NEWS STORY
RNS-MiddleChurch-Benefit: Norah Jones, Chelsea Clinton headline benefit for fire-ravaged Middle Church
(RNS) — Three months after a fire devastated its historic edifice, New York’s Middle Collegiate Church is holding a star-studded benefit to raise money to rebuild. Singer Norah Jones and presidential daughter Chelsea Clinton are among the performers and activists who will take part in Thursday event that will be broadcast from Bloomingdale’s Studio 59. By Adelle M. Banks. 550 words. (category: a)
NEWS STORY
RNS-Religious-Conferences: Religious conference planning continues amid COVID-19, socially distant or online
(RNS) — Religious conference planners and exhibitors, like the hundreds gathered in early March at the Charlotte Civic Center, are predicting whether their meetings will go on as expected this year and contemplating how they will look as the pandemic continues and vaccination levels increase. By Adelle M. Banks. 900 words. (category: a)
NEWS STORY
RNS-Sanctuary-Raleigh: Another NC man is free to leave church sanctuary as immigration policies ease
(RNS) — Eliseo Jimenez, an undocumented immigrant who who had taken refuge in a Raleigh, North Carolina church for more than three years, will now be allowed to leave without the danger of being deported. Since the inauguration of President Joe Biden about a dozen undocumented immigrants who had been living in churches across the country have been granted temporary relief from deportation by ICE. By Yonat Shimron. 650 words. (category: a)
NEWS STORY
RNS-Shooting-Reax: Muslim groups mourn and raise money for Colorado shooting victims
(RNS) — Muslim mosques and organizations are mourning and raising money for the 10 people killed in the mass shooting on Monday at a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado. By Alejandra Molina. 700 words. (category: a)
NEWS BRIEF
RNS-Vatican-PayCuts: Pope Francis reduces cardinal wages as Vatican finances struggle due to pandemic
(RNS) – Pope Francis’ efforts to build a “poor Church for the poor” got a little closer to becoming a reality on Wednesday, when he issued pay cuts for Vatican clergy and employees to aid the Holy See’s struggling finances made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic. By Claire Giangravè. 400 words. (category: i)
COMMENTARY
RNS-Joshi-Oped: The swastika and the 4 H’s
(RNS) — For Hindus, as well as for Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, Native Americans and other indigenous people around the globe, the swastika is an ancient symbol of prosperity and good fortune. Banning the swastika, or writing laws that treat it as only a Nazi symbol, would violate the First Amendment. Just as important, bans sidestep the real issue such as dealing with our differences and coexisting as Americans. By Khyati Y. Joshi. 946 words. (category: k)
COMMENTARY
RNS-Reese-Oped: The US needs an ambassador to the Holy See
(RNS) — (RNS) — Joe Biden will soon be the first Catholic president to nominate an ambassador to the Holy See, something that in earlier days would have been anathema to American Protestants who feared the papacy’s political and religious power. That the nomination this time will be noncontroversial shows how anti-Catholicism has declined in the United States and how more and more people recognize the value of having an ambassador at the Vatican. By Thomas Reese. 1,176 words. (category: k)
COMMENTARY
RNS-Patel-Oped: Remembering the Black female leaders of the civil rights movement
(RNS) — The truth is, we remember much of the civil rights movement through its very visible male leaders — giants like Roy Wilkins, Bayard Rustin, Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy. Virtually all of the main characters in the film “Selma” are men. But there were so many women, both behind the scenes and on the front lines, who shaped the movement. By Eboo Patel. 1,154 words. (category: k)
COMMENTARY
RNS-Thistlethwaite-Oped: God did not give Americans guns. To say otherwise is heresy.
(RNS) — The gun carnage in this country — seen just in the last few days in the spa shootings in the Atlanta area and a mass shooting at the King Soopers grocery store in Colorado — is not only a horrific social problem, it is also a theological problem, even a theological crisis. By Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite. 716 words. (category: k)
COMMENTARY
RNS-Salkin-Oped: Have a rice Pesach!
(RNS) — Judaism is like a sport. It requires discipline. It is not supposed to be easy. Do you really think we cannot do without rice or legumes for one week? Are we really that weak? But: If you want to have a ricey, legume-ish Pesach and be liberated from the Pharaoh of all-too-strict-and-historically-flimsy customs, as your rabbi, I will tell you: Feel free to do so. By Jeffrey Salkin. 1,027 words. (category: k)