Religion app guides Catholics in confession

Maureen Dowd's humorously titled editorial "Forgive me, Father, for I have linked" describes an iPhone/Pad app that guides the observant through a list of transgressions that can then be noted for later confession to a real priest.

The app is for real, and even has an imprimateur from Bishop Kevin Rhoades of the Diocese of Fort Wayne in Indiana.

From the beginning of time: New Lost explores interesting questions

I just finished watching this week's Lost (thanks, TiVo!), and found that for an entertainment medium, the presentation of theological questions was very interesting.

For discussion:

How were themes of good vs. evil, free will and absolution examined in this episode?

What was the portrayal of the Roman Catholic church like?

In case you didn't see or record it, it should be on Hulu eventually.

Catholic newspaper reports that church knew of abuses for years

An investigative piece in the National Catholic Reporter suggests that Catholic Church officials were warned about pedophile priests as early as the 1950s.

The lengthy article tells the story of Father Gerald Fitzgerald, the head of the Servants of the Paracletes, a religious order that was dedicated to rehabilitating priest offenders. Fitzgerald, for many years, sought to purchase an island to provide the rehabilitation while protecting society from the priests.

Links to original letters and a breakdown of financial damage to the church are included.

Feature illuminates value of religious coming-of-age stories

Here in Texas, seeing a limo driving around on a Saturday afternoon generally means a quinceañera celebration is in progress. I had a chance recently to talk with a Latina friend about what the church service and subsequent ball mean in the life of teenagers.

Then I saw this charming feature in the New York Times over the weekend about 90+-year-old women celebrating a bat mitzvah that they weren't able to have during the Depression.

The story starts with the social issues of girls not getting recognition because of their gender during tight economic times, but moves to the religious significance in the lives of the women, by quoting them about the subject of the speech they offered after the reading from the Torah.

Taking the Saint out of Patrick's Day

According to this story from my local paper, there is a movement afoot to remove Saint Patrick from the March 17 holiday.

This is in order to not be offensive to non-religious people who still want to enjoy the parades, green beer and other trimmings of the holiday, which is reminiscent of the issues people had with retailers wishing a Merry Christmas, rather than happy holidays or the even less committal Season's Greetings.

Religion blogger Terry Mattingly pointed to the article in his Get Religion blog, gaining several comments about whether the scope of the idea was really newsworthy.

New archibishop for New York

With the mandatory retirement of Cardinal Edward Egan, the Vatican has named Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan, from Milwaukee, to head the diocese of New York.

You can read details that focus on the history of Dolan here in the LA Times. A story with more analysis of the state of the Catholic Church in New York is found in the New York Times.

Science blog discusses religion and science

As Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday drew government attention and headlines, 200th of Charles Darwin also drew some media attention.

Scienceblogs is a compendium of blogs from a variety of scientists on a variety of topics, some of which are more personal than research focused.

I was interested in this post by Isis the Scientist, one of the regular bloggers. The author writes on the fit between her Catholic faith and her life as a researcher in a well-read post that generated 125 comments. In contrast, the US News blog link above drew 11 as of this time of this writing.

For discussion: How are blog entries like this similar to news accounts? News blogs? I-Reports? What kind of impact do they have on the public understanding and discussion? What does this imply for news? For PR?

Indulgences are back, Times reports

This article, the most popular in today's on-line New York Times is interesting for it's explanation of theological issues.

The article discusses the availability of indulgences for Catholics and how it is becoming somewhat more prevalent in the church.

The indulgence is a tricky concept for a publication to get across to a variety of readers who include, as the article notes, those who vaguely remember that Martin Luther was against them - a fact pulled up from the recollections of high school history.

But I thought this explanation worked well:

"The indulgence is among the less noticed and less disputed traditions to be restored. But with a thousand-year history and volumes of church law devoted to its intricacies, it is one of the most complicated to explain.

According to church teaching, even after sinners are absolved in the confessional and say their Our Fathers or Hail Marys as penance, they still face punishment after death, in Purgatory, before they can enter heaven. In exchange for certain prayers, devotions or pilgrimages in special years, a Catholic can receive an indulgence, which reduces or erases that punishment instantly, with no formal ceremony or sacrament.

There are partial indulgences, which reduce purgatorial time by a certain number of days or years, and plenary indulgences, which eliminate all of it, until another sin is committed. You can get one for yourself, or for someone who is dead. You cannot buy one — the church outlawed the sale of indulgences in 1567 — but charitable contributions, combined with other acts, can help you earn one. There is a limit of one plenary indulgence per sinner per day."

Catholics Insulted by Mexican Playboy Cover

This piece on CNN yesterday highlights a controversy in Mexico over a Playboy Magazine cover depicting a scantily dressed woman wearing a veil, posing in front of a stained glass window, with the words in Spanish "Te adoremus, Maria." The model on the cover is María Florencia Onori, and the magazine's publisher asserts that the piece, released on the the Virgin of Guadalupe's feast day, is not supposed to depict Mary, the mother of Jesus.

The CNN story is an interview with Miami priest and radio host Father Albert Cutie, and, accoding to Cutie, Catholics aren't buying it. The cover is both offensive and blasphemous, Cutie says.

The story does a nice job of explicating the role of culture in the understanding of religion, explaining to non-Latino viewers the meanings that images and the words would have.

Poor economy packs pews

According to this story in today's New York Times, tough economic times mean an increase in attendance at Christian churches, most specifically evangelical ones.

