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To understand this papacy, forget Rome — head to Lampedusa…
ROME – There are certain place names so associated with a particular chapter in history that merely mentioning them conjures up a truckload of associations and emotions. Such is “Gettysburg,” “Dunkirk,” “Robben Island,” even “Woodstock” – and, increasingly, such is “Lampedusa,” as we mark the seventh anniversary of one of the briefest and yet most paradigmatic papal trips of all time. Catholic nerds undoubtedly will be delighted to know that Lampedusa, by now so inextricably linked to Pope Francis’s relentless efforts to promote good works, is actually one of three “Pelagian Islands” considered part of the Italian region of Sicily. However, the name is not a reference to the heretical fourth century monk who taught that human beings can achieve salvation through their own efforts, but rath...
The Parable of the Sower shows just what a great risk Jesus took, and how much depends on us…
By Tom Hoopes, July 9, 2020 This Sunday, the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A, Jesus tells the Parable of the Sower, one of those Gospel stories that we feel like we know. After all, Jesus himself explains the parable in the long form of the Gospel — meaning that to interpret it in any other way is foolhardy. But the application of the parable is another matter. The Parable of the Sower shows just what a great risk Jesus took, and how much depends on us. There are several startling facts about the Parable of the Sower when you stop to think about them. A large crowd gathers around him and he begins, “A sower went out to sow, and as he sowed, some seed fell on the path … Some fell on rocky ground … Some fell among thorns.” I don’t know what ancient farmers were like, but farmers in ...
Istanbul’s iconic Hagia Sophia can be turned back into mosque, court rules…
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ordered the conversion of one of the world’s most treasured cultural sites into a Muslim house of worship, potentially sharpening the rift between the Ankara government and Europe. Mr Erdogan signed a decree transferring the 6th-century Hagia Sophia, which had been a museum for nearly 90 years, to the Diyanet, the country’s highest religious authority. In a speech, later Mr Erdogan announced that all entrance fees for the facility would be removed and that a grand reopening of the facility to welcome both worshippers and tourists in two weeks. “We will be allowing all to enter Hagia Sophia and the doors will be open to everyone, local and international, Muslim nd non-Muslim,” he said. “When they visit they will have a chance to ...
False paths to Paradise…
Early in the Book of Genesis we read about a great flood wiping out humanity (sparing only Noah, his three sons, and their wives) and then about people building a great city and high tower until God confounds their efforts. These two inspired tales hold important lessons for every society in history, including our’s today. When God saw how wicked the human race was he decided to pour down judgment on the earth and start over. So he told Noah, the best of men, to build an ark for his family to survive. Once the floodwaters had receded, “God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth.” This was to be Eden anew. But when Noah drank wine to excess and became drunk he was somehow violated by his son while laying naked inside his tent. The flood was me...
Why Catholic voters in four states could again decide the presidential election…
Sign up for our weekly email newsletter to never miss a story. Religion Unplugged is a non-profit online religion magazine funded by The Media Project. Our journalists around the world bring you the latest religion news and views on the world’s religions in public life. Through our stories and editorial partnerships, we aim to increase religious literacy and go deeper into stories that affect people of faith the most.
Notre Dame Cathedral’s spire will be restored to 19th-century design, French President Macron announces…
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The cathedral caught fire in April 2019 The spire of Notre Dame cathedral, which was destroyed in a fire last April, will be restored according to the original Gothic design. French President Emmanuel Macron announced the decision, putting an end to speculation that the spire would be rebuilt in a modern style. Mr Macron had previously hinted he was in favour of a “contemporary gesture”. However he has said he wants the restoration to be completed by 2024, when Paris is hosting the Olympics. The Elysée said Mr Macron’s main concern was “not delaying the reconstruction and making it complicated – things had to be cleared up quickly”. Rescue on hold for fragile Notre Dame in Paris Work starts to remove melted Notr...
Dogma liberates and relativism enslaves. Here’s why…..
