Monthly Archives: March 2010
COMMENTARY: The wonder and glory of `Life’
By Cathleen Falsani — March 24, 2010
(RNS) I wish the millions of viewers who plunked down $15 and slapped on a pair of silly 3-D glasses to watch the spectacle that was “Avatar” also find themselves in front of the TV to soak up the wonder that is “Life”, the 11-part Discovery Channel series that debuted on March 21, the first […]
10 minutes with … Martin Doblmeier
By Tracy Gordon — March 24, 2010
(RNS) As politicians and voters try to measure the impact of the new health care reform bill, filmmaker Martin Doblmeier releases “The Adventists,” a documentary about a Christian denomination that’s often praised for its health care model. The Seventh-day Adventist lifestyle includes exercise, vegetarianism and rest. As a result, national studies have shown that Adventists […]
Finding a shared date for Easter falls flat with churches
By Tracy Gordon — March 24, 2010
(RNS) Easter usually comes twice to the Kringas household in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y.: first with baskets of pastel eggs and a ham baked in the oven, then a week or more later with dark red eggs and lamb roasted on a spit. Maureen Kringas, who splits her time between her mother’s Catholic parish and her […]
Lily farmers race the clock toward Easter
By Tracy Gordon — March 24, 2010
(RNS) To the untrained eye, the graceful lilies that arrive on church altars each year on Easter Sunday are a familiar symbol of resurrection and renewal. Like poinsettias on Christmas, it just wouldn’t be Easter without them. But for the people who get them there — on a date that shifts from year to year […]
Bishops say abuse allegations dropped dramatically in 2009
By Tracy Gordon — March 24, 2010
WASHINGTON (RNS) The number of sexual abuse allegations against Catholic clergy in the U.S. declined dramatically last year, even as similar accusations spread through Europe, according to a report commissioned by the country’s Catholic bishops. There were 513 allegations against 346 U.S. Catholic clergy last year, both drops of more than 30 percent from 2008, […]
Wednesday’s roundup
By Kevin Eckstrom — March 24, 2010
The Vatican announced the resignation of an Irish bishop accused of mishandling abuse cases; Bishop John Magee had been a secretary to Popes Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II. A German bishop, meanwhile, who compared a smear campaign against the church to Nazi propaganda is showing symptoms of foot-in-mouth disease. Here in […]
Stupak mad as hell
By Mark Silk — March 24, 2010
Evidently, Bart Stupak doesn’t feel the bishops aren’t showing him as much love as they should: Stupak also said he suspected groups such as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Right to Life, and others were actually “just using the life issue to try to bring down health-care reform.” “I question, did they […]
Bibi squeezed
By Mark Silk — March 24, 2010
I should be smarter than to have imagined that Netanyahu would recognize that his playbook was, like, so last week. No, after the Secretary of State tells AIPAC that new construction in East Jerusalem harms the peace process, he shows up and plays the “Jerusalem is not a settlement” card. And after private meetings with […]
Methodists urge civility after protestors spit on pastor
By Tracy Gordon — March 23, 2010
(RNS) After a black United Methodist pastor and congressman was spit on by unruly Tea Party activists during Saturday’s (March 20) health care reform debate, the church’s top Washington lobbyist is asking churches to “model civil discourse.” “As Congress has debated and deliberated health insurance reform legislation, I have been deeply disturbed by the lack […]
Canadian Anglican splinter group to join Catholic Church
By Tracy Gordon — March 23, 2010
TORONTO (RNS) About 2,000 Canadian members of a breakaway Anglican group have accepted the Vatican’s invitation to join the Roman Catholic Church. The agreement will allow members of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada to keep their liturgy and have their own bishops, but acknowledge the pope’s supremacy. In Canada, the denomination claims about 40 […]
Mobile devices take Passover into the 21st century
By Tracy Gordon — March 23, 2010
(RNS) Preparing for Passover? There’s an app for that. Several, actually. Jewish technophiles have created a host of online and iPhone applications that put a modern spin on the traditional Seder meals, storytelling and singing associated with the weeklong celebration of the biblical exodus from Egypt. To help Jews stock their pantries with kosher for […]
D.C. churches torn on defying gay marriage rules
By Tracy Gordon — March 23, 2010
WASHINGTON (RNS) In this city, the Rev. Mary Kay Totty can now marry same-sex couples. But in the United Methodist Church, the denomination that ordained Totty two decades ago, that act could get her defrocked. Totty, 46, said she’s willing to take the risk. “The institutional church has for so many years oppressed and excluded […]
Pope says church law could have, should have, handled abuse
By Tracy Gordon — March 23, 2010
VATICAN CITY (RNS) In an open letter on the clergy sex abuse crisis roiling the Catholic Church in Ireland, Pope Benedict XVI cited the chronic failure of church leaders to enforce the church’s own law as a principal cause. Irish bishops, Benedict wrote on Saturday (March 20), had “failed, at times grievously, to apply the […]
Despite doubts raised by scholars, Easter faith endures
By Tracy Gordon — March 23, 2010
(RNS) Vanderbilt University student Katherine Precht knows what skeptical scholars say about the Bible: it’s full of errors, contradictions and a murky historical record. Still, none of that has shaken her Christian faith. That’s because Precht embraces a big-picture view of biblical truth. For her, it means the Bible speaks truth on ultimate things, such […]
COMMENTARY: The only thing we have to fear is …
By Tom Ehrich — March 23, 2010
(RNS) Here’s how Jesus dealt with health care: he provided it to anyone who asked. He dealt with immigrants by becoming one, and dealt with the powerful by taking the side of the weak. Jesus combated entrenched privilege by forming radically inclusive circles of friends. And he answered fear by mounting a colt and riding […]
