We've moved!

The Religion News Service blog has moved.

Please point to your browser to: http://www.religionnews.com/index.php?/rnsblog.

Additionally, you can add our RSS feeds to your feedreader:

RSS 2.0: http://www.religionnews.com/index.php?/rnsblog/rss_2.0

Atom: http://www.religionnews.com/index.php?/rnsblog/atom

Play Ball!

Pope ends U.S. trip with Yankee Stadium Mass

RNS' Daniel Burke covers the Pope's final Mass of his US trip, held at Yankee stadium, in this week's full text article, linked above.

Quote:

As in previous addresses during his visit, Benedict's homily tackled a number of themes, including the place of religion in the public square, the need for young men in the priesthood, the dangers of relativism and "the false gospels of freedom and happiness." He made a passing reference to the sexual abuse scandal, but not with the depth of previous days.

Presbyterian Property Dispute Settled

We blogged earlier this year about how a Presbyterian Church in the Pittsburgh area had been in a property dispute after it chose to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA) and align with the more conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Well, Memorial Park Presbyterian Church has announced that it has reached a settlement with the Presbyterian Church's Pittsburgh Presbytery and agreed to pay $575,000 to move on. As the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports, this means the church gets to maintain its property despite leaving the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Tancredo & Dobbs versus the Pope

What did they expect from a foreigner in charge of the world's biggest multinational?

The "Unchurched" Like Traditional Church Buildings

People who haven't darkened the door of a church, mosque or synagogue in the last six months prefer churches that look like a medieval cathedral over more contemporary buildings, an online survey by LifeWay Research finds.

The survey, conducted for a group of facilities development firms, was based on respondents looking at four photos of church exteriors and saying which they preferred.

“While multi-use space is the most efficient, we need to ask,`Are there ways to dress up that big rectangular box in ways that would be more appealing to the unchurched?’’’ said Jim Couchenour, director of marketing for Cogun Inc., a founding member of the Cornerstone Knowledge Network.

Ed Stetzer, LifeWay Research’s director, said he was surprised by the survey results. “We expected they’d choose the more contemporary options, but they were clearly more drawn to the aesthetics of the Gothic building than the run-of-the-mill, modern church building.’’

Adieu to His Eminence?

The pope had barely taken off from JFK airport when speculation started to mount that one of his first official acts upon landing in Rome would be to send New York's Cardinal Edward Egan into retirement.

It seems to fair to say that Egan will probably be out sooner rather than later, but not quite that fast. Some had even speculated that an appointment could come Tuesday, since that's when the Vatican typically announces such things.

Egan had said he wanted to stick around for the conclusion of the 200th birthday of the New York Archdiocese, which officially wrapped up with the pope's visit this past weekend. He's also already reached the mandatory retirement age of 75, so he could go at any time. This pope hasn't seemed to share John Paul's willingness to let cardinals serve until age 80 -- just look how quickly he retired Theodore McCarrick in Washington, just barely past his 75th.

And it's been no secret that while Egan has enjoyed the prominence of the pulpit at St. Patrick's, he's not been universally loved by his New York flock. The word "aloof" comes to mind, perhaps even haughty.

Initial speculation, as repeated by The Times, has centered on Archbishop Tim Dolan from Milwaukee, Auxiliary Bishop Henry J. Mansell of Hartford (an auxiliary bishop in New York under the late great Cardinal John J. O’Connor); and Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez Nieves of Puerto Rico. There's also been some chatter about Auxiliary Bishop Gerald Walsh from within New York, but my money's on Dolan, who has the larger-than-life media presence that would make an excellent fit for the Big Apple.

Renewing Colbert's Faith in His Faith

Our pal Jim Martin sat down with Steven Colbert last night to assess the pope's first trip to America. Jim's secret confession: when Benedict strolled out on the balcony after his election, Jim wanted to jump off his own balcony in desperation. But like many American Catholics, Jim has warmed to the new pope.

About that modern music: Would Benedict approve?

Among the locales Pope Benedict's limousine passed Saturday evening on Manhattan's Upper East Side was the Park Avenue Armory, a large 1881 building whose Drill Hall, reminiscent of a huge, cavernous European train shed, is slowly being turned into a performing arts space.

As it turns out, a concert of sacred music by the great 20th century master Igor Stravinsky was on tap and the performance by the Gotham City Orchestra and the Vox Vocal Ensemble was delayed a few minutes to allow concertgoers outside the chance to watch the pope and his large police escort go by. (The concert organizers also presumably wanted the police sirens and helicopters out of the way before the performance began.)

