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Daily Links, May 30: A bishop, an atheist, and a woman religious all walk into a bar...

Meghan Murphy-Gill — Wed, 30 May 2012 21:21:38 +0000

Atheists and religious adherents both do good but have different motivations, a study from the University of California at Berkley finds. “Across three studies, we found compassion played a much bigger role in the way that less religious people treated others.

Papal butler's lawyers ask Vatican for house arrest for their client

Catholic News Service — Wed, 30 May 2012 20:35:33 +0000

Author:

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The lawyers for Paolo Gabriele have petitioned Vatican magistrates for house arrest for their client, who is accused of illegally possessing stolen documents as part of the so-called "VatiLeaks" scandal.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said May 30 that the magistrates who have been holding Gabriele in the offices of the Vatican police were considering the formal request to allow him to return to his Vatican apartment with his wife and three children.

IEC is Ireland's largest religious event since 1979 papal visit

Catholic News Service — Wed, 30 May 2012 20:33:38 +0000

Author:

By Michael Kelly Catholic News Service

DUBLIN (CNS) -- The weeklong 50th International Eucharistic Congress, which gets under way in Dublin June 10, will be Ireland's largest religious event since Pope John Paul II visited in 1979.

The celebration of faith offers a lively mixture of prayer, reflection and liturgy with participation from some of the leading voices in the Catholic world.

Organizers promise an estimated 12,000 overseas visitors the traditional Irish "cead mile failte" --"a hundred thousand welcomes." Many Dubliners have opened their homes to pilgrims.

Shanghai diocesan staff elects bishop who received Vatican approval

Catholic News Service — Wed, 30 May 2012 20:32:22 +0000

Author:

By Catholic News Service

SHANGHAI (CNS) -- Father Thaddeus Ma Daqin won a majority of votes as candidate to be the Diocese of Shanghai's coadjutor bishop.

One hundred ninety of the eligible 205 diocesan priests, nuns and laypeople cast votes May 30, reported UCA News, the Asian Catholic news agency.

Father Ma, whose exact age was unknown but was said to be in his 40s, was the only candidate for the representatives to consider. He received 160 votes in the government-required format of "democratic" bishop selection. Two voters did not favor Father Ma and 28 abstained from voting.

Daily Links, May 29: Religious liberty, kill lists, and plenty of scandal

Scott Alessi — Tue, 29 May 2012 21:00:20 +0000

Yet again, the news is full of stories about "religious liberty" claims. There are of course the claims coming from U.S. bishops, which Bryan Cones says may be lacking in accuracy.

Lying about the HHS mandate: Accidentally or on purpose?

Bryan Cones — Tue, 29 May 2012 19:31:32 +0000

As the PR machine connected to last week's simultaneous lawsuit against the HHS mandate continues its rollout, most recently with a joint appearance by Washington, D.C.'s Cardinal Donald Wuerhl and Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore on EWTN, I'm becoming more and more disturbed by what I'm hearing, primarily because I am hearing what I can only describe as misinformation coming from the mouths of these bishops.

17 former Anglicans ordained Catholic deacons in Britain

Catholic News Service — Tue, 29 May 2012 18:37:18 +0000

Author:

By Simon Caldwell Catholic News Service

MANCHESTER, England (CNS) -- Seventeen former Anglican priests were made deacons in one of the largest group ordinations in the modern history of the Catholic Church in Britain.

All the deacons will serve in the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, which in January 2011 became the first ordinariate to be set up under "Anglicanorum coetibus," the apostolic constitution issued by Pope Benedict XVI in November 2009 to allow the group reception of Anglicans.

Rio+20: Still trying to map a sustainable future for the world

Catholic News Service — Tue, 29 May 2012 18:36:15 +0000

Author:

By Barbara J. Fraser Catholic News Service

LIMA, Peru (CNS) -- Twenty years ago, a 12-year-old girl stood before government officials from most of the world's countries and pleaded for her future. Worried about pollution and overuse of natural resources on her finite planet, she begged, "If you don't know how to fix it, please don't break it."

Vatican pledges to restore trust, transparency in search for truth

Catholic News Service — Tue, 29 May 2012 18:35:09 +0000

Author:

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican said it is committed to restoring a sense of trust and transparency as it seeks the truth behind leaks of letters written by Vatican officials to each other and Pope Benedict XVI.

