(COMMENTARY) Theodore McCarrick has become the iconic figure at the heart of the latest round of Catholic clergy sex scandals. Here in America, the key will be whether bishops find ways to hold each other accountable, especially with talk increasing of a federal investigation of cover-ups linked to sexual abuse.
Read MoreThe Afghan embassy estimates there are 30,000 Afghan refugees living in Delhi today. Many Afghans in Delhi are Hindu and Sikh whose families migrated from India before Afghanistan’s independence in 1919. Many of those fled to India for religious freedom and settled in a South Delhi colony that today has temples, mosques, gurudwaras and even an unmarked, underground church.
Read MoreThe U.S. Supreme Court isn’t only the highest court in the land, its judges have the responsibility to rule on cases that have a lasting impact on American politics, culture and religion. Driving those changes going forward will be a Catholic majority of justices who have become increasingly conservative, shifting the balance of the court for years to come.
Read More(COMMENTARY) The Catholic Church’s “bad guys” aren’t women, but men accused of molesting children and teens over the last few decades. Those who were victimized were children, teens and young people – all in large part males. The solution to the Catholic Church’s ills won’t come from the clergy – certainly not if Pope Francis and others protect the likes of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick – but from the flock. And it will be women who will lead the way.
Read MoreNestled between flashy carnival games, noisy food vendors and large, sweaty crowds, the small shrine of St. Gennaro glows and quietly blends in with the party atmosphere along Mulberry Street in New York’s Little Italy
Read More(OPINION) How will the recent Vatican-Beijing development — ostensibly designed to unite the much persecuted, Vatican-loyal, underground Chinese Catholic church with the government recognized, and controlled, official Chinese Catholic church — survive should Vatican officials decide to criticize one or another Chinese human rights violation? Or does China believe that this agreement is just another Chinese attempt to control religious expression?
Read More(COMMENTARY) Historians know exactly what the Rev. Billy Graham said during the sermons that changed Louis Zamperini's life. And because of author Laura Hillenbrand's 75-plus interviews with the Olympian and World War II bombardier, millions of readers know what happened inside his heart during the altar call. This latest movie tells the rest of the “Unbroken” story that Hollywood neglected to tell before.
Read MoreNewspaper, magazine and broadcast reports attempting to explain the moves toward nationalist-tinged political populism in a host of European nations, and certainly the United States as well, have become a journalistic staple, which makes sense given the subject’s importance.
Read More(COMMENTARY) Nothing much has changed in Western reporting about Russia since 1939. A recent meeting between the Patriarchs Cyril of Moscow and Bartholomew of Constantinople over an autocephalous or independent orthodox church in Ukraine is yet another example of the fog that surrounds Russian reporting.
Read MoreClemente Lisi was a reporter for the New York Post on September 11, 2001. He is now a journalism professor teaching students who weren’t even born by that date. Lisi reflects back on covering 9/11 and the profound impact it made on him as a journalist and native New Yorker.
Read MoreSabelo Mlangeni is an award-winning photographer featured in galleries from the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts to San Francisco’s MOMA. He’s been awarded residencies from Germany to France. Featured once in The New Yorker, he was described as South Africa’s “Flâneur,” a term used to describe his ability to capture intimate moments wherever he travels. But while he is known around the world, his home is close to heart. His most recent gallery is Umlindelo Wamakhlowa (Night Vigil of the Believers) at Wits Art Museum (WAM), located at the University of Witswatersrand in Joburg. His series of photos in the exhibit document the Church of Zion and his own experience.
Read MoreA whistleblower says the Vatican – and specifically Pope Francis – was aware of immoral sexual abuse behavior years ago. When it was revealed that two Catholic journalists helped him to edit and distribute the letter making those claims, it shed a light on the increasingly polarized Catholic Church and the growth and influence of conservative news and opinion websites that oppose Pope Francis and what they believe is the pontiff’s assault on orthodoxy.
Read MoreAustralia has a new prime minister, which is certainly news. The new prime minister, Scott Morrison, is an outspoken, politically conservative Pentecostal Christian. This mixing of religion and politics may be old-hat at this point for Americans. But it's an entirely new experience for Australians.
Read More(COMMENTARY) In recent decades, LDS leaders have made several attempts – prior to the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah, for example – to distance themselves from the M-word. Now, the church's president has made another appeal for journalists, and everyone else, to avoid "Mormon" when referring to members of his church. To be blunt, he said he's on a mission from God.
Read More(COMMENTARY) The flight from reporting to opinion and advocacy journalism is on full display in the first day reports from the British secular press of the Viganò affair. Like their American counterparts, leading mainstream news outlets are portraying the revelations of coverup and abuse in political left/right terms.
Read MoreActivists and the survivors of India’s worst anti-Christian violence in modern times say that a decade later, the government has failed to provide justice through compensation or convictions, and instead, sentenced seven innocent men to life imprisonment.
Read More(COMMENTARY) It wasn't a normal Sunday in Catholic pulpits across America, as priests faced flocks touched by sorrow and rage after a sickening grand-jury report packed with X-rated details about decades of sexual abuse by clergy.
Read MoreThe Kenyan media is fighting back against politicians who are determined to restrict them from exposing corrupt deals. This comes after President Uhuru Kenyatta approached the church seeking divine intervention and comfort after he lost friends who were unhappy with his stance against theft of public land.
Read MoreThe last thing an America bishop wanted to see was a letter from the relentless A.W. Richard Sipe, who spent more than a half-century studying the sexual secrets of Catholic clergy. As a psychotherapist, his research files included hundreds of thousands of pages of church reports and court testimony. As a former Benedictine monk and priest, his private files included notes from years of work at the Seton Psychiatric Institute in Baltimore, where he counseled legions of troubled priests sent there by bishops.
Read MoreSince the premiere of Sacha Baron Cohen’s Who is America?, many people have compared the British provocateur comedian to American conservative political activist James O’Keefe of Project Veritas. Their tactics are similar. Both don false identities and provoke subjects to say or do unsavory things on camera and both violate standard journalism ethics.
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