Outside, it was something of a typical New York scene: one older woman shook her head at seeing the surrounding blocked off streets and kvetched about "how much this is all going to cost." Meanwhile, two hirsute gay men, one in leather pants, greeted each other with a kiss on the lips.

In short, this wasn't exactly Benedict's crowd.

Or maybe it was. Benedict is known to love classical music, though it's not known if the musical tastes of the pope, an accomplished pianist who unwinds by playing Mozart, extend to the moderns, including the music of Stravinsky, best known for his riotous 1913 ballet, The Rite of Spring, a depiction of pagan Russia. As it turns out, in early middle age Stravinsky returned to the Russian Orthodox faith of his youth, though the text of his sacred music – including the Symphony of Psalms, the Mass and the Requiem Canticles, all performed Saturday evening – were in Latin.

As the program notes pointed out, most of Stravinsky's sacred music "would be for the church of the ear, designed to address matters of praise, penance, and mortality without regard to any ecclesiastical authority." Hmmm….

Then there's the matter of sound: if the music of Benedict's beloved Mozart and the other German-Austrian masters sound like the musical equivalent of well-burnished wood, Stravinsky's astringent and biting harmonies are the musical equivalent of angular, glimmering steel.

Even so, as the last chords of Stravinsky's Mass slowly drifted away to the words "Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem" (O Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world, grant us thy peace), the audience was transfixed, momentarily forgetting that it was listening to sacred music in a peculiarly non-sacred space.

Would Benedict have approved? Call it a draw. Maybe.

"You Rock!"

As more than one commentator has pointed out, Pope Benedict – German intellectual, scholar and theologian -- may never match his charismatic predecessor's claim on public affection. However, that may be changing, at least in the city hosting the pope this weekend.

The New York Post, that bell-weather of New York tabloid coverage, today features a full, front-page cover photo of a smiling Benedict being warmly greeted by long-time interfaith advocate Rabbi Arthur Schneier at the Park East Synagogue, with the headline "Shalom: Pope's Passover greeting" emblazoned on the page.

Inside, a story on the Manhattan crowds greeting the pope on Friday contain quotes from by-standers saying that Benedict is the "closest thing to God," and "the most recognizable, and most beautiful person, in the world." (!) One sign greeting the pope proclaimed: "You Rock!" Today on a subway train I saw a young Spanish-speaking woman wearing a colorful t-shirt with Benedict's visage done up in a colorful pop-art style.

An amazing public makeover for the man born Joseph Alois Ratzinger.

Was the pope talking about Darfur?

Pope Benedict did not venture into the minefield of specifics –- and more to the point, specific nations -- when he spoke Friday at the United Nations about human rights and their violators. None of us can be sure which countries the pope had in mind when he spoke about “the principle of the responsibility to protect” – a topic that has been much discussed in recent years in human rights and humanitarian circles. However, to anyone who has followed, say, the long and often sad story of the international community’s slow, laggardly response to the situation in Darfur, the pope’s remarks bear scrutiny.

After stating a clear and defining principle that every state “has the primary duty to protect its own population from grave and sustained violations of human rights, as well as from the consequences of humanitarian crises, whether natural or man-made,” Benedict went on to say that if states “are unable to guarantee such protection, the international community must intervene with the juridical means provided in the United Nations Charter and in other international instruments.”

Any action, the pope argued, so long as it “respects the principles the underlie international order, should never be interpreted as an unwarranted imposition or a limitation of sovereignty.” He concluded: “On the contrary, it is indifference or failure to intervene that do the real damage.”

In short, the international community has a legally sanctioned duty to do something in the face of, say, acts of gross human rights violations (read: genocide) and that the duty to protect can override what have long been thought to be the impenetrable walls of state sovereignty. Of course what that “something” (action) might look like -- military intervention? "peace-keeping"? -- wasn’t clear, though Benedict went on to say that humanity needs to do more in finding “ways of pre-empting and managing conflicts by exploring every possible diplomatic avenue, and giving attention and encouragement to even the faintest sign of dialogue or desire for reconciliation.”

A reference to Darfur? Iraq? Iran? Rwanda? Tibet? Colombia? Afghanistan? We can’t be sure. But it was nice to hear one of the world’s most prominent religious leaders remind the UN of the international responsibility to protect those victimized by gross acts of violence, often state-sanctioned.

