Catholic newspaper reports that church knew of abuses for years

An investigative piece in the National Catholic Reporter suggests that Catholic Church officials were warned about pedophile priests as early as the 1950s.

The lengthy article tells the story of Father Gerald Fitzgerald, the head of the Servants of the Paracletes, a religious order that was dedicated to rehabilitating priest offenders. Fitzgerald, for many years, sought to purchase an island to provide the rehabilitation while protecting society from the priests.

Links to original letters and a breakdown of financial damage to the church are included.

Oliphant cartoon draws outrage

Several Jewish groups have objected to a recent cartoon by Pulitzer Prize winner Pat Oliphant that shows a headless soldier pushing a fanged Star of David towards a small woman labeled Gaza.

I thought it was interesting that when there were controversial cartoons depicting Muhammed that offended Muslims, most media chose not to re-run the cartoons along with news stories about reaction. However, it was pretty easy to find a copy of the Oliphant cartoon in stories about reaction.

Feature illuminates value of religious coming-of-age stories

Here in Texas, seeing a limo driving around on a Saturday afternoon generally means a quinceañera celebration is in progress. I had a chance recently to talk with a Latina friend about what the church service and subsequent ball mean in the life of teenagers.

Then I saw this charming feature in the New York Times over the weekend about 90+-year-old women celebrating a bat mitzvah that they weren't able to have during the Depression.

The story starts with the social issues of girls not getting recognition because of their gender during tight economic times, but moves to the religious significance in the lives of the women, by quoting them about the subject of the speech they offered after the reading from the Torah.

Pope's visit includes reaffirmation of condom ban

When Pope Benedict XVI made his first trip to Africa as pontiff, the lead on the story was his reaffirming that for Catholics, condom use is wrong. IN addition to the story on CNN, the next day brought < A HREF="http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/18/martin.condoms/index.html?iref=newssearch"> this commentary, criticizing the Pope's approach.

It was interesting to see the division across nations in the opinion on the Pope's words, with England, Australia and the U.S. media criticizing the Pope's call for abstinence as unrealistic in the face of the AIDS crisis in African countries.

Taking the Saint out of Patrick's Day

According to this story from my local paper, there is a movement afoot to remove Saint Patrick from the March 17 holiday.

This is in order to not be offensive to non-religious people who still want to enjoy the parades, green beer and other trimmings of the holiday, which is reminiscent of the issues people had with retailers wishing a Merry Christmas, rather than happy holidays or the even less committal Season's Greetings.

Religion blogger Terry Mattingly pointed to the article in his Get Religion blog, gaining several comments about whether the scope of the idea was really newsworthy.

Sharia adopted as peacemaking measure in Somalia

Another country has agreed with rebel groups to institute Sharia, or Islamic law, in order to gain a cease-fire.

Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed announced today that he has approved the installation of Sharia Law, a move that will have to be ratified by the nation's parliament.

Stories about the move were pretty similar from the BBC and from Al Jazeera, although the latter focused more on the political aspect, while the BBC focused more on the violence.

Somalia has been cited by Christian rights groups for incidents where professions Christians and Christian converts have been beheaded.

New archibishop for New York

With the mandatory retirement of Cardinal Edward Egan, the Vatican has named Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan, from Milwaukee, to head the diocese of New York.

You can read details that focus on the history of Dolan here in the LA Times. A story with more analysis of the state of the Catholic Church in New York is found in the New York Times.

Viewer reports detail experience of wearing religious clothing

This series of iReports from CNN has first-person accounts from members of various religions explaining the meaning of clothing they wear and the reactions that they get. Perspectives include Muslim, Sikh and Orthodox Jew.

The unedited candor of the presentations is compelling.

Westboro pastor, daughter banned from Britain

The BBC has this story about Fred Phelps and his daughter being banned from entering Great Britain, where they intended to protest at a play depicting the death of a gay youth.

The source commenting on the theology of the Westboro Baptist Church, known for villified protests at funerals for U.S. Servicemebers, is the principal of the school where the play is to be presented, which was an interesting choice.

Phelps' daughter has claimed that other church members will be secretly entering the country to carry out the protests.

Story localizes Pakistani political issue

I thought this story in the New York Times was an interesting attempt to localize the issues in Pakistan's Swat region to New York.

It tells the story of Pakistani immigrants living in the U.S. who are finding that their families back in Pakistan are facing increased scrutiny and sometimes violence from Taliban sources who are convinced that the immigrants are U.S. sympathizers and the family members are spies.