-at-Large Suzan Johnson Cook cited a Florida pastor who had been so “publicly reviled and rebuked” for threatening […]
Catholic University ends mixed-gender housing
By Jack Jenkins — June 14, 2011
WASHINGTON (RNS) The Catholic University of America will phase out co-ed dormitories later this year, President John H. Garvey said Monday (June 13), in a bid to crack down on drinking and casual sex. Garvey, writing in The Wall Street Journal, said the Washington school would instead assign incoming freshmen to same-sex residence halls, and […]
Crisis pregnancy group reflects Jewish divide on abortion
By Tracy Gordon — June 14, 2011
SILVER SPRING, Md. (RNS) Saraleah was 19 and a part-time student when she discovered she was pregnant. She didn't know how it could have happened — until she flashed back to a party nine weeks earlier where she was given a drink, realized it was vodka and then passed out. Saraleah had been raped. “i […]
Pope to give out first Ratzinger Prizes in theology
By Tracy Gordon — June 14, 2011
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican on Tuesday (June 14) announced three winners of the inaugural Ratzinger Prize in theology, which Pope Benedict XVI (known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger until his papal election) will present at a ceremony on June 30. The inaugural winners include an Italian expert on the writings of early Christian theologians; a […]
COMMENTARY: The creepy crawlies
By Tracy Gordon — June 14, 2011
(RNS) Is creepy behavior on the rise, or do we just know more about it? In recent days, Facebook fumbled another privacy intrusion by giving its 700 million subscribers access to facial identification tools normally reserved for TV crime shows. That sent people rushing to change their privacy settings. New York Rep. Anthony Weiner was […]
Tuesday’s Religion News Roundup
By Kevin Eckstrom — June 14, 2011
Tony, Tony, come around; something’s lost and must be found! In this case, it’s actually a piece of St. Anthony himself, stolen from a Southern California church. If St. Anthony can locate a piece of himself, then he really is the patron saint of lost items. And now, some highlights from last night’s GOP presidential […]
Religion in the New Hampshire debate
By Mark Silk — June 14, 2011
Religion did rear its lovely head at St. Anselm’s last evening, and all things considered, the line-up offered some noteworthy responses. To be sure, the colloquy (reprinted after the jump) began inauspiciously, with Tim Pawlenty responding to a question about church-state separation by bolting on the religious right boilerplate about how our constitutional “protections…were designed […]
Israel sees slow but growing acceptance for gay Orthodox
By Tracy Gordon — June 13, 2011
TEL AVIV, Israel (RNS) Though never short on spectacle, this year’s annual gay pride festival was even more colorful with a parade float, sponsored by Google, representing the country’s religious gay and lesbian communities. Dressed in shorts and T-shirts bearing the words “Religious Pride Community,” the 20- and 30-somethings who accompanied the float on Friday […]
