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Commentary and links to news of the wonderful, weird, interesting and cutting edge through the lens of our Catholic faith. Updated daily by Our Sunday Visitor staff. Email us with question or comments or link suggestions: feedback@osv.com.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
A demographic threshhold has been reached -- and one that the United States shouldn't necessarily be proud of. For the first time in U.S. history, more than one of every 100 adults is in jail or prison, according to a new report documenting America's rank as the world's No. 1 incarcerator. The Pew Center on the States reported, by using state-by-state data, that 2,319,258 Americans were in jail or prison at the start of 2008 -- one out of every 99.1 adults. Whether per capita or in raw numbers, it's more than any other nation. More info here»
Catholic News Agency
A group of Hugo Chavez supporters (Chavistas) violently took over the chancery of the Archdiocese of Caracas for several hours to stage a protest against the Catholic Church and the only standing independent TV station, Globovision. After taking control of the chancery, the 15 Chavistas read a manifesto which condemned the Catholic Church for its alleged support of the April 2002 failed coup attempt against President Chavez. More info here»
BBC
Just days after Raul Castro was sworn in as the new president, Cuba signed two legally binding human rights agreements at the United Nations in New York. The covenants - part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - commit Cuba to freedom of expression and association, and the right to travel. More info here»
Busted Halo
Catholic teens and twentysomethings place great importance on marriage but have turned away from Church-based ideas of how to make it work, according to a study released last week by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. While 82 percent of the “millennial generation” believe marriage is a lifetime commitment, only a quarter of these young adults report that their views about marriage have been formed in significant part by their faith. Indeed, only a minority think of marriage as a “vocation” or a “calling from God.” More info here>
The Washington Post
In a move seen as an attempt to improve its image ahead of the Beijing Summer Olympics, China has announced it will resume human rights dialogue with the United States. The country suspended participation in the regular U.S.-China human rights dialogue in 2004 after the United States sponsored a resolution at the U.N. Human Rights Commission urging condemnation of China's record. Chinese officials construed that move as interference in their country's affairs and a display of hostility that made further formal dialogue impossible. More info here>
FoxNews.com
Kansas City area Catholic schoolchildren will not be among the throngs lining up to see the new “Bodies Revealed” exhibition, one of many popular exhibitions touring the country that use plastinated bodies that are cut open to show how humans are put together and how they work. "The bodies of the dead deserve respect and charity, preserving the God-given dignity of the human person," local archbishops said in a statement. Therefore, area Catholic schools will not be taking field trips to the exhibit, they said. More i ...
The Houston Chronicle
The Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation, known for its fundraising races to fight breast cancer, faces increased scrutiny from Catholic dioceses for its support of Planned Parenthood. Recently, the Diocese of Little Rock, Ark., has urged its members not to donate to the foundation. The reason, Church leaders say, comes from the Dallas-based foundation giving money to Planned Parenthood — one of the country’s largest abortion providers — to hold breast exams and offer education to women in its clinics. More info here>
BBCNews
Cuba's new president, Raul Castro, has met with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone for his first diplomatic talks since taking over Sunday. Cardinal Bertone said he told the Cuban leader the Catholic Church was worried about Cuba's political prisoners, but that he hoped for better relations between the Church and Cuba. More info here>
FoxNews
A pair of Oregon teens were suspended from school for wearing a religious symbol beloved by Catholics — the crucifix. Jaime Salazar, 14, and Marco Castro, 16, were suspended from South Albany High School recently after they refused to put away the crucifixes they were wearing around their necks. Both say they received crucifixes from their mothers as gifts. Principal Chris Equinoa said religious items are not banned, but that he reserves the right to ask a student to remove, or cover up, any item he feels could indicate gang affiliation. However, an official from the Archdiocese of Portland said his office has received no reports of gangs using crucifixes or rosaries to identify themselves. The archdiocese represents Catholic churches in Oregon west of the Cascades, from the California border to the Washington border. More info here>
