Monthly Archives: March 2005
NEWS ANALYSIS: Twenty-five Years After Romero’s Death, Liberation Theology Lives On
By RNS Blog Editor — March 23, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) On that fateful evening 25 years ago, Archbishop Oscar Romero had just finished his sermon on Jesus’ parable of the grain of wheat, which bears fruit only after falling to the ground. The sound of a single shot rang through the small, Salvadoran chapel. Romero, the outspoken champion of […]
NEWS STORY: Catholic Bishops Launch Holy Week Campaign to End Death Penalty
By Kein Eckstrom — March 22, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops on Monday (March 21) launched a nationwide campaign against the death penalty, citing new evidence that support for capital punishment is slipping among Catholic faithful. The new campaign, released during Holy Week when Christians recall Jesus’ state-ordered execution, comes in the wake of […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — March 22, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service Washington Cardinal Calls Schiavo Case a `Form of Euthanasia’ WASHINGTON (RNS) Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington said Monday (March 21) that the court-ordered removal of a feeding tube from a brain-damaged Florida woman is a “form of euthanasia” which the Catholic Church condemns as “gravely wrong.” McCarrick, the archbishop of […]
NEWS FEATURE: Black Women Attracted to Hit Film Based on Gospel Play From `Chitlin Circuit’
By Christa Brown — March 22, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Madea’s in the house. That’s the best way to explain the success of “Diary of a Mad Black Woman,” the $5.5 million movie comedy with Christian themes that grossed more than $22 million on its opening weekend and is approaching $50 million so far, despite pans from critics. Not […]
NEWS STORY: High Court Told Imprisoned Wiccans, Satanists and Others Need Federal Law
By Adelle M. Banks — March 22, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ The rights of Wiccans, Satanists and other imprisoned members of non-mainstream religions will be better protected if the Supreme Court rules that a 5-year-old federal law is constitutional, an Ohio attorney told the Supreme Court on Monday (March 21). “There is a preference for accommodating mainstream religions as […]
NEWS FEATURE: From Catholic Campus in New Jersey, Radio Host Foments Democracy in Iran
By RNS Blog Editor — March 19, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service LAKEWOOD, N.J. _ Every Wednesday afternoon, business school dean Siamack Shojai shuts the door of his office at Georgian Court University and starts his second job _ radio talk-show host. As students walk by his office, Shojai gets on his telephone and broadcasts live to his native Iran. For the […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — March 19, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service Catholics Pray to Late Archbishop Fulton Sheen to Save Schiavo’s Life (RNS) Supporters of the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen say his heavenly intervention in the case of a brain-damaged woman in Florida could be the miracle needed to move him one step closer to sainthood. A grass-roots effort is under […]
BOOK REVIEW: How Two Con Artists Preyed on the Faithful With `Miracle Cars’
By Fergus Jensen — March 19, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Even on one of those almost-never, special days when everything clicks just right, it is hard to believe that any of the wizards of fiction could have come up with a story as bizarre as this one. Two kids working as security guards figure out a con to scam […]
COMMENTARY: Bush’s Religious Idealism Aids Winds of Democratic Change
By RNS Blog Editor — March 19, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) The winds of change are blowing in the Middle East. Across the region, the people’s voice is at last being heard. Progress toward democracy is evident in Afghanistan, Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq. Iran has long had a significant movement for political liberty. Even Saudi Arabia shows small signs […]
NEWS STORY: Supreme Court to Consider Prisoners’ Religious Rights
By RNS Blog Editor — March 18, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ The right of prisoners to practice unusual religions behind bars will be at stake when the Supreme Court hears arguments Monday (March 21) about the constitutionality of a federal law. A Satanist, a Wiccan, an Asatru follower and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ Christian say […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — March 18, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service Ailing Pope’s Participation in Holy Week Still in Question VATICAN CITY (RNS) For the first time in his more than 26 years as Roman Catholic pontiff, an ailing John Paul II will not lead Holy Week celebrations, and whether he will participate at all is still in question. On Thursday […]
NEWS FEATURE
By RNS Blog Editor — March 18, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service PARIS _ He has been described as a saint, a male Mother Teresa and France’s moral compass. For a few dark months, he also was vilified for defending an old friend who questioned the grisly magnitude of the Holocaust. More than half a century after Abbe Pierre first launched a […]
COMMENTARY: Jews and Catholics Gather Again, 40 Years After Historic Declaration
By RNS Blog Editor — March 18, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Roman Catholic bishops, meeting at the Second Vatican Council in October 1965, overwhelmingly adopted a declaration that repudiated anti-Semitism and called for “mutual understanding and respect” beween Catholics and Jews. The document, “Nostra Aetate” in Latin or “In Our Time” was adopted by a vote of 2,221-88. Forty […]
COMMENTARY: Why the Miraculous Mystery of the Atlanta Hostage Drama Haunts Us
By RNS Blog Editor — March 18, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Sometimes a story that seems a straightforward mystery solved, such as the brutal murders by a dangerous prisoner in Atlanta last week, contains within it an unanticipated mystery that turns it into two stories difficult for us to comprehend fully. This tragedy haunts us because we cannot easily grasp […]
NEWS STORY: Alaska Bishop Lobbies Against Drilling in Arctic Refuge
By Kein Eckstrom — March 17, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ The bishops of the Episcopal Church, concerned about oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, dispatched an emissary to the U.S. Senate with a simple message: Leave our people _ and their caribou _ alone. Bishop Mark McDonald of Alaska said President Bush’s plan to allow drilling […]
