2008

Most news outlets have their top ten list of news stories for the past year or predictions for the new year so here is my list for the top five news stories from 2008 that will continue to shape the intersection of religion and politics in 2009 1 Pope Benedict XVI rsquo s visit to the United Stat

Try out your crystal ball over at Pontifications Tim Reidy

In these end-of-year days nbsp which the BBC does not call the Octave of the Nativity of Our Lord the broadcaster invites well-known people to guest-edit its flagship radio news program Today This morning it was the turn of my old boss the Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Cormac Murph

From the Associated Press The leader of Maine s Roman Catholics has taken the unusual step of threatening to punish an outspoken advocate for people who were sexually abused by priests possibly by denying him communion Paul Kendrick of Freeport has been banned from the Cathedral of the Immacu

The Israeli reprisal in Gaza is brutal but that does not justify the moral ignorance of protesters in European capitals and even New York City who condemn the Israeli reaction and not the action to which it was a response One protester on Fifth Avenue carried the sign Death to all Juice but his

Here is Michael Paulson of The Boston Globe interviewing the always-interesting always-provocative always-hardworking always generous-with-his-time always-worth-listening-to Richard McBrien the Catholic theologian teaching at Notre Dame nbsp I ve always profited from Father McBrien s wri

Laurie Laurie Goodstein the religion reporter at The New York Times has a fascinating nbsp three-part series on the surge in foreign priests serving in parishes in the United States nbsp There are probably few parishes in the States who have not been touched by this underreported and misunders