Tagged: religion

For more than 40 years, Roy Bourgeois’ life has been devoted to an often controversial liberal activism. The former Catholic priest is the founder of the Schools of the Americas Watch and has spent eight years in prison for illegal protests.  Five years ago, the 74-year old was excommunicated for his support of the ordination of women to the Catholic priesthood.  

It’s understatement to say that Islam is misunderstood in the West. While we see images of people in the Muslim world that often depict the religion as violent and backward -- images that fuel Islamophobia. But of course there’s more to Islam than stereotypes, as there are millions of Muslims we don’t see who are working to feed their families and to give themselves better lives.

Tomorrow is Good Friday, the date two-thousand years ago on which Jesus of Nazareth was sentenced to death and crucified.  For more than 30 years, volunteers in Lansing have memorialized the events of that day with a live reenactment of the Passion.

 In the Book of Genesis it says “... God created human beings in his own image,” however according the book " The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America,"  we made his son in our image. Throughout the 20th century,  varied configurations of Jesus tell the history of race and religion in the United States.

In a surprisingly short conclave, the Roman Catholic cardinals elected a new pope yesterday. Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the archbishop of the Buenos Aires diocese, became the first Jesuit and first Latin American to be named pope.

Monsignor Jerry Vincke of the Lansing diocese is stationed at the North American College in Rome. He shares what the process has been like and introduces  Pope Francis the First.

Twenty-five members of the St. Mary’s Cathedral Choir of Lansing and several members of St. Mary’s and St. Stan’s in Jackson performed recently in Italy, including at a Vatican mass as the papal conclave was assembling.  

Monsignour Steven Raica, Chancellor of the Diocese of Lansing, and choir member Gratz discuss the once-in-a-lifetime experience.

NPR Religion Correspondent Barbara Bradley Hagerty will be in mid-Michigan next Wednesday to talk about the intersection of religion and science. She wrote a book on the subject recently, and WKAR’s Melissa Benmark asked her about the response so far.