Monthly Archives: August 2009
Canadian churches weigh in on U.S. health care reform
By Tracy Gordon — August 26, 2009
TORONTO (RNS) A Canadian group of churches has waded into the U.S. debate on health care reform, telling their American counterparts that health care is a “moral enterprise” with deep roots in the Bible. The letter, written by the Rev. Karen Hamilton, general secretary of the Canadian Council of Churches, provides a history of Canadian […]
Conservatives say health care system `is working’
By Tracy Gordon — August 26, 2009
WASHINGTON (RNS) Conservative Christian groups on Wednesday (Aug. 26) ramped up opposition to health care reform, saying the current system “has problems” but “it is working.” Members of the newly formed Freedom Federation, comprised of some of the largest conservative religious groups in the country, say they oppose taxpayer-supported abortion, rationed health care for the […]
Lionizing Ted
By Daniel Burke — August 26, 2009
There is a phrase obituary writers use to describe the human tendency to “de mortuis nil nisi bonum,” or, speak no ill of the dead. They call it the posthumous parallax, and define it “as a bending of life histories toward all that is light and wholesome, away from anything that might reflect unfavorably on […]
The Vatican remembers Ted Kennedy
By Francis X. Rocca — August 26, 2009
Following the death of Eunice Kennedy Shriver two weeks ago, Pope Benedict sent her family a warm letter praising a “woman of ardent faith and generous public service” for “her many labors, particularly on behalf of those who are physically and mentally challenged.” Perhaps survivors of Shriver’s brother, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who died yesterday, […]
News roundup: Supreme Court says church files must be open
By Kevin Eckstrom — August 26, 2009
From the Hartford Courant: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg has denied a request by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport to keep court files on clergy sex abuse cases sealed until the high court decides whether to take up their case in the fall. More …
News roundup: Fla. students sent home over anti-Muslim shirts
By Kevin Eckstrom — August 26, 2009
From the Gainsville Sun: More children from the Dove World Outreach Center arrived Tuesday at area public schools with shirts bearing the message “Islam is of the Devil” and were sent home for violation of the school district’s dress code when they declined to change clothes or cover the anti-Muslim statement on their clothing. More […]
News roundup: Minn. officials probe Iraq chaplain’s death
By Kevin Eckstrom — August 26, 2009
From the AP: MINNEAPOLIS – A patient at a Minnesota nursing home who fell and later died was neglected by two health care workers there, according to a report from state health officials in what appears to be an investigation into the death of a chaplain who had been injured in Iraq. More …
News roundup: `Horrific’ crime scene in pastor’s death
By Kevin Eckstrom — August 26, 2009
From the Oklahoman: Caddo County District Attorney Bret Burns said the crime scene discovered Sunday inside the Christ Holy Sanctified Church was one of the most brutal he’s ever seen. More …
More liturgical turnarounds?
By Francis X. Rocca — August 26, 2009
As our friend David Gibson reported last week, the Catholic bishop of Tulsa has announced that priests celebrating Mass in his cathedral must henceforth do so facing the altar in the pre-Vatican II style. Now a respected Italian journalist reports that the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship (where American Archbishop Joseph Augustine Di Noia was […]
10 minutes with Omarosa Manigault Stallworth
By S.J. Velasquez — August 26, 2009
(RNS) — Omarosa Manigault Stallworth found infamy as the sassy silver-tongued contestant on Donald Trump’s “The Apprentice.” But the villainess of reality TV is channeling her softer side, moving from the boardroom to the pulpit. Manigault Stallworth, who’s often called simply “Omarosa,” enrolled at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, where she’s studying to become […]
Love your enemies, civility advocates say
By Adelle M. Banks — August 26, 2009
WASHINGTON — Mark DeMoss, to borrow a line from the U2 song, still hasn’t found what he’s looking for. The veteran Christian public relations executive couldn’t find it last year when he advised Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. It was missing again in the controversial battles over Proposition 8, the California measure that put an end […]
COMMENTARY: Learning from me, learning from them
By Phyllis Zagano — August 26, 2009
(UNDATED) Back-to-school jitters aren’t only for the students. Every teacher gearing up for another term also wonders what the first day of classes will bring. Certainly, it will bring a lot of students. This year, U.S. colleges and universities will enroll about 17.5 million students — that’s nearly equal the population of Chile — and […]
Kennedy’s Catholicism
By Mark Silk — August 26, 2009
A nice reflection, well calculated for the present moment, by David Gibson (now of Politics Daily).
NYT calls it torture…almost
By Mark Silk — August 26, 2009
Here’s a bit of fancy prose out of the Times Washington bureau today: Waterboarding might be an excruciating procedure with deep roots in the history of torture, but for the C.I.A.’s Office of Medical Services, recordkeeping for each session of near-drowning was critical. What exactly is the semantic import of that first clause? Is it: […]
Teddy Kennedy, RC
By Mark Silk — August 26, 2009
Will the pro-choice lion get the big funeral mass? My guess is yes. In Irish Catholic Boston, tribal politics trump abortion politics. Update: The funeral will take place at the 1,300-seat Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in the Mission Hill section of Boston, reporteth the Boston Globe.