Fort Worth Pastor Takes New Job After Gay Debate

The Rev. Brett Younger, the embattled pastor of the Fort Worth, Texas, church that debated how to picture gay members in its photo directory, has accepted a new job. Younger, pastor of Broadway Baptist Church, will join the faculty of Mercer University's McAfee School of Theology in Atlanta as an associate professor of preaching.

While "delighted" to join that faculty, Younger said in a statement: "I'm also sad at leaving Broadway. The church has taught me so much about following Christ, and it is one of my hopes in this new ministry I can teach young people to lead their congregations to be as faithful as Broadway has been."

The church opted not to feature gay members in any family photos but also took a vote about whether Younger should remain pastor. The March vote to retain him was 499 to 237, but The Dallas Morning News reported that opponents issued a statement after the vote that declared, "300 members have or want to leave because of the turmoil."

Of headlines and assistant principals

New York City's tabloid media, which always love a mega-event, are already enjoying Benedict's visit; today's New York Post features a story about a taxi cab with a faulty transmission that caused it to go up in flames Thursday in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral, giving "cops a big-time security scare" and a Post caption writer the chance to pen this groan-inducing headline: "Hell On Wheels."

Meanwhile, Benedict is winning accolades for meeting the sexual abuse scandals head-on, though he still has a bit of an image problem when compared with his predecessor. In a column that appeared today in AM New York, Ellis Henican writes: "Clearly, Benedict XVI is not a cuddly pope. He doesn't have the charisma or the common touch that his beloved predecessor, John Paul II, was so famous for. If JP2 hadn't been pope, he'd have probably been a movie star."

"If Benedict weren't pope, he might have ended up a university professor or the assistant principal for discipline at a Catholic high school. 'Detention!' he'd be growling at some miscreant sophomore. No, you don't get nicknamed 'God's Rottweiler' for no reason at all. But give this pope his props, as he finally reaches the large stage of New York. His message isn't all finger-wagging and doctrinal purity."

Henican goes on to praise the pope for his Thursday meeting with sexual abuse survivors.

For the full column, see: http://www.amny.com/news/opinion/am-ellis0418,0,3595244.story

Oh, those were the days...

Flipping through the memoirs of the late foreign correspondent Edward Behr reveals the media crush with popes was once a little more intimate. Behr describes a memorable moment when a photographer colleague, George Menager, covered Pope Paul VI's 1969 visit to the Holy Land. Because of the complexities of crowd control, the pope and Menager, Behr recalled, found themselves "isolated from the crowd and the rest of the press corps, (and) eyed each other warily. Finally, the pope said, in his fluent but heavily accented French, 'What an interesting life you must lead." Menager stared back and grunted, 'You haven't done so badly yourself.' "

A Closet Catholic?

NEWS ANALYSIS: Is George Bush leading America's first truly Catholic presidency?


RNS' Daniel Burke's news analysis looks at how some argue that the Bush presidency may be the most Catholic-centric in American history, in this week's full-text article, linked above.


Quote:

The 2005 West Wing meeting was just one indicator of how a Methodist president has surrounded himself with Roman Catholic intellectuals, speechwriters, professors, priests, bishops and politicians. These Catholics -- and thus Catholic social teaching -- have for the past eight years been shaping Bush's speeches, policies and legacy to a degree perhaps unprecedented in U.S. history.

Awesome Speech!

The successor to St. Peter meets the successor to, um, whatever.

America magazine has this clip of President Bush chatting to Pope Benedict XVI after his White House address: "Thank you, your Holiness. Awesome speech!"

Personally, I thought it was more gnarly than awesome, perhaps even a bit groovy.

The Pope Must Not Be Hungry

The White House is hosting a dinner in honor of Pope Benedict XVI tonight, but Benedict won't be there. Maybe he's not much of an eater.

But all five Catholic Supreme Court justices will be, according to the AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) _ All five Roman Catholic justices on the Supreme Court are on the guest list for Wednesday night's splashy White House dinner in honor of Pope Benedict XVI.

Benedict won't be there but about 250 guests will attend. The pope will be at a prayer service with U.S. bishops.

The guests include former Los Angeles Dodgers baseball manager Tommy Lasorda, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader John Boehner, Carl Anderson, supreme knight and chief executive officer, Knights of Columbus, Ken Hackett, president, Catholic Relief Services, George Weigel, author of a biography of Pope John Paul II, and more than 20 members of the clergy from around the country.
From the Supreme Court, the guests are Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas.