Paolo Gabriele -- the pope's private assistant accused of having a cache of illicitly obtained Vatican documents -- was still under arrest and would face his first round of formal preliminary questioning by Vatican judges "later this week or early next week," Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said May 29.

Take a closer look: Lectio Divina

Online Editor — Tue, 29 May 2012 13:10:13 +0000

Article Author:

Sister Sheryl Frances Chen

There's more to praying with scripture than the words on the page.

At my 30th class reunion, one of the lectures offered was by a young psychologist doing cognitive research. He showed us a three-minute video, and our task was to watch two basketball teams, one in white uniforms and one in black, and count the number of straight passes and the number of bounce passes made by the team in white.

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Daily links, Fri., May 25: In which I try to avoid the topic of religious liberty, even though it's really hard

Bryan Cones — Fri, 25 May 2012 22:36:55 +0000

Hmm...

The pope's butler is arrested on suspicion of leaking documents is the "Vatileaks" scandal. (The butler did it!) No religious liberty there...

How are we holding high the torch today?

Liz Lefebvre — Fri, 25 May 2012 20:58:57 +0000

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago

Commission lists Egypt among countries with religious freedom problems

Catholic News Service — Fri, 25 May 2012 20:24:42 +0000

Author:

By Maria-Pia Negro Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- As Egyptians began voting to replace ousted President Hosni Mubarak, Christian minorities were anxious to see if the next government would end restrictions on religious freedom and attacks on religious minorities that had been on the rise the past couple of years.

Egypt was one of 16 countries that the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom singled out for particular concern in its 2012 annual report, released in March. Egypt made the list for the second year in a row.

Obama's support for gay marriage seen as unlikely to affect election

Catholic News Service — Fri, 25 May 2012 20:23:23 +0000

Author:

By Patricia Zapor Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Going into the third week since President Barack Obama said he has come to support same-sex marriage as a matter of civil rights, polls show the revelation has had little effect on people's voting plans.

When weighed against concerns such as the economy, very few voters are likely to make their choice for president on the basis of the candidates' positions on same-sex marriage.

Vatican bank board fires president, citing neglect of duties

Catholic News Service — Fri, 25 May 2012 20:21:43 +0000

Author:

By Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, president of the Vatican bank, was fired May 24 by the bank's board of supervisors, who censured him for neglecting his duties amid worsening management problems.

The board of the bank, formally known as the Institute for the Works of Religion, issued an unusually blunt statement through the Vatican Press Office, noting that members had repeatedly expressed concern to Gotti Tedeschi about the bank's "governance," but that the "situation has deteriorated further."

Let’s get married at Sunday Mass

Online Editor — Fri, 25 May 2012 14:44:47 +0000

If the church wants to promote marriage, what better time to have weddings than when the entire assembly is gathered for Mass?

By Scott Alessi, assistant editor of U.S. Catholic.

[Sounding Boards are one person's take on a many-sided subject and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of U.S. Catholic, its editors, or the Claretians.]

In the service: Priests in the military

goodwink — Fri, 25 May 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Article Author:

John Lasker

The U.S. armed forces are looking for a few good men-priests-to serve Catholics in uniform. But some question whether Father should rank among military officers.

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Daily Links, May 24: Mostly in the category of bad news.

Liz Lefebvre — Thu, 24 May 2012 21:14:55 +0000

Well, religious freedom seems to be the topic du jour once again. Today on our blog Meghan Murphy-Gill and Bryan Cones crticize the rhetoric being used to talk about the issue.

Increasingly on their own, women migrants face special dangers

Catholic News Service — Thu, 24 May 2012 21:05:46 +0000

Author:

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

ROME (CNS) -- Increasing numbers of women are migrating alone, a situation that makes them vulnerable to violence and exploitation, but one that often shows their courage and commitment to making a better life for their families, said speakers at a conference in Rome.

About 214 million people live outside their country of origin, and half of all migrants are women, said Miguel Diaz, U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, which sponsored a panel discussion about migration and women May 24.

Vatican publishes rules for verifying Marian apparitions

Catholic News Service — Thu, 24 May 2012 21:04:34 +0000

Author:

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- To help bishops determine the credibility of alleged Marian apparitions, the Vatican has translated and published procedural rules from 1978 that had previously been available only in Latin.

The "Norms regarding the manner of proceedings in the discernment of presumed apparitions or revelations" were approved by Pope Paul VI in 1978 and distributed to the world's bishops, but never officially published or translated into modern languages.