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Pontifications

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So…my recent vacation and related absences also coincided with an offer from PoliticsDaily.com to cover religion for them, as editor Melinda Henneberger announces here in her roundup on the site’s very successful first 100 days.  That means, in short, that I’ll have to sign off from blogging here at Beliefnet after nearly a year and…

If you thought you knew John Calvin–who turned 500 last week–you probably don’t know enough. For example, that he was French, born Jean Cauvin. And if he was in fact scandalized by dancing, he was also a lot more complex than that. I explored the new look Calvin in an essay at PoliticsDaily, “Patron Saint…

 In my defense, I’ve had computer outages and family reunions and a few days of single-parenthood, which is always a bracing reminder of what many parents go through all the time. And this weekend it’s off for a week’s vacation. Anyway, hence the long absence. Apologies to those who have checked in faithfully, and I’ll…

The first word via Vatican Radio and first image (that I saw) via Rocco: Speaking to Vatican Radio, Press Office Director Fr. Federico Lombardi said “moral values in international politics, immigration and the Catholic Church’s contribution in developing countries” were key topics of discussion between the pope and the president. In addition, Fr. Lombardi said the…

Yes, this photo of Obama ostensibly eyeing a young woman (apparently a 17-year-old delegate from Brazil–where are her parents?!) at the G-8 Summit is the hottest Google search item. And of course the question of what Obama was thinking is a leading Fox News story. So it goes, even as the leaders try to address such minor…

The meeting between the spiritual and political leaders is on shortly. Which one is spiritual, which political? Obama has invoked Jesus more than Bush did, at this point. And with his pointed encyclical on the economy this week, Benedict ruffled some political feathers. But the meeting at the Vatican this afternoon is fraught for Catholic conservatives…

It is a good question, and an honest question that many may wonder about, both inside and outside the Catholic orbit. I wince at the “social” qualifier,” but Joe Carter, a Baptist, poses the questions well at the First Things blog: If you had asked me as a young Baptist boy to explain the difference…

The president today nominated Dr. Francis S. Collins as head of the National Institutes of Health. Uh-oh: There are two basic objections to Dr. Collins. The first is his very public embrace of religion. He wrote a book called “The Language of God,” and he has given many talks and interviews in which he described…

Parody is hard, but over at Vox Nova, Morning’s Minion nails it with this “fabulous” version of George Weigel’s red-pencil deconstruction of the encyclical. A taste: Justice and Peace was angry. Very angry. Skulking in the darkest corners of the Vatican, they plotted their revenge. With an evil cackle, they hatched their malicious plots. And…
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