The menu: morel-encrusted diver scallops, spatzle, angel hair asparagus bisque, veal, white truffle-potato dumplings, carrots and mushrooms, lettuces and candied pumpkin seeds, squash carpaccio, pumpkin oil vinaigrette, raspberry crisp and mint coulis.


AP Exchange

The Pope's Pimped-out Ride

Newsweek got a sneak peek at the Popemobile, the modified Mercedes SUV that Benedict will use on his travels around DC and New York.

The car has no markings, except for the Mercedes logo on the front, the Vatican coat of arms on each door and a specialized license plate that reads "SCV 1," an acronym for the Vatican's name in Italian and the number of the Holy Father's place in the church hierarchy. It's by far the fanciest and sleekest papal car ever built

The 4th Estate and the Vicar of Christ

A piece by feminist theologian Mary Hunt that just wandered into my in-box struck me as a little bit of shoot-the-messenger when what she really is trying to do is slap down the message.

Hunt's piece takes aim at the media for our obsession with the pope's trip, and she argues that we're all missing the point.

We learn more from the press about the pope’s red Prada shoes and designer sunglasses than about his criticism of the Iraq war. This time around in Washington, D.C., and New York City we hear about the “Pope-soap-on-a-rope” but not the people who work in Catholic schools for low wages. We see tee shirts for papal teddy bears, but no hint of the impact of the Vatican’s policy banning the use of condoms even for those who are HIV-infected.

She goes on, arguing that the media fawn over the pope and pay no attention to the fact that (her words, not mine) the Vatican City State is "in the opinion of many people ... as secretive, punitive and dismissive of human rights as some dictatorships."

She also complains that the church's feminist and pro-gay left wing gets no coverage:

Protests and press conferences, women-led liturgies and other educational events take place before the man arrives with the hope that the press, looking for filler until the visit begins, might attend to them. By the time the papal masses and ceremonial meetings begin, the voices of dissent are long since forgotten by those who might offer more substantive coverage.

She finishes up with this overly broad swipe at the media:

If the U.S. press cannot handle its responsibilities with regard to Catholicism — which is so well known to many of them — how can we expect them to be helpful in reporting on Judaism, Islam, the Baha’i faith, Wicca, or any number of other groups that form the pluralistic religious mosaic in the United States today? No reporter or anchor could be expected to be an expert on the ins and outs of such groups. But as a matter of journalistic practice I think it is
reasonable to train reporters to look at more than meets the eye on religion, just as they are taught to investigate plane crashes and court cases.

I think she has a point that the pope and his entourage tend to suck the oxygen out of the room when they sweep into town, but I think she's way off base when she says the media can't be trusted to cover religion generally when they do such a shoddy job of covering Catholicism specifically.

Favorability Rankings of U.S. Religious Groups

Gallup has some interesting new numbers on Americans' views of various religious groups. The headline, of course, was about Catholics, pegged to the pope's visit, but all of these figures strike me as somewhat interesting

(The "Net Positive" figure is the overall feel-good rating of each group, subtracting the negatives from the positive views. Works out OK for most everyone, except the ususal supsects: Mormons, Muslims, atheists and Scientologists. Tom Cruise, looks like you've got some work cut out for you.

Total positive / Neutral Total / Negative / Net positive

Methodists 49 / 47 / 4 / +45
Jews 46 / 48 / 4 / +42
Baptists 45 / 44 / 10 / +35
Catholics 45 / 41 / 13 / +32
Evangelicals 39 / 36 / 23 / +16
Fundamentalists 35 / 36 / 25 / +10
Mormons 24 / 48 / 26 / -2
Muslims 17 / 48 / 34 / -17
Atheists 13 / 41 / 45 / -32
Scientologists 7 / 37 / 52 / -45

Desperate (Presbyterian) Housewives

And who ever said there's no religion on Wisteria Lane?

Last night's episode of Desperate Housewives was one of the more overt discussions of religion in prime time that I've seen in a while. Here's the rundown, courtesy of TV Guide:

You gotta have faith: When a Scavo twin announces that Jesus is "the guy who helps Santa Claus," Lynette (Felicity Huffman) – who loves "that new Bible smell" -- decides it's time for the Scavos to get some religion. She has survived both cancer and a tornado when others have not, and she has some capital-Q Questions. She turns to Bree (Marcia Cross) for spiritual guidance, who advises against Catholicism's kneeling and genuflecting ("I go for worship, not a workout").