The article, which states "Many ministers have for the moment jettisoned standard sermons on marriage and the Beatitudes to preach instead about the theological meaning of the downturn," goes on to discuss a study that suggests that evangelical movements and churches flourish in uncertain times, a view that religion historians downplay.

The end of the article explores why mainline Protestant and Catholic churches have not seem attendance increases on the level of evangelical ones.

The article didn't mention if adherents of other faiths are flocking to their services as well, which could be an important element of balance in the story.

Abortion activists change tactics

This front-page story in the Washington Post describes a schism in the pro-life movement, with some pastors and conservative activists shifting focus from trying to overturn Roe v Wade to trying to reduce abortions by providing more services to pregnant women.

The article is particularly enlightening about the rift forming in the Catholic church between church authorities, who are staunchly pro-life and lay groups that are seeing other options to reduce abortions in America.

Priest asks parishoners to repent for votes for Obama

Father Jay Scott Newman, a Roman Catholic Priest, is in the news after he asked his congregants who voted for Obama to repent of their choice to support a pro-choice candidate before the parishoners took communion again.

The head of the state's diocese rebuked the action, stating that the church recognizes freedom of conscience.

Beauty contest for nuns

If you thought becoming a nun was perhaps one of the only areas where your physical appearance didn't make much difference, think again. A priest wants to hold an Internet beauty contest for nuns, reports Milan's Corriere della Sera, via BBC. They would submit their photos, and viewers would judge their physical, though not their spiritual, gifts.

Religious commentary leads to calls to decertify DNC bloggers

Catholic League President Bill Donohue is calling for the DNC to not allow bloggers from homosexual blog Towleroad and feminist blog Bitch, Phd. to cover the convention as media, saying that both sites have denigrated Catholicism.

In the case of Towleroad, this post calls into question Pope Benedict XVI's choice to wear ermine. On Bitch, Phd, a post comments on this site's depiction of Jesus in hot air and sculpture balloon forms.

Donohue asks the DNC to cut the bloggers because "Neither functions as a responsible media outlet and both offend Catholics, as well as others."

There are lots of issues for discussion here including what a "responsible media outlet" is, free speech and whether bloggers are responsible for things written in the comments.

Crowd-sourcing used for Pope coverage

The visit of Pope Benedict XVI has had a plethora of media coverage, rendering it, to date, one of the biggest religion stories of the year, in a year with many stories with a religion angle. The New York Times, in addition to its reporter coverage, has an extensive blog with entries from experts on religion and Catholicism, as well as from readers. The participatory nature of the blog leads to a variety of topics from Catholic education, to relationships with Jews to the Pope's fashion sense.

I found the latter fascinating, but needed to check here to see the meanings of some of the words.

Marketing sought to help bolster priest ranks

As the Pope's arrival makes headlines in the U.S. , the New York Times has a thoughtful piece on the precipitous decline in seminarians in New York City.

In Houston, I have seen billboards advertising that young men who choose the priesthood "You will fight the forces of evil. You will not wear a cape," which is another example of the church using modern marketing techniques to reach prospective priests.

This was a good topic of discussion in my classes today, as we looked at the positive and negative roles that PR has played for the church over the last few years.

Faith healing highlighted in CNN piece

This video on CNN covers a story out of Wausau, Wisc., where parents who are not affiliated with a recognized denomination are accused of offering only prayer as a remedy to their daughter's diabetic coma, resulting in her death.

Compare CNN's Nancy Grace's level of objectivity in the story with that shown by the local newspaper here.

Euthanasia case stories mention religion, but only in an oblique way

A high-profile Euthanasia case in France made it to a lead story on CNN.com this morning.

What is interesting in this story is the use of religion, that assumes the reader has a lot of background knowledge. The second sentence mentions that France is a "nominally Roman Catholic country," but never goes on to say why that might matter in this case. The penultimate one quotes a Jesuit, but besides identifying him as one, does not state why he would be an authority on this matter.

What elements of religious context could make this story better?

Stories with religion link plentiful today

Today was a big day for stories with a religion link, both domestic and abroad.

Leading things off is the threat from the Dalai Lama to resign from his political role as head of the Tibetan government in exile if the violent protests over Tibet worsen. The article eventually makes clear that it is only the political role that he is speaking about, but the short space for most web headlines simply says he will resign. Hope readers click through and read down on that one.

Then, there is coverage of candidate Barack Obama's planned speech today trying to put the comments of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor, "into context." This article from ABC news carries a good amount of context including the use of rhetoric in the black church. There wasn't much on the social gospel orientation of the United Church of Christ, which might also play a role. As one of the sources in the story says, this speech should be quite a challenge for the candidate.

Finally, yesterday was Saint Patrick's Day, which apparently U.S. President George Bush celebrated by receiving shamrocks from and discussing Northern Ireland with Irish leader Bertie Ahern (story here. Some cities ate the green eggs and drank the green libations early this year in order to honor Holy Week for Christians, which started Sunday.

Way of the cross shows syncretism in Sri Lanka

Paola Banchero's column in the latest RMIG newsletter reminded me that while Christianity and to a lesser extent Judiasm and Islam have gotten a lot of attention from RMIG papers and discussions, other world religions have not.

Today, I saw this article in the English-language Tamil Star about a lenten Stations of the Cross observance designed to appeal to Tamil residents in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The article is interesting in the way it depicts the syncretic beliefs between the Hindu and Catholic traditions as well as in the quotations chosen from the area's parish priests.