Blog Profile / Blogging Religiously
| URL : | http://religion.lohudblogs.com | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | Religion | |
| Posts on Regator: | 1181 | |
| Posts / Week: | 4.6 | |
| Archived Since: | June 6, 2008 | |
Blog Post Archive
Signing off
I guess it’s obvious from my lack of posts so far this year that I am no longer blogging religiously. But I wanted to officially sign off and say thanks for reading. I wrote 2,383 posts over several years and enjoyed doing it. I’m too busy covering education these days to give this blog anywhere [...]
What was the biggest religion story of ’11?
Happy Hanukkah. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. My old friends at the Religion Newswriters Association just voted for the top 10 religon news stories of the year. I miss participating in the vote. I used to take it very seriously, shifting around my top stories until I came up with a solid top 10 (or [...]
A new chapter for Reform Judaism (starring Scarsdale’s Rick Jacobs)
The Union for Reform Judaism—the largest Jewish “denomination” in the U.S.—opened its big Biennial conference today in Washington, D.C. 6,000 delegates. Five days. President Obama to speak. Big stuff. To top it off, Rabbi Eric Yoffie will end his 16-year tenure as president. He will be replaced by none other than Rabbi Rick Jacobs (that’s [...]
Wanted: A few good chaplains
I got two interesting releases today about the need for military chaplains. First I got a mass email from Father James Joslyn, a retired Navy captain and chaplain, explaining that there aren’t enough Catholic priests these days to fill the needs of the military services. So the Archdiocese for Military Services is actively recruiting “contract [...]
The new Catholic Mass translation: A bit like Y2K?
Catholics who attended Mass yesterday were introduced to a new translation of the liturgy that was in the works for many years. My colleague Robert Marchant wrote about the much-anticipated changes: “Some of the changes will alter the most familiar call-and-responses of the service. The greeting “The Lord be with you / And also [...]
The next Episcopal bishop of New York is, among other things, a cartoonist
I’ve been too busy with massive education projects and way-complicated education stories of late to think about my old God-beat. So time to do a little catch-up: The Episcopal Diocese of New York on Saturday elected a bishop-coadjutor elect. This means that the fellow in question, the Rev. Canon Andrew Dietsche, is in line to [...]
Former Methodist bishop of N.Y. Ernest Lyght to retire
When I started covering religion, way back when, one of the first stories I wrote was a profile of Bishop Ernest Lyght, then the head of the New York Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. The truth is that I was trying to get the lay of the land—to figure out who was who—and [...]
Say goodbye to parish schools and hello to regionalization
When I was still on the beat, I wrote quite a few articles about the Archdiocese of New York’s plans to “regionalize” Catholic schools. The idea was to end the old one parish/one school model and have all parishes—including those without their own school—take on administrative and financial responsibility for the schools in their region. [...]
Maintaining Catholic identity a hot topic
Some may remember John Dilulio as the one-time head of President Bush’s Faith-Based and Community Initiatives office who resigned early on and criticized the president to Esquire magazine. It was way back in August 2001, before 9/11 even. Dilulio is now a political scientist based at the University of Pennsylvania. He writes a lot about [...]
Maryknoll on Father Bourgeois: Some agree, some do not
I mentioned the other day that Maryknoll’s Father Roy Bourgeois has been in the news again of late—taking his call for the ordination of women right to the Vatican. I also wrote that he has a lot of support at Ossining-based Maryknoll, the generally liberal Catholic foreign missions society. Turns out that Maryknoll has released [...]
Another catch-up on the news…
I’ve been too busy to blog of late. I’ll try to write more, but it’s all about finding the time. Catching up on a few things: 1. Father Roy Bourgeois, the Maryknoll priest who faces dismissal from the order because of his support for women’s ordination, is not going quietly. He led a march to [...]
Does Occupy Wall Street have religious dimensions?
As the Occupy Wall Street movement morphs from a fad to a story with legs to a…what exactly is it?...religious voices are weighing in on where God stands. Tom Beaudoin, a Fordham theologian, writes for the blog of the Jesuit magazine America about taking part in the protests. He wonders if Catholics could apply the [...]
Keeping up with Archbishop O’Brien
A friend made me realize today that I never mentioned a significant story with local ties: the reassignment in late summer of Archbishop Edwin O’Brien from Baltimore to a Vatican post. As I’ve written many times in the past, O’Brien grew up in Bedford and graduated from St. Mary’s High School in Katonah, which evolved [...]
Steve Jobs the spiritual man
I’m somewhat surprised by the overwhelming reaction to the death of Steve Jobs. I knew he was a technological giant. But I guess I didn’t grasp the extent to which he is considered a visionary and something of a national hero. Among the many reactions I’ve seen today are some interesting ones from religious perspectives. [...]
What does the Jewish year mean, anyway?
Tomorrow at sundown begins Rosh Hashanah and the Jewish year 5772. Five years ago, I wrote an article about the meaning of the Jewish calendar. Officially, it’s 5,772 years since creation. But we all know that all Jews do not believe the same things about such things. I wrote at the time: “The Jewish calendar [...]
No easy peace on gay marriage or the Middle East
Catching up with a few things after—during—a very busy week. (I’ve been reviewing hundreds of state education reports. You don’t want to know.) 1. So Archbishop Dolan is fighting mad at the Obama administration over gay marriage. It’s not just that the administration will not defend the Defense of Marriage Act, but how the administration [...]
Priests for Life’s Father Pavone looking for new church home
There’s been tremendous interest this week in the fate of Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life. As I wrote a few days ago, the bishop of Amarillo, Texas, has called Pavone away from PFL—questioning both the organization’s finances and Pavone’s obedience. Today, PFL released a letter from the vicar of clergy in Amarillo stating [...]
Father Frank Pavone suspended from Priests for Life by his bishop
Last year, I wrote something of a profile of Father Frank Pavone, the head of Priests for Life and one of the main anti-abortion leaders in the country. He grew up in Port Chester, so I had long wanted to write something about his upbringing and how he became the Culture Warrior that he is [...]
10 years
I heard so many people say in recent days that they did not want to read or hear anything else about 9/11. It’s understandable. The media saturation point was reached days before the actual anniversary, it seemed. And yet, so much of what took place Sunday was truly moving. I didn’t work yesterday, but I [...]
How to mark the 10th anniversary of 9/11
We are days away from the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and the media coverage is swelling each day. I didn’t think that I would want to read tons of remembrances, analyses and essays. After all, what is left to say? But I can’t stop reading the stuff. New York magazine’s “Encyclopedia of 9/11”—available on-line—is particularly [...]