It has been described as the dark side of the good news said Rochester N Y s Father Kevin McKenna the arterial sclerosis of the mystical body Father McKenna was of course referring to the Canon Law of the Catholic Church a codification of church rules and regs that can be traced

From the Religious Illiteracy Department Last night on his MSNBC television show Keith Olbermann taunted a Republican candidate - I forget where the candidate was from - who claimed he had seen the Ark of the Covenant in Arizona Okay so that is a bit bizarre But then Olbermann made this joke

Grant Gallicho over at Dotcommonweal--in response to Bill Donohue s having apparently convinced himself that the sex abuse crisis is about gay priests--provides a master class in analyzing the John Jay study data Yet Donohue thinks that because 81 percent of the victims were male the real cause wa

One of our favorite new film reviewers is John Anderson who has already appeared several times in our Culture section online and in print and reviews regularly for the New York Times Arts amp Leisure Section and Variety His review of Ridley Scott s new film Robin Hood starring Russell Crowe

The AP reports more troubling news from the Gulf WASHINGTON ndash Staff members at an agency that oversees offshore drilling accepted tickets to sports events lunches and other gifts from oil and gas companies and used government computers to view pornography according to an Interior Department

The last in a series on Huffpo Here s an often misunderstood and misinterpreted statement Many people feel drawn to God in times of suffering During a serious illness a family crisis the loss of a job or the death of a loved one many people will say that they ve turn to God in new ways Athei

Forty days and forty nights is a period of time rich in religious imagery It is also sadly the measure to-date of the ecological disaster occurring off the coast of Louisiana Today I hope the prayers of all Americans are focused on the efforts deep in the Gulf of Mexico to stop the flow of oil

Trinity Sunday gives us a wonderful moment to reflect on how mysterious God is how little we can say no matter how vast our desire It also prompts us to recall that cardinal Bible sin idolatry false claims about God often overbalanced toward certainty and projection i e making God too much l

The following is the text of a letter sent to members of Congress on May 19 from the USCCB on the topic nbsp of the Employment Nondiscrimination Act ENDA and in relation to that same-sex marriage May 19 2010 Dear Member of Congress We write to you regarding the Employment Nondiscrimination

The Legionaries of Christ are of Christ and not of Maciel Fr Jes uacute s Mar iacute a Delgado regional head of the Legionaries of Christ in Spain has told the religious news site Religi oacute n Digital in an upbeat interview We will do whatever the Church tells us he says in reference

In a provocative op-ed this morning in the New York Times the Dalai Lama speaks of his 1968 encounter with Thomas Merton and the need for religions to highlight what unites us nbsp Interestingly Merton is often nbsp criticized by some Catholics for not being sufficiently Catholic towards the

It appears that Congress and the White House are close to a compromise that will end the Don rsquo t Ask Don rsquo t Tell DADT policy that forbids openly gay men and women from serving in the U S armed forces The compromise will allow the Pentagon to complete its study of the issue but will

nbsp World wide in 2007 nbsp there was approximately one nbsp priest for every 2800 Catholics 1-2800 nbsp How does this vary around the globe nbsp In the United States currently it stands around 1 ndash 1500 nbsp So nbsp if one thinks the priest shortage is serious in the U S nbsp wi

One of 19 U S women s religious orders specifically nbsp identified as the next step in the Vatican s Apostolic Visitation the Adrian Dominican Sisters of Adrian Michigan are being investigated nbsp The story is outlined in this piece from the Detroit Free Press They ve taught legions of De

This week s podcast features an interview with the novelist and essayist Mary Gordon Gordon s new book Reading Jesus began as an effort to understand Christian fundamentalism by looking at the primary sources of the Christian tradition As she examined Jesus life and work she discovered that sh

Give praise where praise is due I am a frequent critic of Professor Robert George founder of the American Principles Project but in a recent post at Mirror of Justice Professor George is doing the work of the angels by challenging conservatives to be wary of libertarianism George refers to an a

The winner of the Palme d Or at the Cannes film festival this year was a Thai film about reincarnation while Of Gods and Men the true story of the 1996 massacre of French monks in Algeria by Islamists nbsp took the runner-up Grand Prix award The Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul s Uncle B