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Pope Francis: Culture Warriors Out, “Collaboration and Consultation” In

By Patricia Miller

…rge raised the prospect of a future where “those who do not conform to the official religion” of approval of “all types of sexual relationships” that were once considered sinful will be driven from public life: It means that those who choose to live by the Catholic faith will not be welcomed as political candidates to national office, will not sit on editorial boards of major newspapers, will not be at home on most university faculties, will not h…

What The Church Needs More Than a ‘Good Pope’

By Mary E. Hunt

…pe is not very different from election of a president or other top-ranking official in a hierarchical organization. S/he brings with her/him a whole entourage of lower ranking officials, much like in the U.S. when the Republicans are defeated by the Democrats or vice versa. The winner brings a team. So now it’s time for the people who lost the election to get out of the way and let Francis govern. Conservatives are not pleased with his views, and…

Global LGBT Recap: Ugandan Law Unleashes Vigilantes, Anti-Gay Americans Want to Boost Homophobia Exports

By Peter Montgomery

…a marker of national identity, a source of political endorsements, and an official participant in the legislative process: In a 2009 agreement with Putin’s ruling United Russia party, the country’s top Orthodox official, Patriarch Kirill, won the right to review (and suggest changes to) any legislation being considered by the Duma. Since then, both Putin and Patriarch Kirill have stated explicitly and repeatedly that they believe in collaboration…

Was Prof Wrong to Ask Students to Not Thank God?

By Hollis Phelps

…ultural critic Slavoj Žižek has often noted that in addition to the set of official mores, rights, and laws that govern a society, is an unwritten code or set of assumptions that govern how the former are to be interpreted and enacted. For example, if an acquaintance at work passes me in the hall and says, “Hey. How are things going?,” I’m aware that it’s not a real question, that she’s not really interested in how my day is going. Why? Because th…

The Irony of the American Studies Israel Boycott

By Jon Pahl

…y, read as other than ironically arbitrary and anti-semitic in effect. The official statement tries to limit the damage: Our resolution understands boycott as limited to a refusal on the part of the Association in its official capacities to enter into formal collaborations with Israeli academic institutions, or with scholars who are expressly serving as representatives or ambassadors of those institutions, or on behalf of the Israeli government, u…

Honey, I Shrunk the Church: The Vatican Manages Sexual Abuse, Canonization and the Nuns

By Mary E. Hunt

…y or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It’s that last part in bold that’s so chillingly familiar in the Catholic cases. This time, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Holy See’s U.N. ambassador, tried to take refuge in its postage-stamp sized headquarters as the extent of its responsibility, the same shrinking tactic, with similar results. He didn’t take except…

Global LGBT Recap: Asylum for Victims of Homophobia Exports; Orthodox Church Sees Anti-Gay Campaign Turned Toward Itself

By Peter Montgomery

…any other country, except here they have to nod along with the homophobic official rhetoric. Meanwhile, a story in the Globe and Mail says that homophobia in Russia “isn’t just about Mr. Putin – or the skinheads, church activists and often-hostile police who show up at Moscow’s occasional gay-rights demonstrations. Opinion polls show that 80 per cent of Russians support the new law – in fact, many want the Kremlin to go much further.” The story b…

On The Kerry Apartheid Comment and the Cycle of Chutzpah

By Sarah Posner

…) events: [T]his controversy played out according to a familiar script: 1) Official says something uncomfortable but true about Israel; 2) The Anti-Defamation League and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) condemn the statement, pretending to be shocked and appalled that anyone could ever criticize Israel; 3) Democratic and Republican senators rush to condemn the statement as well, with the Republican response a little more intens…

Can You Be Liberal and Catholic?

By Patricia Miller

…or not, many in the media have bought into the idea that there’s only one “official” Catholic voice. Maybe it’s because the jovial Dolan, who’s no longer head of the bishops’ conference but frequently functions as its spokesperson, is right out of central casting’s idea of an old time Irish bishop. Or maybe it’s because dissenting voices are hard to find. Progressive nuns have been systematically marginalized. Now they’re dying off and aren’t bein…

5 Reasons We Shouldn’t Be Surprised that Catholics Support LGBT Rights

By Paul Gorrell

…driven by the advances in birth control—Catholics have largely ignored the official teaching of the Church on sexual relations within marriage and outside marriage. Teaching delivered by the celibate clergy on sexuality was seen as naïve, impractical and unresponsive to the experience of sexually-active Catholics. This was true in the early stages of the post-Humanae Vitae era and in later years when the Church refused to endorse condoms to help p…