So off to the Presbyterian Church they go, where an overzealous Lynette turns the starchy service into a hilarious Q&A session that includes the word "dumbass." Lynette's behavior makes Bree clutch her pearls, since she believes it will jeopardize her chances of heading up the church's ladies' auxiliary.Bree coolly advises Lynette to switch to a more interactive house of worship ("If you really enjoy talking back to the pulpit, why don't you try that Gospel church by the airport?"), so the Scavos skulk on over to Casa Catholic, creating a temporary rift between the church buddies. Ultimately, though, the friends share a touching rapprochement, in which Bree apologizes for, um, being Bree and Lynette renews her faith in their friendship.

Sure, it's fluffy and a little vacuous in its theology, but it does prompt interesting questions nonetheless. Why do people go to church at all, and what do they find once they get there?

The Hymns We Sing

The votes are in and the United Methodists have decided on their favorite hymns.

In the United Methodist Hymnal, the top three favorites are "Amazing Grace," "Here I Am, Lord" and "How Great Thou Art."

In "The Faith We Sing," a supplement to the hymnal published in 2000, the top favorites are "The Summons," "I’ll Fly Away," and "As the Deer."

The findings, announced Friday by the United Methodist General Board of Discipleship, were based on 19,091 responses to a series of six online surveys of pastors, lay people, musicians and worship leaders.

Other findings:

- 75 percent would like to have healing services in the hymnal.
- 43 percent would like more praise choruses; 34 percent would not.
- 70 percent are comfortable with male-only language for God; 25 percent are comfortable with female language for God; 42 percent are comfortable using female or male language for God.
- 70 percent prefer using a songbook or hymnal; 28 percent prefer to sing lyrics on a screen.

George W. Bush: Closet Catholic?

For several weeks, our own Dan Burke has been chipping away at a story about George Bush's not-so-secret affinity for all things Catholic.

An early version ran on Sunday in The Washington Post. A longer version will hit the RNS wire today.

The story is already generating significant chatter.

"American Idol" Gets Religious - Sort of

"American Idol" waded into religious waters – at least partway – Wednesday night when the eight finalists on Fox’s reality TV show closed out the "Idol Gives Back" fundraiser singing "Shout to the Lord," a contemporary Christian worship song by Darlene Zschech.

As RealityTVmagazine.com pointed out, the move could be considered controversial in at least two ways:

1. Singing a Christian song might be offensive to non-Christians.
2. Singing a Christian song and changing the words “My Jesus, My Savior’’ to “My Shepherd, My Savior” might be offensive to Christians.

The singing of the Christian song followed a previous night of “American Idol” that had an "inspirational" theme that included more feel-good songs than religious ones.

Cogito Ergo Summum

Little-known Summum faith headed to Supreme Court

Jessica Ravitz profiles the Summum faith, which may provide a freedom of religion test for the Supreme Court, in this week's full text RNS article, linked above.

Quote:

Summum, a Latin term meaning "the sum total of all creation," is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which will hear a case involving Summum's request to display its own monument beside the Ten Commandments in a park in Pleasant Grove, Utah. That monument, if erected, would include Summum's seven guiding principles.

This Week's Sign of the Apocalypse

In this week's sign of the apocalypse (to borrow a gimmick from Sports Illustrated) Catholic League honcho Bill Donohue has announced that he agrees with Sen. Clinton.

That is, he too, thinks that Prez Bush should boycott the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games to protest China's crackdown on religious liberty.

"Senator Clinton gets it just right when she urges President Bush to boycott the opening ceremony, saying ‘Americans will stand strong in support of freedom of religion and political expression and human rights.’" says Donohue.

Reminds me of the line from that old chestnut "Ghostbusters,." as Dr. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) describes the impending apocalypse.

"Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, MASS HYSTERIA!"

Bungling the Bobblehead Ad

The subway system in Washington, DC, has pulled a YouTube ad that features a pope bobblehead doll riding the subway to the April 17 papal Mass at Nationals Stadium in Washington.

Apparently, it wasn't the bobblehead that offended, but what the bobblehead was wearing, according to The Washington Post.

Our concern is that this was a bad bobblehead," said Susan Gibbs, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Washington. "You had unauthorized merchandise, and you had a misdressed pope."

