OXFORD, England- Catholic church leaders have reacted to the slaying by Islamists of an elderly French priest yesterday morning with a call to resist feelings of vengeance and hatred and to help build a civilization of love.
The peculiar horror of the attack, in which two young men attacked Fr Jacques Hamel while the 86-year-old was saying Mass, then made him kneel and slit his throat while chanting in Arabic at the altar, produced a wave of shock and revulsion across the world.
It was also clearly designed to feed deep-seated fears of a religious attack on Christianity itself.
Pope Francis responded not only to express his horror but also, pointedly, to describe it as an act of “absurd violence.” Continue reading
About two weeks before the opening ceremony for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Father Leandro Lenin Tavares was putting the final touches on what he hopes will be a very successful spiritual mission: coordinating the interreligious center for athletes at the Olympic Village.
“We hope that the center will encourage harmony and unity among different countries and among different religions,” Father Tavares told Catholic News Service. Continue reading
African American religious leaders have added their weight to calls for action on climate change, with one of the largest and oldest black churches in the US warning that black people are disproportionally harmed by global warming and fossil fuel pollution.
The African Methodist Episcopal church has passed its first resolution in its 200-year history devoted to climate change, calling for a swift transition to renewable energy.
“We can move away from the dirty fuels that make us sick and shift toward safe, clean energy like wind and solar that help make every breath our neighbors and families take a healthy one,” states the resolution, which also points to research showing that black children are four times as likely as white children to die from asthma. Continue reading
(RNS) Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton announced Tim Kaine, the junior Democratic senator from Virginia and former governor of that state, as her vice presidential running mate Friday (July 22).
Kaine, a Roman Catholic, will appear with Clinton, a Methodist, at next week’s Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
Here are five faith facts about the new vice presidential candidate.
Film director Oliver Stone has branded the popular gaming app Pokémon Go a “new level of invasion” of privacy that could lead to “totalitarianism”.
The American reportedly voiced concerns over the game as he promoted his new movie about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden at Comic-Con International. Continue reading
CLEVELAND — Following television personality Montel Williams’ address to a conservative LGBT brunch, Colorado Attorney Gen. Cynthia Coffman said she felt like she was at church.
Coffman’s speculation wasn’t far off. As Williams addressed the brunch held to promote inclusion of the LGBT community among the Republican Party less than a mile from the GOP convention, he admonished Christians to repel discrimination against anyone — especially discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation.
“Too often we hear religious liberty used as a justification for legislative ideas that marginalize the LGBT community,” Williams, an ardent opponent of the so-called bathroom bills, said. Continue reading
“Yesterday, I met in Washington with 45 nations – defense ministers and foreign ministers – as we were working together on the challenge of Daesh, ISIL, and terrorism,” Kerry said at the Vienna summit. “It’s hard for some people to grasp it, but what we – you – are doing here right now is of equal importance because it has the ability to literally save life on the planet itself.” Continue reading
ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) – An attorney in Minnesota is calling on Pope Francis to take action after documents released Wednesday show that, in his words, a “classic cover up” took place in the Twin Cities archdiocese, involving the former archbishop and top Vatican officials.
Jeff Anderson, an attorney who has represented hundreds of people claiming sex abuse by priests, told reporters Wednesday afternoon that documents recently made public show that former Archbishop John Nienstedt had a “sexual interest” in former priest Curtis Wehmeyer, as well as other priests. Continue reading
What role, if any, should the church play in combating climate change?
It was this kind of question former Vice President Al Gore answered over two decades ago when he wrote that men should harness religion as a political tool. “The fate of mankind,” he wrote, “as well as of religion, depends upon the emergence of a new faith in the future. Armed with such a faith, we might find it possible to resanctify the Earth.”
Fifteen years later, in his Nobel Peace Prize speech, he quoted himself to reiterate his belief that global warming was a spiritual issue that needed to be addressed by faith. Continue reading