Father Knows Best: Should I go to seminary?
Is seminary the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet? Is it where God is calling you to be? Or is that place somewhere else for you?
Beliefs
COMMENTARY: Where is God when evil strikes?
(RNS) There is, alas, no good answer. Unless, that is, believers can arrive at a deeper understanding of God’s omnipotence.
Quote of the Day: Evangelical writer Rachel Held Evans
“This theology is, in a word, abusive, for it blames the victim for whatever calamity, abuse, or tragedy she suffers and says it is deserved.” – Evangelical writer Rachel Held Evans, criticizing Minneapolis pastor and author John Piper for using natural disasters, such as the Oklahoma City tornado, to explain the wrath of God.
Pope Francis: God redeemed everyone, ‘not just Catholics’
(RNS) In remarks that may prompt a theological debate about the nature of salvation, Pope Francis declared that God “has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone!”
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.
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.
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.
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?