BBC News
The first 30,000 pages have been unveiled of a vast encyclopedia that aims to catalog every one of our planet's 1.8 million species. Creators say the database, designed to be used by lay readers along with scientists, could have an impact on human knowledge comparable to that which followed the microscope's invention in the 1600s. More info here>
The Los Angeles Times
Americans are switching religious affiliation in ever-greater numbers or abandoning ties to organized denominations altogether, and Protestants are on the cusp of becoming a minority, according to a survey released Monday. More than four in 10 adults — 44 percent — have switched religious affiliations or abandoned ties to a specific religion, according to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life survey, which provides one of the most detailed looks at U.S. religious affiliation. More info here>
The Telegraph
The Oxford laboratory that declared the Shroud of Turin to be a medieval fake 20 years ago is investigating claims that its findings were wrong. The head of the world-renowned Oxford University Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit has admitted that carbon dating tests it carried out on Christendom's most famous relic may be inaccurate. The development could reignite speculation about the linen sheet, which many believe bears the miraculous image of the crucified Christ. More info here>
The New York Times
More and more charities and philanthropies are taking a capitalist approach to doing good. The trend comes in large part from social entrepreneurs who have treated their charitable contributions more like venture capital investments. They seek programs that can be catalysts for broad changes in fields like health, education and the environment, they measure performance and results, and they encourage nonprofits to become more self-sustaining. More info here>
The Chicago Tribune
French priest Father Patrick Desbois is using his calm voice and Roman collar to shatter the silence surrounding a largely untold chapter of the Holocaust when Nazis killed 1.5 million Jews in Ukraine from 1941 to 1944. Father Desbois is on a four-city U.S. tour to raise awareness among Catholics and Jews. He told the Chicago Tribune that is goal is to raise funds to bury the dead properly and establish a monument to the victims. The priest also wants to establish a permanent record of the Ukraine killings to help prevent genocide from happening again. More info here>
The Wisconsin Journal Sentinel
Catholic radio host Father Larry Richards challenged men to deepen their faith life through prayer, Scripture reading and self-sacrifice at a Men for Christ Conference. "We need men" to follow Jesus, the host of Relevant Radio’s “Changed Forever” program said as he prodded 3,000 Catholic men at the Wisconsin State Fair Park's Expo Center to reach for heaven instead of possessions, power and pleasure.
The Economist
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s lavish funding and increasing influence in the developing world have caused resentment among other organizations and may have unintended consequences, but things would be worse if U.N. bureaucracies still dominated the field, says the Economist. More info here>
The Claremont Institute
Over the past four decades, American adults have seemed more concerned with enjoying their own existence than with the generation and welfare of children. Author F. Carolyn Graglia reviews Kay Hymowitz’s “Marriage and Caste in America” and David Blankenhorn’s “The Future of Marriage,” both of which address the consequences of this failure to attend to nature's scheme. More info here>
The Boston Globe
Irish Catholics in Chicago and elsewhere are shuffling their St. Patrick’s Day parades and parties this year because the March 17 feast day falls during Holy Week. Parade organizers in South Boston, however, are holding out, saying their parade will still take place March 16, which is Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion, the first day of Holy Week. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said liturgical celebrations of St. Patrick's Day should be held on Friday, March 14. More info here>
Despite suffering its own oppression in the second most populous country in the world, the Catholic Church has been at the forefront of making it known and seeking change for a much larger group of oppressed people in India — women. The number of abortions of girls is so high that in some areas only 400 girls are born for every 1,000 boys. According to a Chiesa news report, The Catholic Church is fighting to oppose this phenomenon and reawaken consciences, in accord with other religious confessions. More info here»
Stanford has joined several other colleges in offering free tuition to middle class students. If admitted, students from families that earn less than $100,000 a year will be eligible for the $36,000 subsidy from the university. Alhtough presently the total number of colleges offering this program is limited, some analysts believe this trend may continue. More info here»
