Religious News, 5/28/08
I’m still chuckling about St. Joseph’s record number of comments from Kim Wallis’s recent post. I’m a cradle Catholic and didn’t know about this custom until I was somewhere in my forties! Go figure.
For your perusal I’m offering today nine of the ninety-two links sent out in today’s Morning Edition, a daily news service we provide for Catholic leaders:
1.) Bishop Joseph Nauman, originally from St. Louis and now in Kansas City, Kansas, has been making news lately. He wrote in his most recent column,
“My May 9 column, making public my request to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius not to present herself for reception of holy Communion until she had sought to repair the public scandal of her long-standing support for legalized abortion, not surprisingly has initiated quite a bit of discussion in secular newspapers, local talk radio shows and coffee-break conversations…..” Read the full column here.
2.) The UK Telegraph newspaper online tells us this morning that
“Sister Mary Berry, who has died aged 90, was the modern champion of plainchant, which was withering away outside monastic communities when she founded her Schola Gregoriana in 1975.
In the decade that followed the Second Vatican Council, a wave of pedestrian singing was sweeping away the liturgical tradition that stretched back to Pope Gregory I in the late sixth century.Sister Mary, a nun and a Cambridge don, decided to act. Having gathered a disparate collection of Catholic and Anglican novice singers, choirmasters and organists, she was turned down by several colleges and churches until she was allowed to use St John’s College chapel for one performance…..” Read the full story here.
3.) The AAP tells us that
Australian “Catholic Cardinal George Pell says he has no objection to Islamic schools.
Commenting on the rejection of an Islamic school in south-western Sydney by the local council, the Archbishop of Sydney said Muslims deserved a fair go.
Camden Council last night voted unanimously against a proposal to construct an Islamic school for 1200 students, citing various issues including traffic problems…..” Read the full story here.
4.) We learn from the Telegraph again, this time a blog, that 3,000 Iraqis become Roman Catholics. This is of interest because we know many, many Iraqi Christians have fled the country. Read the full story here.
5.) We learn from the Pew Forum that Nearly a third of Chinese public considers religion to be important in their lives. Read more here.
6.) Citizenlink provides us with an update on Christopher West, a Catholic who explains the Catholic Church’s theology of the body to all who will listen:
“Christopher West has taken his message of biblical sexuality to four continents, nine countries and 150 U.S. cities.” Read the full story here.
7.) Zenit News Service informs us a new book has just been published:
“Neonatal Pain: Suffering, Pain and the Risk of Brain Damage in the Fetus and Unborn”. Read more here.
8.) Life News tells us that
(LifeNews.com) — The number of abortions in Scotland has risen for the third straight year despite a heavy push for women to use the morning after pill. Abortion advocates claimed selling the Plan B drug over the counter would reduce abortion rates, but the new figures reveal the number of abortions rising again….. Read the full story here.
9.) LifeSite News follows up on a story that raises questions about organ donations:
a Virginia family who was shocked but relieved when their mother, Val Thomas, woke up after doctors said she was dead. 59 year-old Mrs. Thomas, while being kept breathing artificially, had no detectable brain waves for more than 17 hours. The family were discussing organ donation options for their mother when she suddenly woke up and started speaking to nurses….. Read the story here.
Sherry Tyree, 66, a graduate of John Burroughs School and Washington University, is a founding member (1984) and Vice President of Women for Faith & Family, a national Catholic women's organization that supports and defends traditional church teachings. Sherry is married to Dr. Donald A. Tyree, professor emeritus, School of Business, St. Louis University. 
So, Christians, who told you to join an organized religion (1 Corinthians 1:10-17)? Tell me - you who follow Christ - who did Jesus baptize? Who did he marry? Was the “Last Supper” the Eucharist or Communion or was it an allegorical presentation of how living things like wheat and grapes become bread and wine and then part of the living God in our temples, the living body of Christ?
Most of us did not really join a Christian religion but were born into it and became accustomed to it through friends and family. Joining the church was almost automatic because we were well indoctrinated by our disparate denominations. But, to follow Jesus, requires a dynamic commitment to love and truth – endeavors organized religion cannot use for political leverage.
Jesus said “you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church” (Matthew 16:17-19) and Catholics use this passage and apostolic succession to prove “church” applies to the Roman Catholic religion. But Jesus also said, to the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, “salvation comes from the Jews” (John 4:22). So, since following Jesus is our faith and, presumably, we all want salvation, would we not all better off being Jews in our walk with Christ? I wonder how many Jews there are in the Roman Catholic church?
With marriage becoming more civil than religious and communion becoming more political, would not we all be better off, as Christians, just to follow Christ - with love and truth – and value less organized religion?