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As the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandal continues to escalate, Madison Catholic Bishop Robert Morlino has aligned himself publicly with some of the church’s most outspoken critics of Pope Francis, including a former Vatican diplomat to the U.S. who has called on the pope to resign.
Madison-based InterVarsity announced today that the campus ministry will focus on establishing Christian fellowships on 2,500 college campuses in the next 12 years. As more than 1,500 InterVarsity campus staff ministers, along with student and faculty leaders, return to campuses this fall, their focus is on the 2030 Calling, which states: Longing for revival, we catalyze movements that call every corner of every campus to follow Jesus.
A U.S. bishop has claimed that a “homosexual subculture” exists within the “hierarchy of the Catholic Church,” which is leading to the mass child sex abuse scandals. U.S. Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison, Wisconsin, wrote in a pastoral letter on Saturday that there is “justified anger” being directed at Catholic leadership over the Pennsylvania grand jury report, released last week, which revealed how 301 priests who abused over 1,000 children over decades were protected by the institution. Morlino said that the abuse detailed in the 1,300-page report is “sickening,” but insisted that it is not just pedophilia that is the…
EL TRIANGULO, Honduras – From Mount Horeb to Honduras, volunteers from local churches made a 2,000 mile trip this June to do something good for people they’ve never met. “We know that when people see Americans coming, something great is going to happen,” said Nugget Cubas, head driller for Living Water International Honduras. In less than one week, the group from Immanuel Lutheran Church, together with Living Water International, built a well, the lifeline a community needs to live.
James Morgan was incarcerated when his mother died. An interfaith chapel was his refuge. On Sunday night, panelists came to New Life Church to argue for teh importance of having a designated “sacred space” in the Dane County jail renovation project.
MADISON, Wis. – Being in jail is temporary by definition, but what if inmates could have access to a spiritual space that would help in that transitional period from behind bars to back on the streets? Well, that could be a possibility with a new $76 million renovation project that’s working to consolidate the three Dane County Jail buildings to fit under one roof. Part of that consolidation is the consideration of adding a sacred space where inmates can fulfill their spiritual needs.
CHICAGO (RNS) — When six synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America elected female bishops in May, they set a record for the most women chosen in one year to lead the mainline Protestant denomination’s geographical subdivisions. Among the six were the denomination’s first African-American female bishops: the Rev. Patricia A. Davenport, elected May 5 to the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod, and the Rev. Viviane Thomas-Breitfeld, elected the next day to the South-Central Synod of Wisconsin.
The Palestinian experience in the political state of Israel mirrors, in many ways, the African American experience in the United States — that’s the core message of a discussion tonight between Dr. Mitri Raheb, a Lutheran minister from Bethlehem, and Madison’s Dr. Everett Mitchell to be held at 7 pm tonight at Christ the Solid Rock Baptist Church, where Mitchell is senior pastor.
I barely knew him except for a chance encounter at the Alliant Energy Center earlier this year. But I am learning from Dominic and his family. I am learning that each day is to be celebrated and consecrated as a blessing from God. I am seeing how family and friends and complete strangers are capable of circling the wagons and loving the life that Dominic provided, which in turns inspires us all to try to love more. I am seeing forgiveness and reconciliation and healing—all in the name of Dominic.
There’s no shortage of advice these days about aging—though in our culture, most of that advice seems to be about how to deny that it’s happening. Dye your hair, bleach your teeth, learn about Snapchat. Eat more antioxidants. Parker Palmer’s new book, On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity, and Getting Old, isn’t like that. The Quaker writer and activist focuses instead on the spiritual gifts of aging that our youth-obsessed culture has largely ignored.