So there we have it a new Bible-based evangelical network of Anglican Churches mostly in the developing South has been formed at a conference of 280 bishops in Jerusalem as a counter-weight within the Anglican Communion This is not a split or schism But it can be likened to a Reformation w

A front page story in this morning s Washington Post highlights the effects of persistent false rumors about Barack Obama The rumors are spread on the Internet and by word-of-mouth this last still being the most effective means of communication devised by humankind Indeed the story s protago

The British press has been reaching for sacred metaphors to describe Nelson Mandela whose 90th birthday was celebrated with a celebrity-festooned Hyde Park concert in London last Friday night The icon of freedom has acquired Christ-like status in our time On stage he was a beatific presenc

David Shields an author and English professor at the University of Washington has written a sort of memoir combined with a science report called The Thing About Life Is That One Day You ll Be Dead My daughters were a little alarmed to see me engrossed in such a morbidly-titled book I think t

This coming week I make the transition to another Jesuit university I taught at Boston College from 2001-2004 then moved to Santa Clara University where I have taught for the last four years Now I am honored to be taking a position in the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education at Fo

Above Tim Russert pictured with Catholic school children CNS photo In one of the strangest religious stories of the month Sally Quinn the longtime Washington Post reporter and co-editor of the Post-Newsweek blog On Faith wrote about her decision to receive Communion at her close friend Tim

Congrats to America blogger Michael Sean Winters on the release of his new book Left at the Altar How the Democrats Lost the Catholics and How the Catholics Can Save the Democrats George Stephanopoulos hosted a book part for Michael last night at his Georgetown home and the Washington Post was th

Sen Barack Obama went up on television with his first nationwide ad buy this past weekend His choice of markets for airing the ad was instructive including the usual swing states but also including several states where Democrats have not been competitive in years North Carolina Virginia Georgi

For all the great things the Church of yesteryear achieved it also did some terrible things One of the worst demands it made was that a Catholic who marries a person who is not a Catholic do so at a side altar oratory or in the sacristy of the Church How humiliating this directive was For how l

Rocco Palmo at Whispers in the Loggia has a long post on the new translation of the Sacramentary which had been discussed at the latest meeting of the U S Conference of Catholic Bishops which oddly received almost zero coverage in the national media The media was either poped out after Be

Just when it looked like the forced departures of the Reverends Jeremiah Wright and John Hagee from the political stage would usher in a modicum of sane religious discussions in the campaign the Reverend James Dobson took to the airwaves yesterday to re-introduce an unhealthy dose of zealotry to th

This past Thursday a few friends and I went to an adult rock climbing class at the field house at Chelsea Piers Growing up in the Bronx rock climbing is not one of the extracurricular activities with which I was raised So naturally there is something unnatural about allowing myself to be strap

The news from Jerusalem where 280 orthodox Anglican bishops are meeting before the Lambeth Conference is something of a non-story There are no plans after all for a split or schism Given that the Global Anglican Future conference Gafcon started with just such a prospect on the horizon

The birth of John was miraculous Luke tells us his parents were beyond the age of having children Elizabeth John s mother was sterile Still miraculously John leaped in his mother s womb at the presence of Jesus in the womb of Mary That John is mentioned in the Gospels at all is miraculou

Thanks to Cathy Kaveny at Dotcommonweal for noticing this The great church historian Henry Chadwick author of the beautifully written study The Early Church has died at age 87 in Oxford England The obituary from The New York Times is here My favorite passage from that fascinating book

One of Sen John McCain s chief advisers is in hot water over remarks he made to a magazine reporter Charles R Black Jr told Fortune magazine that a new terrorist attack on American soil certainly would be a big advantage to him McCain McCain quickly distanced himself from the remarks and

As George Bush s poll numbers sink lower than did Nixon s in the middle of the Watergate investigations it is no surprise that most Americans can t wait for next January 20th when either John McCain or Barack Obama will be sworn in as our next president But Americans are not alone The enti

A review of E.J. Dionne's 'Souled Out'

Political excommunication and partisan priests