(RNS4-MAY08) Archbishop Raymond Burke gives the keynote address at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C., on Friday, May 8, 2009. For use with RNS-CATHOLIC PRAY, transmitted May 8, 2009. Religion News Service photo by David Jolkovski.
The next “Nuns on the Bus” tour kicks off today in Iowa with a rally on the Statehouse steps in Des Moines featuring Vice-President Biden (who is not actually a nun, but talks like one). I wonder if Biden will deliver one of his trademark outrageous sound bites. Something like, “Hey, it’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter heaven!” Oh, wait, that’d be plagiarism…
Is Cardinal Burke set for a demotion?
The American-born head of the Vatican’s high court and a favorite of Latin-loving Traditionalists has never been seen as a great admirer of Pope Francis and is closely associated with the recusant wing of Catholic conservatism. Now, Burke may be headed for what many consider a demotion by being named to the largely ceremonial post as “cardinal patron” of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. So reports Sandro Magister, an Italian Vaticanista who often channels the anxieties of the curial Old Guard.
Father Z takes a deep breath here. Needless to say, some Burke fans are not happy:
https://twitter.com/michaelbd/status/512024894499217410
Parting the Bamboo Curtain?
America magazine reports that Pope Francis has invited the President of China, Xi Jinping, to meet him in the Vatican to discuss world peace. That would be seen as preliminary step before any papal visit to China, which would still likely be a long way off, though Francis says he’d go “tomorrow.” Those Jesuits. The story is a good reminder that for all the papal jet-setting of the past few decades, no pope has ever set foot in Russia or China, two great poles of global power.
Christian Tattoos
Lot of buzz about them lately, here at Crosswalk and in this First Things essay, where Mark Bauerlein remarks:
“A tattoo isn’t the Word made flesh, but the flesh made word.”
Then again, this guy doesn’t seem conflicted. Too late anyway, I guess:
https://twitter.com/LukeCoppen/status/511857766584303616
The Original Papal Selfie
Sorry, Francis. Too bad, Benedict. Truth:
Now that Benedict XVI has posed for his first #selfie, @Adamstoon1 proposes a new statue for St Peter's Square… pic.twitter.com/0xIKtVCzNH
— Catholic Herald (@CatholicHerald) September 17, 2014
Regensburg Redux, Again
We wrote last week about Pope Benedict XVI’s defenders arguing that his controversial 2006 speech at Regensburg about Islam’s affinity for fanaticism had been vindicated by the emergence of the brutal Islamic State militants. Now George Weigel joins the chorus:
“As for the conversation about Islam’s future that Benedict XVI proposed, well, it now seems rather unlikely. But if it’s to take place, Christian leaders must prepare the way by naming, forthrightly, the pathologies of Islamism and jihadism; by ending their ahistorical apologies for 20th-century colonialism (lamely imitating the worst of western academic blather about the Arab Islamic world); and by stating publicly that, when confronted by bloody-minded fanatics like those responsible for the reign of terror that has beset Syria and Iraq this summer, armed force, deployed prudently and purposefully by those with the will and the means to defend innocents, is morally justified.”
Speaking of Muslims …
Check it out! Yusuf, the performer formerly known as Yusuf Islam, formerly (like, when I was young) known as Cat Stevens, will release his first new studio album in five years, and will start his first North American tour since 1976 this December. The tour will be called, “Peace Train … Late Again.”
Not sure how that will fit into the Regensburg narrative. But Benedict was never a fan of guitars.
Speaking of an 80’s flashback …
Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson is at it again, this time saying that AIDS is God’s punishment for immoral behavior:
“Now to me either it’s the wildest coincidence ever that horrible diseases follow immoral conduct, or it’s God saying, ‘There’s a penalty for that kind of conduct.’ I’m leanin’ toward there’s a penalty toward it.”
Okay, but what did we do to deserve Phil Robertson?
The “false gospel of spanking”
The NFL has been beset by scandals, and its leaders aren’t exactly making matters better with their lame-o responses. The latest crisis is over Minnesota Vikings’ star running back Adrian Peterson and his “Christian parenting” technique of whipping his four-year-old son till the boy bleeds.
At CNN’s Belief Blog, Matthew Paul Turner deconstructs that argument:
“Today, I’m a Christian parent who doesn’t spank my kids. Not because I don’t believe in being obedient to God but because I think the Bible, at least as interpreted by a large number of God-fearing Americans, is wrong about spanking.”
By the way, it’s not just Evangelicals:
"Hard for me to imagine in any way, shape or form, Jesus using a paddle." -Abp. Aymond. Only 36% of Catholics concur? pic.twitter.com/lKYYF4CrL5
— CARA (@caracatholic) September 16, 2014
Should this qualify as another NFL scandal?
RGIII, before and during his press conference. Something changed! (via @JPFinlayCSN) pic.twitter.com/P2wGzZ69GN
— Dan Steinberg (@dcsportsbog) September 15, 2014
Jessica Lynch, Christian movie star
The former Iraq war POW has a lead role in a Christian film called “One Church,” from Morgantown-based JC Films. According to the AP, JC Films president and screenwriter Jason Campbell says the drama explores the possible government takeover of churches.
Sure, okay.
Joel Osteen, mentor
Esquire lists the Houston stadium church star as part of its Mentoring Project:
I feel a responsibility—not that I know everything, but I’ve been raised in church—to reach out to the younger ones. And I’ve got a couple dozen that I call regularly or text over the course of the year and just encourage them.
Sure, okay.
God as Salinger
The Onion headline nails it:
“Reclusive Deity Hasn’t Written A New Book In 2,000 Years”
But wait, wouldn’t some Muslims and Mormons beg to differ? And what about the Gospel of Jesus’s Wife? That was a bestseller in 2012!
Elsewhere on RNS:
- Yale chaplain’s resignation reflects larger mainline tensions over Israel
- Can hip-hop help Humanism? Monica Miller on African American atheism and white privilege
- Historic civil rights church to be considered for national recognition
- Mark Silk on “What is the lesson of Calvary?“
A FINAL NOTE: the World will continue to spin on its axis for the next couple of days (we trust) but Religion News Service will be shuttered Thursday and Friday so that our trusty journos and staffers can head to Atlanta for the annual Religion Newswriters Conference. Most everybody from the world of religion writing will be on hand, so “Katy, bar the door!”
We won’t be sending out the Roundup the next two days either, but we’ll be back Monday morning, complete with shocking, never before seen photos of reporters with lampshades on their heads.
