Monthly Archives: December 2009
Illustrative Jews
By Mark Silk — December 31, 2009
In a nice obituary appreciation in today’s NYT, Michael Kimmelman calls the New York Review’s fabled illustrator David Levine “one of the great artists of the last half-century,” and then asks: But how so one of the great artists? Every great artist inhabits a genre, and remakes it. Saul Steinberg reinvented the gag cartoon, Jules […]
2009 a year of unintended consequences
By Tracy Gordon — December 30, 2009
(RNS) When Pope Benedict XVI visited Africa last March, he made countless pleas on behalf of the poor and the war-weary. Yet the words that got the most attention were spoken on the papal plane when he said condoms are part of the problem, not the solution, to Africa’s HIV/AIDS pandemic. And so it was […]
Catholic divisions on health care
By Mark Silk — December 30, 2009
Over at Politics Daily, David Gibson offers a well-balanced assessment of the reported (and partly denied) split over health care reform between the Catholic bishops and the nuns and hospitalers who do Catholic health care. Key graphs: On the other hand, the CHA and the religious orders of nuns that generally operate Catholic hospitals tend […]
Who’s the most “Christian”?
By Mark Silk — December 29, 2009
From a new survey by the Center for Immigration Studies.
Religion story of the decade
By Mark Silk — December 29, 2009
What was the biggest religion story of the decade? Unquestionably, the story of how American Catholic bishops, aided and abetted by civil authorities and mental health professionals, had systematically covered up the abuse of children by priests. This was big news locally in every Catholic diocese in the country. It became, because the USCCB was […]
Economic squeeze produces a new kind of seminarian
By Tracy Gordon — December 28, 2009
NEWTON, Mass. (RNS) When Newton, Mass. artist Paula Rendino needed fresh inspiration last year (2008), she sought her muse in an unlikely place: seminary. Art school would have been “too boring,” Rendino explained. She yearned to bring fresh depth to her work by pondering spiritual themes. Now she does exactly that alongside dozens of ministers-in-training […]
Thank you for calling Religion News Service …
By Kevin Eckstrom — December 25, 2009
I swear, we’ve all been really nice, not naughty, this year so Santa’s giving us a year-end present and RNS will be going dark until Jan. 4. But don’t worry — we’ll be back up live in the event of breaking news. From all of us at RNS, happy holidays and best wishes for a […]
Avatar’s Christian theme
By Mark Silk — December 25, 2009
Having just returned from Avatar (something for Jews to do on a day like today), I’d like to pick a bone with the NYT’s callow conservative columnist Ross Douthat, who denounced director James Cameron a few days ago for soft-headed Hollywood pantheism. Yes, the movie does not lack for anti-colonialist, aboriginal people-loving tree-huggery. But strictly […]
Court rules against 9/11 families’ burial claims
By Tracy Gordon — December 25, 2009
(RNS) A federal appeals court has rejected the claims of families who wanted the unidentified remains of relatives killed in the 9/11 attacks to be given a proper burial according to their religious beliefs. A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday (Dec. 23) against a group called World Trade […]
Poker-playing priest wins $100,000 for church
By Tracy Gordon — December 25, 2009
(RNS) A poker-playing Catholic priest folded his cards without winning the $1 million prize, but left the table with $100,000 for his South Carolina parish in a tournament to be broadcast nationwide this Sunday (Dec. 27). The Rev. Andrew Trapp said he will donate all of his winnings from the PokerStars.net Million Dollar Challenge to […]
Second Irish bishop resigns in wake of abuse report
By Tracy Gordon — December 25, 2009
VATICAN CITY (RNS) An Irish Catholic bishop implicated in a recent report on clerical sex abuse resigned on Wednesday (Dec. 23), making his the second such resignation in less than a week. In a statement announcing the move, Bishop James Moriarty of Kildare and Leighlin apologized to “all the survivors and their families,” and expressed […]
COMMENTARY: Seeing the world through Christmas-colored glasses
By Tracy Gordon — December 24, 2009
(RNS) James Cameron’s new film, “Avatar,” opened in theaters across America as the most expensive movie ever made — it’s the first film ever made in true 3-D. Once you put on the special 3-D glasses, what you see changes everything. Here as we are knee-deep in the middle of Christmas, I wondered what would […]
This holiday season, 15 titles to nourish your soul
By Tracy Gordon — December 24, 2009
(RNS) The holiday season and the New Year — often full of stress, drama and emotional baggage — is a fine time to consider spiritual issues. The 15 titles listed here touch on topics ranging from church architecture to the church fathers, from a Catholic priest’s insights to Taoist sacred texts. Doubters, atheists, Bible study […]
Red Cross links survivors with family lost in Holocaust
By Tracy Gordon — December 24, 2009
PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS) Alexa Dezsofi’s eyes raced across the documents and landed on a stunning fact: A man who shares her last name, in all likelihood a distant cousin and the sort of family she’d searched for, had actually survived one of history’s most notorious concentration camps, Dachau. “Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh […]
Thursday’s roundup
By Kevin Eckstrom — December 24, 2009
It’s Christmas Eve and there’s all sorts of gift-giving going on. Senate Democrats (finally!) placed a giant health care bill under President Obama’s tree, voting 60-39 in favor. There’s still a lot of negotiating to do with the House version, and abortion remains an obstacle, but as White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs put it: […]
Page 1 of 14
