NEWS STORY
RNS-Prison-Pandemic: ‘Deadly as Dachau’: Activists call for mass decarceration during pandemic
BOSTON (RNS) — Progressive faith-based activists and religious leaders have mounted a nationwide push to release en masse as many people held in jails, prisons and immigration detention facilities as possible to protect them from a coronavirus outbreak. Otherwise, activists warn, they “present the perfect breeding ground for COVID-19.” By Aysha Khan. 1,000 words. (category: a)
NEWS STORY
RNS-PRISON-QA: Prisoners keeping faith during coronavirus, says former Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski
(RNS) — To get a sense of what life is like in prison during the coronavirus pandemic and especially how prisoners are practicing their faith during this time, Religion News Service spoke with Ed Pawlowski, who has been incarcerated at the Danbury Federal Correctional Institution in Connecticut since December 2018. By Bob Smietana. 830 words. (category: a)
NEWS STORY
RNS-Cathedral-Masks: Washington National Cathedral donates 5,000 medical masks resurrected from crypts
(RNS) — The Washington National Cathedral will donate thousands of medical masks to two local hospitals in the nation’s capital after finding a forgotten trove of the much needed protective equipment just feet from where Helen Keller and other prominent Americans lie in the cathedral’s underground crypts. By Paul O’Donnell. 552 words. (category: a)
NEWS STORY
RNS-Annunciation-Book: Catholic convert’s book on Annunciation hopes to help parents inspire faith in Gen Z
(RNS) – In her new book about the Annunciation, Catholic convert and poet Sally Read talks about young people’s relationship with social media and its impact on faith, drawing from her personal experience as a mother. By Claire Giangravè. 700 words. (category: i)
NEWS STORY
RNS-Lentz-Coronavirus: ‘We’re all gonna get through this’: Hillsong NYC pastor Carl Lentz on coronavirus diagnosis
(RNS) — Hillsong Church NYC pastor Carl Lentz is urging people to take the coronavirus pandemic seriously after testing positive for COVID-19 himself. The pastor told RNS he hoped by speaking out he could calm people’s fears about a positive test being a death sentence, “but, at the same time, also try to get people to take it seriously.” By Emily McFarlan Miller. 495 words. (category: a)
COMMENTARY
RNS-Singh-Oped: India’s executions won’t end a pandemic of violence against women
(RNS) — A gruesome chapter in Indian life closed with the executions of four of the six perpetrators of a horrifying gang-rape of a woman in 2012, but it may only help obscure the real dimensions of violence against women. By Satpal Singh. 700 words. (category: k)
COMMENTARY
RNS-Putz-Oped: How the coronavirus could change America’s religion of sports
(RNS) — For many Americans, sports are a kind of religion. They give us us, give us something to cheer about, and offer escape from the troubles of everyday life. Now, just we need distraction, they are gone.
By Paul Putz. 970 words. (category: k)