The Middle Eastern country of Jordan has been considered one of the more progressive countries in the region, but recently eight Christians were arrested for “proselytizing.” Islam is the state religion in Jordan, though Christianity is a recognized religion in the country. More info here»
New York Daily News
The New York Catholic Conference is using a high-tech method to oppose legislation advanced by Gov. Eliot Spitzer that they charge would make abortions "virtually immune to state regulation." In the 10-minute clip posted to YouTube, Kathleen Gallagher of the conference warns that the bill would force Catholic hospitals to perform abortions and strip doctors of their medical licenses if they refuse to carry out the procedure. More info>
Reuters
Algeria's tiny Catholic community is in trouble with the authorities because of a mistaken belief that it wants to convert Muslims, the country's Catholic archbishop said today. Archbishop Henri Teissier of Algiers said increased activity by evangelical Christians in the overwhelmingly Muslim country had led to periodic "serious difficulties" for Catholics even though the Church had clearly explained it was not involved. He was commenting on the case of French priest Pierre Wallez, given a suspended one-year prison sentence last month for praying with Christians in western Algeria in a place not authorized for religious worship. More info>
MercatorNet
Keith Miller has recently published a new book on St. Peter’s Basilica, offering it as an antidote of those who view the structure merely as a tourist spot or museum. Citing French author Victor Hugo, who commented that the arrival of the printing press would silence "the eloquence of architecture," Miller sets out to prove him wrong with a fresh "reading" of this building — a place made to tell stories, the story of "the Word made flesh." More i ...
Godspy
Still not sure what you’re doing for Lent? Angelo Matero has a recommendation — nothing. Rather than being lazy, getting away from the busyness of life — especially at a retreat house or monastery — lets us still our minds and spirits to grapple with questions such as “What is the meaning of life” and “What happens when we die?” More info>
Paris is known as the city for lovers, but a new museum exhibit is taking things to a new level. The exhibit at a science and industry museum in northeast Paris attempts to respond to the questions children and teenagers ask about sexuality and romantic feeling. Inspired by a guide to sex by the popular cartoonist Zep and writer Helene Bruller, the exhibit also encourages children and their parents or teachers to shed all modesty and embarrassment about touchy topics and start talking. A parents group has objected to the exhibit, which includes a “love mural” depicting two teens in the sexual act, but it remains popular, with 100,000 visitors so far, most of them schoolchildren. More info>
Slate
Douglas Kmiec, a Catholic and former chair of Mitt Romney’s Committee on Constitution, argues in this essay that Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, with his emphasis on social justice and his rare gift of empathy, is the natural choice for the swing Catholic vote. Indeed, lately Obama has used the Catholic vote to vault to victory, including in last week’s primaries in Maryland and Virginia. More info>
Scientists at Edinburgh University in Scotland hope to mend shattered bones and damaged cartilage using a patient's own stem cells. They are developing a "bioactive scaffold" to protect the stem cells and encourage them to grow into bone or cartilage when placed in the body. The technique could also help treat osteoarthritis. More info>
ZENIT
After Kosovo declared independence over the weekend, the Holy See particularly urged Serbian and Kosovar leaders to be prudent and avoid violence. In a note published on the Vatican Radio Web site, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, responded to those who have asked about the Holy See's position on the matter. "The unilateral Kosovar declaration of independence — which is based on the recommendations contained in the plan of Martti Ahtisaari, the U.N. mediator — creates a new situation, which will naturally be followed with great attention by the Holy See, who will also have to evaluate possible requests of merit," Father Lombardi explained. More info>
The Sunday Mail
Interest in satanism and pagan practices in the Australian state of Queensland has sparked an increased demand for exorcisms. More requests for exorcism have come from the Gold Coast than anywhere else in the state. The Catholic Church in Australia is training hundreds of priests as exorcists. Bishop Brian Finnigan, acting head of the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane, said it was important for the church to carry out exorcisms. "People need to be freed of that burden," he said. More info>