REFLECTION: Filling in the missing demographic
A young Latino pastor celebrates the church that allows everyone to be whoever they happen to be, instead of playing the part of the underrepresented demographic.
Archives: May 2013
Wednesday’s Religion News Roundup: Tornado Theology * Red State Atheist * Pope’s Blasphemy Blast
Graffiti on a church is a good thing? The Pat Robertson School of Theodicy gets deconstructed in the wake of the Oklahoma tornadoes, and Pope Francis has some stern words for believers who don’t see the good in others. “To say that you can kill in the name of God is blasphemy.”
CBS News Video: Survivor finds missing dog after tornado
“Well, I thought God just answered one prayer to let me be ok, but he answered both of them…because this was my last, my second prayer.”
Survey shows Catholic priests don’t like Mass changes
(RNS) Nothing can upset the folks in the pews as much as changing the liturgy that they’re used to, and that seemed likely to be the case when the Vatican ordered revisions to the familiar prayers of the Catholic Mass. But now, more than a year after the changes took effect, a survey of American priests shows that they are more disturbed by the innovations than their flock.
Quote of the Day: Victims’ advocate Robert Hoatson
“It’s time that clarity and courage are rewarded rather than harassed and dismissed.” – Victims’ advocate Robert Hoatson, a former Catholic priest, on why he’s joining a new group called Catholic Whistleblowers to help hold the Catholic Church accountable on sexual abuse. He was quoted by The New York Times.
ANALYSIS: Does religious freedom report need more ‘teeth’?
WASHINGTON (RNS) Watchdogs say the State Department missed a key opportunity to put teeth into its annual assessment of global religious freedom, which was released by Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday.
N.J. priest faces judge for violating ban on access to children
HACKENSACK, N.J. (RNS) Wearing a bright orange prison jumpsuit, the priest at the center of the furor in the Archdiocese in Newark made his first court appearance on Tuesday on charges he violated a court-sanctioned ban on working with children.
Godless funerals thrive in ‘post-Catholic’ Ireland
DUBLIN (RNS) After 32 years as an interior designer, Patricia Wojnar went back to school for a master’s degree in bereavement studies, a hot commodity in Ireland’s “post-Catholic” economy that features growing markets for wedding and funeral officiants who aren’t associated with the scandal-scarred Catholic Church.
COMMENTARY: The revolution is upon us
(RNS) Religious historians say that every 500 years, Christianity goes through a “massive transition,” as Phyllis Tickle puts it. We aren’t likely to comprehend this latest transition until it is further along. But two things are clear: Christianity in North America is being freed from its own roots, and Christianity no longer controls the flow.
Tuesday’s Religion News Roundup: NYPD Muslims * Sistine Pickpockets * Papal Exorcism?
Civil rights groups charge the NYPD cast a very wide net in its spying on Muslims. Hold on to your wallet in the Sistine Chapel. Did Pope Francis just perform an exorcism?