Rusty Reno’s recent book Return of the Strong Gods opened my eyes to some of the reasons why relativism has gained such a foothold in Western society. He shows how, after the second world war, a group of thinkers, philosophers, economists, political strategists, literary figures and theologians all began to believe that the wars that tore apart Europe for the last five hundred years were the fault of dogma. I can see why they thought that. Beginning with the wars of religion after the Protestant Revolution, Europe was torn asunder time and again because of opposing beliefs. Often it was religious beliefs, but then it became political, economic and social. If dogma caused division, strife and eventually war, then let’s get rid of dogma. “Can’t we just get along?” This trend ...
Robert George: Stand up to the woke bullying in America…
July 9, 2020 “People have forgotten that bullies are cowards,” said Prof. Robert George, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University and author of books and of articles, including “Solzhenitsyn’s Prophecy.” “We need outspokenness. It’s the power of the word, not the force of arms, that will win this battle. But if people are too afraid, too frightened, too intimidated, too bullied to speak out against the bully — to stand up and defy the bully when the bully says, ‘Oh, you’re not allowed to say that,’ or the bully says, ‘Oh, you must say this, you must give me your loyalty oath’ — until somebody stands up, until we gather ourselves and stand up to the bullies, this bullying is going to continue. Bu...
Joe Biden says if elected, he’ll end contraception exemption for Little Sisters of the Poor…
CNA Staff, Jul 9, 2020 / 10:30 am MT (CNA).- Former vice president Joe Biden pledged on Wednesday to reinstate Obama-era policies that would require the Little Sisters of the Poor to ensure access to birth control and abortifacients for employees in violation of their religious beliefs. Biden, who is the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, made the promise July 8, following the Supreme Court decision in favor of the Little Sisters of the Poor in the case Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania, which upheld an exemption for the sisters from the “contraception mandate” which obliges employers to provide for contraceptive coverage for employees through their health care plans. “If I am elected I will restore the Obama-Biden policy that existed before the [Supreme Court’s 2...
We need Julia Greeley — a former slave in Missouri, and now a saint in the making…
Almost exactly 100 years ago, on the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1918, a woman, a former slave, died in Denver. This apostle of the Sacred Heart, spreading devotion across the city, was the first lay Catholic to lie in state as hundreds visited her body to honor her works of charity. Friends had to help bury her, because she had given away her burial plot to a poor man. This woman is now on her way to becoming a canonized saint, with the first steps of the process complete and sent to the Vatican. I hope you know already her, but, if you don’t, it’s a good time to meet Servant of God Julia Greeley! She is now buried in the Cathedral so that we can venerate her relics. Julia has a compelling and deeply moving story. Born a slave in Missouri, she lost her vision in one eye when her...
The Next Pope and the Great Commission…
In The Shoes of the Fisherman, crusty old Cardinal Leone, canvassing votes for a surprise candidate just before the election of a new pope, is deeply moved by a quiet admonition from a Syrian cardinal named Rahamani: “Always you search a man for the one necessary gift – the gift of cooperation with God. Even among good men this gift is rare. Most of us, you see, spend our lives trying to bend ourselves to the will of God, and even then we have often to be bent by a violent grace. The others, the rare ones, commit themselves, as if by an instinctive act, to be tools in the hands of the Maker.” For some reason, I thought of Cardinal Rahamani while I was writing The Next Pope: The Office of Peter and a Church in Mission, which has just been published by Ignatius Press. So perhaps the fictiona...
Supreme Court delivers two important victories for religious freedom…
U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. (Shutterstock) COMMENTARY: The opinion in the Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania is more about administrative procedure than about the substance of religious freedom. The opinion in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, however, goes straight to the heart of the religious freedom of religious institutions. Editor’s Note: Helen Alvaré will be interviewed this evening on EWTN News Nightly at 6pm Eastern to discuss these two important cases impacting Catholic schools and institutions. The Supreme Court today handed Catholic institutions two big wins signaling more freedom to decide both about their employees and their operations. The opinion in the Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania is more about administr...
