…h are available, and the response was very clear,” Oder said. “There is no sign of a personal involvement of the Holy Father in this matter.” Supporters of John Paul’s fast-track canonization, like The Vatican Diaries author John Thavis, argue that the sex abuse scandal shouldn’t define the pope’s legacy. “One of the questions here is whether a pope can be a saint and also make managerial mistakes, and I think Vatican officials would say yes,” he…
…arate check’ for abortion, which pro-life dissenters might try refusing to sign, is apparently false,” which the bishops have known since 2012. The irony is that while the Bracys’ suit is generally hostile to the ACA and the individual mandate, they will only have to pay $2.63 a month for health insurance for a family of six because of federal subsidies. And while the suit implies they will have to make a separate payment for abortion, it admits t…
…rishing other relationships, working to mend our broken world, and being a sign of faithfulness to their community.” I hate to admit to agreeing with Douthat, but he’s right. The church can’t retreat from its fight on gay marriage because to do so would take it back nearly 50 years to when it was on the brink of approving the use of contraception but backed down because it would codify the idea, which it had already tacitly accepted, that the purp…
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…ts with Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper, for that they have not any visible sign or ceremony ordained of God (872, XXV). This is no mere theological quibbling. The cornerstone of Reformation theology developed by Martin Luther, then adapted by John Calvin on its way to the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, was the idea that human beings could not ourselves determine what God had marked as sure indicators of God’s grace in us. Rather, Luther argued th…
…iff said he “was guilty of sexual misconduct, improprieties and harassment, as well as being in violation of the DeKalb County Commission’s policy on sexual harassment.” Before his firing and resignation, news coverage of the sign controversy noted that “the entire message” of the welcome signs “was sealed with Mayor Mitchell Dendy’s stamp of approval.”…
…ng other religions. Of course, the idea of wearing religious covering as a sign of respect is not new for politicians: both Laura Bush and Condoleezza Rice did it. For some reason, the Democratic establishment is having a hard time with simple courtesies, let alone dealing with religious bigotry. Rashad Hussain, special envoy to the Organization of Islamic Countries, has already been thrown to the wolves. He is prevented from doing his job because…
…ding the consumption of food in The Laws of Manu. What she finds, in these codes, is not only an attempt to deal with the old, and apparently always agonizing, moral pain of eating animal flesh. She also spoke of references, in these ancient texts, to the “screaming silence” of vegetables. Doniger finds, in other words, a long history of reflection on the basic brutality of eating, rooted in a reflection on this concept of ahimsa. But, interesting…
…’s billboard story: A “My Life, My Death, My Choice, FinalExitNetwork.org” sign in New Jersey has stirred criticism from Catholics and suicide prevention groups. Mainline churches are struggling to maintain their buildings as memberships and offerings decline. Some Christians don’t see the point of buildings. House churches are growing among many Christians disillusioned with traditional church structures. As one observer put it, “For many, church…
…the empire. Many leaders of the Church considered the sea-change a divine sign of the absolute truth of their religion, that historical success proves theological truth. It was a zero-sum view of the world: “Truth is with us. All else is falsehood.” That conclusion would haunt Christian believers some generations later with the extraordinary success of Islam. Within twenty years of the death of the prophet Muhammad, Muslim armies controlled the M…