The bobblehead in the Metro video wears a red skull cap, known as a zucchetto, and a red cape. "Popes don't wear red skull caps," and they don't wear red capes, only white ones, Gibbs said.

And they say this pope isn't the clothes horse everyone thinks he is ...

Now, I know better than to tangle with Susan Gibbs (she's actually a good friend), and I agree that the bobblehead makers have the zucchetto all wrong, but Benedict has revived the red mozetta, or cape, since Day 1 of his election.

Getting Wright Right

For those of us who came of age when liberation theology was in the air -- in my case, during reporting trips to Latin America, Asia and Africa in the 1980s, followed by time at Union Theological Seminary in the early 1990s -- it's been startling to see all of the coverage of a theological trend that was supposed to be a spent force and a throwback to an earlier era.

I'm referring, of course, to all of the attention paid in the last few weeks to liberation theology, particularly to black liberation theology, in the wake of the Jeremiah Wright controversy.

Kelefa Sanneh had a good piece in last week's New Yorker magazine that put the brouhaha in much-needed context. I particularly liked Sanneh's handling of what he called the central "paradox at the heart of black Christianity: the new religion of enslaved Africans was also the old religion of the American enslavers."

Sanneh pointed out that even so a revered a figure (today) as Frederick Douglass said there was the "widest possible difference" between what Douglass called "the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ." As Sanneh aptly described it, if Douglass were alive today his comments would be "rendered into cable-news crawl: "CONTROVERSIAL MEMOIRIST ATTACKS RELIGION. DOUGLASS: AMERICAN VALUES ‘WICKED.’ "

A footnote: A conservative evangelical friend who kids me about Union and its liberal ways shrugged his shoulders when I asked him last week what he thought of the Wright matter. He said anyone with a sense of American church history recognizes Wright as part of a tradition.

Maybe so. But I'm not sure we've heard the last about Jeremiah Wright in this heated election year.

Robertson and Sharpton: Something They Agree On

You almost have to see it to believe it. As part of an upcoming ad campaign, environmental activist and former vice president Al Gore has succeeded in getting religious broadcaster Pat Robertson and the Rev. Al Sharpton to speak about their agreement on caring about the environment.

A clip of the ad from a "60 Minutes" segment, shown on huffingtonpost.com, reveals the two men sitting on a couch on the beach acknowledging that this is something they agree on. Almost affectionately, Sharpton calls Robertson "Rev. Pat."

On CBNNews.com, Robertson said he was honored to be asked by Gore to take part in the campaign: "I have always supported clean air, clean water and the reduction of acid rain. It's just common sense that we ought to be good stewards of the environment and do everything within our power to protect this fragile planet that we all live on."

Pope on a Rope

Those crazy kids over at Beliefnet have compiled a gallery of kitschy must-haves for the pope's upcoming U.S. visit. There's the pope on a rope, talking John Paul II doll (OK, I admit, I already have that one) and the "I Love My German Shepherd" mugs.

Jacqui Salmon over at the Washington Post has also surveyed the papal merchandise scene (at least for the DC leg of the trip) and says there's good to stuff to be had at the National Shrine gift shop. Needless to say, I'm headed over there on Saturday to scoop up some goodies before the hordes descend.

Coming soon

The Vatican today released Pope Benedict's video greeting to Americans, a few days before his visit to the United States. You can read the text here. (The video is not up on the Vatican site yet, but look for it soon on YouTube.)

Sitting at his desk in his private library, under a panel painting of the Madonna and Child, Benedict reads his brief text in heavily accented English. His pronunciation of the Spanish greeting at the end is much better. Must be all those years of speaking Italian in the Vatican.

John Paul II started the practice of sending advance video greetings to the nations he was about to visit, but according the pope's spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi, this is the first time that Benedict has taped one specifically for a papal trip. (Maybe because he knows Americans are all glued either to the tube or the Internet.)

Who Keeps the Keys?

Time magazine's ever-on-top-of-things David Van Biema has a helpful explainer on Friday's ruling in the Virginia Episcopal Church property lawsuit.

(In case you missed it, a Virginia judge ruled that a Civil War-ear statute applies in the case involving 10 breakaway churches. The statute essentially says that when a church is split, the majority gets to keep the property. The Episcopal Church obviously disagrees, saying the property belongs to the national church, not the local parish.)

As a sizeable minority of conservative congregations leaves Episcopalianism, the struggle over who gets hundreds of millions of dollars of church property is becoming more and more intense. Passions range so high that the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts-Schori, the head of the
national Episcopal body, in effect indicated during discovery in the Virginia case that she would rather see the churches sold and deconsecrated for secular purposes than passed on to the departing congregations.

