Monthly Archives: April 2009
Evangelicals launch bid to ditch nuclear weapons
By Tracy Gordon — April 30, 2009
(RNS) The destruction one nuclear bomb can wreak is more than horrifying, says megachurch pastor Rob Bell of Grandville, Mich. It’s an insult to God. “Nuclear weapons are a direct affront to God’s dream of shalom for the world,” Bell said Tuesday (April 28). “Life is beautiful, and nuclear weapons are ugly.” Bell, the pastor […]
Britons debate cost of hospital chaplains
By Tracy Gordon — April 30, 2009
CANTERBURY, England (RNS/ENI) A British secularist group has called on the government to end public support for hospital chaplains, saying the government has no business in paying the salaries of religious clergy. The National Secular Society (NSS) has sent a report to Britain’s Health Minister, Alan Johnson, calling for a review of hospital chaplaincy services […]
Notre Dame says no Laetare Medal winner this year
By Tracy Gordon — April 30, 2009
(RNS) The University of Notre Dame said it will not award its prestigious Laetare Medal to anyone this year after a former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican declined the honor to protest President Obama’s planned commencement address. Notre Dame, still reeling from blistering criticism from conservatives and more than 50 U.S. bishops for its invitation […]
Bad news
By Daniel Burke — April 30, 2009
The Dallas Morning News’ last two religion reporters have be reassigned to cover suburban schools. For many years the DMN was the gold star in religion reporting. Their contributions will be sorely missed in Dallas and way, way beyond.
“100 Days That Did Not Shake the World”
By Daniel Burke — April 30, 2009
That’s the headline of an article about the first 100 days of the Obama administration in the Vatican’s newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, according to Catholic News Service. According to CNS, the article said Obama has been less liberal than predicted in many areas, including economics and international relations. “On ethical questions, too — which from the […]
Can a Communion chalice transmit swine flu?
By Tracy Gordon — April 30, 2009
(UNDATED) Religious groups across the country are urging houses of worship to take special precautions this weekend, including changing sacred practices, as the swine flu outbreak threatens to grow into a global pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 109 confirmed cases of the virus in 11 states on Thursday (April 30), and […]
Pope to confront myriad challenges in Holy Land trip
By Tracy Gordon — April 30, 2009
VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI departs next Friday (May 8) for what promises to be one of the most eventful and memorable events in his reign: a week-long visit to the Holy Land, with stops in Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories. Benedict has presented the trip as first and foremost a pilgrimage to […]
Dalai Lama to open new center at MIT
By Tracy Gordon — April 30, 2009
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — On the campus of the country’s premier scientific university, the world’s best-known Buddhist leader on Thursday (April 30) called on educators to teach ethics and compassion without a basis in religious belief. Hundreds gathered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as the Dalai Lama, speaking from the seated, cross-legged position of a […]
COMMENTARY: Rome’s burning, so why are we fiddling?
By Tracy Gordon — April 30, 2009
(UNDATED) Is our population — as obsessed as it is with the trivial — capable of recognizing a crisis, much less mustering the disciplined response necessary to aggressively and intelligently resolve it? If Nero fiddled while Rome burned, how significant would it be for an entire nation of Americans to take up fiddling while our […]
Obama Romana
By Mark Silk — April 30, 2009
Yesterday Rome spoke on The 100 Days and found that they were…not as bad as feared. According to the front-page story in L’Osservatore Romano, President Obama has operated with laudable caution, including on matters of ethics and morals. Notably, the pope’s paper found reason to praise the administration’s proposed guidelines for funding stem cell research […]
The ghost of Tom Reese
By Daniel Burke — April 30, 2009
Somebody check the water up in NYC. First Cardinal Egan, now the Jesuit editors at America magazine are suggesting the Catholic church consider married priests. Everyone knows that ordinations in the church are drastically declining and the church has not been able to stanch the flood. There were 5,700 fewer Catholic priest in 2008 then […]
Pope expresses `sorrow’ to victims of Canadian schools
By Tracy Gordon — April 29, 2009
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI met aboriginal survivors of Canada’s residential school system on Wednesday (Apr. 29) and voiced his “sorrow” over “deplorable” abuses in the church-run schools. “Given the sufferings that some indigenous children experienced in the Canadian Residential School system, the Holy Father expressed his sorrow at the anguish caused by the […]
Robertson to step down as head of Regent University
By Tracy Gordon — April 29, 2009
(RNS) Pat Robertson will retire as president of Regent University, the Virginia school he founded, next year, the university announced Tuesday (April 28). Robertson, 79, founded the school in Virginia Beach in 1978 and has been president since 2000. After his retirement on July 1, 2010, he will remain the university’s chancellor and a member […]
Hispanic groups divided over 2010 census
By Tracy Gordon — April 29, 2009
WASHINGTON (RNS) Two prominent Hispanic Christian organizations are divided on whether Latinos should participate in the 2010 U.S. census, while U.S. Catholic bishops say it’s in everyone’s “best interest to be counted.” The National Coalition of Latino Clergy & Christian Leaders (CONLAMIC) is urging undocumented members of its churches to boycott the census until comprehensive […]
Vatican hopes ignoring `Angels and Demons’ will help it go away
By Tracy Gordon — April 29, 2009
LOS ANGELES — Controversy, if nothing else, sells newspapers and movie tickets. It worked with Ron Howard’s first film adaptation of a Dan Brown novel, 2006’s “The Da Vinci Code”; and Hollywood is hoping it will work again for their second collaboration, “Angels and Demons,” which opens nationwide on May 15. Howard recently stoked the […]
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