Florida has a knack for turning family dysfunction into national spectacle. Ten years ago it gave us the Elian Gonzalez mess; five years later came the Terri Schiavo debacle
Rifqa Bary: A Florida Culture War Over Runaway Convert
Tag Archives: congregation
A Hard-Line Sequel to the Case of the Pregnant Nine-Year Old
The Catholic Church were presented with a public relations powder keg last March when news broke that a nine-year-old Brazilian girl underwent an abortion after she’d been raped and impregnated with twins by her stepfather. Catholics from Sao Paolo to Paris were outraged after the swift public declaration by the local archbishop, Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, that the girl’s family, as well as the doctors who performed the abortion, were automatically excommunicated. Monsignor Rino Fisichella, a solidly traditionalist Rome prelate considered close to Benedict, tried to soften the Church’s approach on the Brazilian case by writing in the Vatican’s official newspaper L’Osservatore Romano that the girl “should have been defended, hugged and held tenderly to help her feel that we were all on her side.” Two weeks ago, the Vatican announced that Sobrinho, who had been serving past retirement, was stepping down
The Newburgh 4: "These Guys Picked the Wrong Town to Mess With"
It will be days, possibly weeks, before we know all the details of how the attempted Riverdale, New York, bombing was foiled, but counterterrorism experts say it’s already clear where the plotters made their first mistake: they picked targets in New York City. Since the devastating attacks on Sept
The Heartthrob from the Vatican
When Pope Benedict XVI touches down for his first papal visit in the United States next week, you may notice that he doesn’t have the same onstage flair as his predecessor, John Paul II. But you may also begin to notice a very handsome man of the cloth never far from the pontiff’s side. That would be Monsignor Georg Gänswein, the Pope’s personal secretary, responsible for everything from deciding who gets to see Benedict, to keeping His Holiness on schedule, to discreetly handing him his papal reading glasses just before a homily or other public discourse
Twittering in Church, With the Pastor’s Encouragement
John Voelz isn’t trying to brag, but it’s fair to say he was down with Twitter before most people knew it was a proper noun. Last year, Voelz, a pastor, was tweeting at a conference outside Nashville about ways to make the church experience more creative — ways to “make it not suck” — when suddenly it hit him: Twitter.
Church hero didn’t know he’d been stabbed
Keith Melton is one of two churchgoers who tackled a man charged with killing pastor Fred Winters while he was preaching at the First Baptist Church in Maryville, Illinois, on Sunday. Investigators have charged Terry J. Sedlacek, 27, with first-degree murder in the killing.
A Former Nun’s Memoirs Rock India’s Catholic Church
After 26 years as a nun, Jesme Raphael gave up her robes and walked out of the Congregation of the Mother of Carmel, the Catholic order in Kerala, India, that had been her home for three decades.
Terminally-ill reality TV star Jade Goody marries
British reality TV star Jade Goody married Sunday after being told by doctors last week that her cancer is terminal, UK media have reported. Goody, 27 tied the knot with boyfriend Jack Tweed, 21, in Hatfield Heath, Essex, east of London, UK media report. After the ceremony Max Clifford, the couple’s publicist, told waiting reporters that there had been “lots of tears and smiles and laughter” and that the congregation gave the newlyweds a standing ovation after the signing of the register