Today is Holy Thursday, when Roman Catholics commemorate the institution of the ordained priesthood by Jesus, and the head of that institution is none too happy with some of today’s priest who want to see women and married men join their ranks.
“Is disobedience a path of renewal for the Church?” Pope Benedict XVI said during a solemn Mass in St Peter's Basilica today to recall the Last Supper.
He then specifically called out an organization of dissident priests in Austria, asking whether their calls for change were “a desperate push to do something to change the Church in accordance with one's own preferences and ideas?”
Maybe the pope was a little upset over giving away that 550-pound chocolate Easter egg.
President Obama hosted his third annual Easter prayer breakfast at the White House and said that Jesus’ suffering and sacrifice during Holy Week puts the travails of his own life in perspective.
The nation’s Catholic bishops say the Obama administration’s proposed revisions to the contraception mandate are still unacceptable and even “radically flawed” — signaling a long drawn-out election-year fight between the White House and the Catholic hierarchy.
Students at a Minnesota Catholic high school gave church officials who lectured them against gay marriage a piece of their mind. They really didn’t like the part about comparing gay couples to bestiality. “You could look around the room and feel the anger. My friend who is a lesbian started crying, and people were crying in the bathroom,” senior Matt Bliss told the Star-Tribune.
In Worcester, meanwhile, Bishop McManus told the diocesan paper more about why he pressured a local Catholic college not to invite Victoria Kennedy, widow of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, to speak at graduation. McManus said that Kennedy’s work to protect children from gun deaths and injuries and is a very laudable mission, yet she is pro-choice.
“I think what people don’t understand is that the fundamental social justice issue in the teaching of the church is the right to life. Because if that right is not respected, there is no possibility of enjoying other rights. So that trumps everything – but they don’t understand that and then they get upset when a bishop or a Catholic institution says a particular person is not suitable to be honored,” he said.
More on when beliefs collide: Pro-life Republicans in Nebraska can’t decide whether to provide pre-natal care for illegal immigrants.
The American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) has a blog on its website to provide a platform for scholars to sort out all those new Easter-related claims about the historical Jesus.
The Catholic churches of the Holy Land plan to observe Easter according to the Orthodox calendar as early as next year. This is a big deal for those who care about Christian history, the Holy Land and Catholic-Orthodox relations. Not to mention calendars.
Rick Santorum is taking four days off over Easter. Does this mean he’s about to call it quits, wonders CBN’s David Brody? Or maybe it’s because he’s a pretty devout Catholic.
Still, it’s looking grim for Santorum as Mitt Romney has overtaken him in his home state, which is supposed to be the keystone of Santorum’s comeback.
One sure path to the nomination for Santorum: Romney takes John McCain’s advice and picks Sarah Palin as his veep. Yeah, that'd work.
Will Obama use Romney’s Mormonism against him? No proof yet, but some claims.
Connecticut may end the death penalty.
Mississippi may close its only abortion clinic.
The Last Supper is remembered this evening, and Passover starts tomorrow evening. So are “Last Supper Seders” kosher, or Christian? Debate rages.
For millions of Americans, Major League Baseball’s opening day is more than a rite of spring, it’s a near-religious experience. But for Jews and Christians in eight American cities, their team’s home opener coincides with actual holy days.
— David Gibson
Photo credit: L'Osservatore Romano via the Washington Post
