Monday’s Religion News Roundup: Palm Sunday; Muslim Brotherhood; Hipster Haggadah

Hundreds of Christian pilgrims marked Palm Sunday in Jerusalem on Sunday, holding services and processions retracing Jesus' entrance into the holy city. Pope Benedict XVI asked young people to welcome Jesus into their lives, while his church welcomed a bit of good news from Cuba: The Castros have granted his request to make Good Friday […]

RNS photo by Michele Chabin
Two Orthodox Jewish Jerusalemites clean their mattresses ahead of the Passover holiday.

Two Orthodox Jewish Jerusalemites clean their mattresses ahead of the Passover holiday.

Hundreds of Christian pilgrims marked Palm Sunday in Jerusalem on Sunday, holding services and processions retracing Jesus' entrance into the holy city.

Pope Benedict XVI asked young people to welcome Jesus into their lives, while his church welcomed a bit of good news from Cuba: The Castros have granted his request to make Good Friday a national holiday.


Blessed palm fronds from Palm Sunday should not be used as anti-aging amulets, as feed for fighting roosters, or to cast spells on would-be lovers, says Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle.

The Vatican says it's been too lax on the Italian Mafia and wants to start cracking down. I'd watch that movie. 

Referring to a recent remark by a Mitt Romney adviser that it would take an “act of God” for Rick Santorum to win the nomination, the former Pennsylvania senator said, “I don't know about you, but I believe in acts of God.”

A top Mormon apostle said that not every statement made by a church leader counts as doctrine.  At their General Conference this weekend, a Native American and Democrat (!) was named to the church's First Quorum of the Seventy. A pretty big dealio, saith Mormon Dems.  

The Muslim Brotherhood broke its pledge not to enter Egypt's presidential race, but the alternative might be even more extreme.

Tunisia says it will not base its new constitution on Shariah law.  

Two more Tibetan monks set themselves on fire in a western China, the AP reports – the latest in a wave of self-immolations protesting against Chinese rule

Mexican officials are investigating alleged members of a cult that sacrificed two 10-year-old boys and a 55-year-old woman to Santa Muerte, or Saint Death, according to the AP. 


An umbrella group of Christian denominations says Trayvon Martin's death demonstrates that stereotypes cost lives. 

As Passover approaches, some rabbis are warning that Jewish families are turning the eight-day celebration of freedom into a season of domestic servitude.

Novelist Jonathan Safran Foer explains why he agreed to edit a new “hipster Haggadah.”

“I wanted to take a step toward the conversation I could only barely hear through the closed door of my ignorance; a step toward a Judaism of question marks rather than quotation marks; toward the story of my people, my family and myself.”

Yr hmbl aggregator,

Daniel Burke

 

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