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Our Lady of Good Hope and Excellent Behavior: Why this Apparition and Why Now?

By Lisa Bitel

…ion by joining other denominations or leaving Christianity altogether. The number of priests and nuns was at an all-time low even before the recent sexual scandals, and the number of self-identified Catholics world-wide keeps declining. Many of those who remain in the Church ignore standard doctrines and believe what they want. How many Catholics disobey Church rules? About as many as the angels dancing on a pinhead. Believers know that Jesus prom…

Grasping At Straws: The Problem with Common Ground on Abortion

By Frances Kissling

…e Common Good, favors making abortion illegal, and only views reducing the number of abortions as an interim step toward that goal. It is hard to take seriously a movement that thinks they can dramatically reduce the number of abortions while largely ignoring or denying the issue of access to contraception—including emergency contraception. One understands that they feel their hands are tied by the official position of the Catholic church against…

The Brutality of Life for Syrian LGBTs; Saving the Anglican Church by Dissolving It; Backlash to Hindu Gay Wedding Ceremony in Indonesia; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…aeda]. That’s not including your own extended family: they are often enemy number one.” McDougall reports that religious police use social media to entrap people, and rely on informants. Knowing who the enemy is has become increasingly difficult for gay people. From the ranks of its own religious police force, Isis is believed to have deployed undercover agents to entrap those who have been accused by others of being gay. Elmo, a doctor now workin…

Literary Critic George Steiner, Whose Views on Anti-Semitism Drew Controversy, Dies at 90

By Ed Simon

…man who ranged over nations and continents, having taught in Switzerland, Austria, America and Britain, holding positions at those famous universities in the Cambridge on either side of the Atlantic. His readings, interpretations, and analyses were recorded in millions of words, both in academic study and The New Yorker, for which he wrote book reviews. His vision was so singular, so idiosyncratic, that Steiner is, to some extent, cursed to be th…

Chris Caldwell Sees Muslim Bogeymen. Again.

By Bruce B. Lawrence

…nts that have created Islam councils, whether in France, Britain, Germany, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, or Belgium. These councils, still in their infancy, have helped a new generation of Muslims feel that they can, and should, be both Muslim and European. The Islam councils attract, engage and sustain a robust Muslim leadership that argues within its ranks but also with the larger society that Islam and Europe must craft a shared destiny. If…

Mubarak Will Not Run for Re-Election (Updated)

By The Editors

…dei an “opportunist,” while another tweeted, referring to his residence in Austria: “Shall we just call your mobile when we have finished the revolution for you.” So with the crowds shouting Go away! Go away! Revolution until death! into the night, and the Obama Administration until now cautiously taking its lead from unfolding events having told Mubarak that “the transition must begin now,” the next step remains a big unknown. What is known is th…

Benedict is on a Roll!

By Kate Childs Graham

…toph Schoenborn—a conservative himself—has called a crisis session for the Austrian Catholic Church to be convened on Monday. Austrian Press Agency reported that four times as many Catholics have quit the Church in Linz this year as compared to early 2008. And, on Tuesday, 31 of 39 senior priests of Linz passed a declaration of “no confidence” in Wagner. Schoenborn’s spokesperson Erich Leitenberger pointed to the bad timing of this appointment and…

What Does the Catholic Church’s Patriarchal Structure Have to Do with the Failure of the Amazon Synod?

By Mary E. Hunt

…were edified by the nerve and alleged fidelity of the two men from Vienna, Austria who saw it as their duty to rid the church of “pagan” influences. Right-wing critic Taylor Marshall tweeted that it was “an act of obedience to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ & in reparation to his Sacred Heart wounded by sin.” https://twitter.com/taylorrmarshall/status/1186212361096646656 Catholic conservatives understand that some images, especially female image…

Heavenly Bodies Was the Most Popular Exhibit in the History of the Met—Here’s Why That’s a Problem

By Liz Bucar

…t there’s no indication that it was commissioned by Maria Anna Carolina of Austria to bribe the pope for political favor; nor that Piux IX was one of the most authoritarian leaders in church history. Religious clothing matters when we understand it in a particular context. Otherwise, we miss the point. Another subject the exhibit was strangely silent about was the Church’s sex abuse scandal. Rick Owens’s provocative monastic robe with a hole cut o…

Arrest the Pope: New Atheist Effort to Seek Justice in Sexual Abuse Crisis Should Be Applauded

By Frances Kissling

…ure of widespread sexual abuse throughout Europe—first in Ireland, then in Austria, Germany and other countries—is the third such round of endemic abuse and cover-up. The first was in the 1980s in the United States arising out of charges of abuse in Louisiana; clean-up was, of course, promised. Those charges were followed by the 2002 Boston Globe exposé; clean up was again promised, but the bishops and cardinals responsible are, in one way or anot…