Summer 2008 Church Convention Preview

Click to Play

The Methodists, Presbyterians, Anglicans/Episcopalians and US Catholic Bishops all meet this Summer.  Religion News Service editor Kevin Eckstrom discusses what to expect from each meeting, and what the key issues may be.

Church Leaders Support Trinity UCC

Leaders of the National Council of Churches and the United Church of Christ held a news conference Thursday at the now-famous Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago to defend the congregation, its former pastor Jeremiah Wright and its denomination from what they view as distorted media reports.

"In recent weeks, I have seen the UCC occasionally portrayed as some kind of radical sect," said the Rev. Michael Kinnamon, the NCC's general secretary, who stood with UCC President John H. Thomas and the Rev. Otis Moss III, Trinity's current pastor. "This, of course, is nonsense."

He declared that Trinity, whose most famous member is Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama, and the UCC "are not fringe groups" but instead are "part of the wider Christian community."

Thomas added that he is calling for the pastors of his denomination to observe May 18 as a day to address the subject of race from their pulpits.

Yoffie to Hagee: Thanks But No Thanks

A quick follow-up to our story about Jewish qualms about working with Christian Zionists like John Hagee. A few weeks back Omar Sacirbey reported about Jewish "uneasiness" with prominent evangelicals like Hagee, who are some of the most vocal supporters of Israel but a) resist a permanent two-state solution with Palestinians and b) think that Jews will either convert or perish at the Second Coming.

(It's no small matter to note that Hagee's endorsement of John McCain has recently caused the presumptive GOP nominee a case of heartburn.)

Rabbi Eric Yoffie, head of the Union for Reform Judaism (America's largest Jewish movement), has always taken a dim view of Hagee's crowd, but now lays it all out on the table, calling Hagee an "extremist" who should be persona non grata in Jewish circles.

Yoffie, president of the liberal Union for Reform Judaism, said Hagee and his group, Christians United For Israel, reject any Israeli land concessions to achieve peace with the Palestinians.

Reform Judaism supports creating a Palestinian state; Hagee sees a biblical mandate for the territory so End Times prophecy can be fulfilled.

Yoffie also condemned Hagee's views on Roman Catholicism and Islam. The San Antonio pastor has suggested that Catholic anti-Semitism shaped Adolf Hitler, among other comments. Hagee has vehemently denied he is anti-Catholic and said his remarks have been mischaracterized.

When the Reverend Comes Marching Home

For chaplains back from Iraq, a focus on the mundane

RNS' Adelle M. Banks explores the difficulties military chaplains encounter in transitioning to "normal" religious life after returning from Iraq, in this week's full text article, linked above.

Quote:

For military chaplains back from Iraq, the transition to ordinary ministry can be challenging.

They return from the horrors of war to answer questions about flowers and carpet in the sanctuaries they had left behind. Some rejoin their congregations, while others start new ones or move on to nonministerial positions.

Evangelical Leaders Just Say No To Endorsements

The latest survey of board members of the National Association of Evangelicals shows that they overwhelmingly stay away from telling worshippers how to vote.

When asked the question "Does your church advise parishioners who to vote for?", almost all the leaders answered "No!" – and most with an exclamation point.

"Most survey questions produce a broad range of responses from evangelical leaders but this time was different," said NAE President Leith Anderson. "Only one person answered yes."

Respondents said their churches distribute voter guides detailing candidates’ positions on political and moral matters.

Covering the Pope

Click to Play

Religion News Service editor Kevin Eckstrom discusses several of the key issues surrounding Pope Benedict XVI's upcoming visit to the United States, and outlines RNS' plans for covering the trip.

Dobson: "I Will Certainly Vote"

Focus on the Family Founder James Dobson - speaking as a private citizen - has announced that he will enter the ballot box this fall but he’s not disclosing the specifics of his voting plans.

"Let me just say that I will certainly vote, Sean," he told Sean Hannity on Fox News Channel's "Hannity’s America" on Sunday. "I think we have a God-given responsibility to vote, and there are all of the candidates and the issues down the ballot that we have an obligation to weigh in on and let our voices be heard."

Dobson supported former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee in January on the day fellow GOP candidate Mitt Romney ended his campaign. He had previously said he would not support remaining GOP candidate John McCain.