Garner protests * Vatican windfall * Prince Vladimir: Friday’s Roundup

A second day of protests continued across the nation. The Vatican turned up hundreds of millions of euros. Vladimir Putin traces his heritage to Prince Vladimir.

Mosaic of St. Prince Vladimir. Orthodox church in Sevastopol Ukraine

A second day of protests continued across the nation Thursday following a grand jury’s decision not to indict a white police officer in the chokehold death of Eric Garner.

In New York, thousands marched across the Brooklyn Bridge, on the West Side Highway and in Foley Square, across from the NYPD. In other places across the country, people gathered for “die-ins.”


Adelle M. Banks reports that evangelical pastors, including prominent white Southern Baptists, are growing more vocal in speaking out about African-American injustices.

Still the whole sorry mess has some beginning to wonder if Ferguson and Staten Island are weakening the United States’ moral authority when it castigates other nations on human rights abuses.

Rags to riches?

Boston College announced Thursday that it will relocate the McMullen Museum of Art to the former residence of the Catholic archbishop. The archdiocese sold the campus to settle obligations stemming from the clergy sexual abuse scandal. Cardinal Bernard F. Law was the last archbishop to live in mansion, built in 1927.

The Jesuit’s New England and New York provinces merged, and Jesuits in the United States and Canada are now housed under one umbrella, changes designed to respond to the declining numbers of Jesuits.

But a Vatican financial official said Thursday it had turned up hundreds of millions of euros that the Vatican did not know it had. Not that helps the American Church. But hey, it’s probably a lot more useful than the two donkeys that a European cooperative donated to the pope this week.

Mosaic image of Prince Vladimir

Mosaic of St. Prince Vladimir. Orthodox church in Sevastopol Ukraine

Staking a religious heritage

You may have heard that George Clooney’s new wife is of Druze heritage. Ben Hartman writes about the monotheistic and secretive religion whose roots lie in Islam, and the problems this minority community faces in Israel, where a high percentage serve in the Israeli army and police.

Meanwhile Russian president Vladimir Putin traced his own heritage to Prince Vladimir, the ruler who brought about the conversion of the Russian people. Since Vlad was baptized in Crimea, Putin justified his takeover of that region on religious grounds, saying Crimea was as important to Russians as the Temple Mount is to Muslims and Jews.


That’s bogus said our astute blogger Mark Silk. (Meanwhile, violence in the Chechnya conjured up memories of the worst years of the conflict during the 1990s.)

Rags to riches, part II

An unconventional crowdfunding campaign to show Christian love by donating money to bakery owners who declined to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding fell flat. The effort, loudly criticized by both supporters and opponents of gay marriage, raised little over $4,000.

Caravaggio and Botticelli are just a few of the artists who painted images of the Virgin Mary; both masters are on display as part of the “Picturing Mary: Woman, Mother, Idea” which opens today at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.

Good listening

Missed last night’s 10th installment of Serial, the runaway podcast of the year? Here are three top talking points, including this one: anti-Muslim sentiment may have played a role in Adnan Syed’s murder conviction.

Good reading

President Abraham Lincoln understood religion better than many believers, both as a political advantage and a safe harbor for troubled souls in the midst of storms, says Joseph Moore, a professor at Garder-Webb University in Boiling Springs, N.C.

Good viewing?

The Red Tent miniseries premieres Sunday on Lifetime. For more about this tale, read Jeff Salkin’s commentary on the biblical figure of Dinah. Or check out the hilarious sendup in the Forward. I bet lots of people will watch just for a chance to see Game of Thrones’ Jorah Mormont as Jacob and Homeland’s Jessica Brody as Rachel.


Finally, as you ponder the weekend, and look to the week ahead, consider this: NASA just launched a spacecraft that will take humans to Mars. Well, maybe not right away.

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