The news being reported by the media these days about the violence and stupidities that have been committed in Spain in past years forces us to think (once again) about the danger that religion can be. A danger for peace, for politics, for society and for the coexistence of citizens, etc.
‘From each according to ability; to each according to need’: the socialist ideal has biblical roots.
As riot police moved in to break up a demonstration in Minsk on August 26 to push demands for the ouster of longtime authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka [in Belarusian; in Russian, Lukashenko – ed.] following his disputed reelection, protesters scrambled.
Seemingly everyone has an opinion on masks: when to wear them, how to wear them, which ones are best and even whether we should be wearing them at all.
In the 2020 US presidential election, Democrats and Republicans are appealing to Roman Catholics more than ever before. This election is pivotal for a country that has the prospect of four more years of President Donald Trump or a new Democratic president in Joe Biden.
As a professor of medieval Europe, I’ve taught the bubonic plague, and how it contributed to the English Peasant Revolt of 1381. Now that America is experiencing widespread unrest in the midst of its own pandemic, I see some interesting similarities to the 14th-century uprising.
Since the inception of human history, patriarchal ideology has driven human behavior in ways that are very detrimental to human relations and to the entire community of creation.
COVID-19 lockdowns have yielded dramatic scenes of natural recovery: smog disappearing from the skies of India, waterways of Italy becoming clear for the first time in memory, wild mountain goats roaming the streets of Wales, sea turtles returning to the beaches of Brazil.
Religious tourism is among the oldest forms of planned travel and to this day remains a huge industry.
The outbreak of COVID-19 initially looked like a gift to autocrats around the world. What better pretext for a state of emergency than a pandemic?
White evangelical support for Donald Trump has long puzzled observers. To many, it seems hypocritical that Christians who have long touted “family values” could rally around a thrice-married man who was accused by several women of sexual assault.
The Bishops of the United States are inviting the faithful of the nation to participate in a day of prayer and fasting against racism this August 28 or alternatively on September 9, the feast of St Peter Claver.
On Saturday, 22 August, the President of the Jewish community in Graz, Austria, Elie Rosen, was attacked on the premises of the synagogue.
The memorial to victims of Nazism and Stalinism cuts right to the heart of the tiny Catholic Church in Estonia.
Extractivist processes in Latin America and the Caribbean continue a process of dispossession dating back to the 15th century, Pax Christi has denounced.
“Too many people are leaving church with a clear conscience”, Spanish theologian José María Castillo has lamented.
Multiple studies have shown that masks reduce the transmission of virus-loaded droplets from people with COVID-19.
The motto is new and marks a turning point in the Catholic world: “12 women. 12 places. 12 sermons.” The Catholic Women’s Association of Germany (kfd) has proclaimed May 17th the nationwide Women Preachers’ Day.
Ever since the reversion of Hagia Sophia back into a mosque, the Muslim call to prayer has been resounding from its minarets.
Fifteen leading organizations headed by “progressive feminist Catholics” have issued an Open Letter to Catholic Voters and All Voters for Justice, calling on voters to “stem the tide of injustice and usher in a new era of equality.”
Racism is a deep-seated vice, one that is ingrained in humans at a very early age and is generational. Power, social and economic structures benefit from and perpetuate inequity in order to confer unmerited privileges to a select few.
This is a continuing reflection on The Paradox of Religious Patriarchy and the Golden Rule to focus on the absurdities of patriarchal gender ideology, the travesty of denying to Christ any chance of calling women to the ministerial priesthood in today’s world, and the social and ecological repercussions.
Belief in the virgin birth comes from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Their birth stories are different, but both present Mary as a virgin when she became pregnant with Jesus. Mary and Joseph begin their sexual relationship following Jesus’ birth, and so Jesus has brothers and sisters.
A strong sign for Christian ecumenism: the Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria, Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, and the Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx were awarded the 2020 Augsburg Peace Prize for their “unconditional will to live together in peace”.
Many major religious pilgrimages have been canceled or curtailed in an effort to contain the spread of COVID-19.
COVID-19 mask mandates do not violate the First Amendment’s protections for freedom of religion, speech, assembly and association.