1. Mother Teresa Stamp Issued by U.S. Postal Service
On September 5, 2010, the 13th anniversary of Mother Teresa's death, the U.S. Postal Service issued a 44-cent stamp commemorating Mother Teresa, the revered founder of the Missionaries of Charity and 1979 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
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2. Reader Question: Doing Our Easter Duty
Our Easter duty—the Church's requirement that all Catholics who have made their First Communion receive the Holy Eucharist sometime during the Easter season—is not simply a manmade rule. What should we do if we've failed to fulfill it?
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3. The 50th Anniversary of JFK's Speech on Religion and Politics
On September 12, 1960, Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy addressed the Greater Houston Ministerial Association at the Rice Hotel in Houston, Texas. Only the second Catholic in American history to receive a major party's nomination for the presidency, Senator Kennedy had faced criticism from some American Protestants and Jews, who had questioned whether a Catholic president could truly represent a country in which Catholics were a minority (though, even in 1960, Catholicism was the largest Christian denomination in the United States). More damaging were whispered criticisms that a Catholic president would "take orders from the Pope" and subject the American interest "to a foreign power" (that is, the Vatican).
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4. English Atheists Protest Pope Benedict's Visit to the United Kingdom
During the preparations for Pope Benedict's 2010 visit to the United Kingdom, several prominent English atheists called for the arrest of the Holy Father as soon as his plane touched down on U.K. soil. While the idea was first put forward publicly by human-rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson, it originated, not surprisingly, with evangelical atheists Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens.
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- Schedule of Pope Benedict's 2010 Visit to the United Kingdom
- Why Richard Dawkins Cannot Stomach the Eucharist
- State Welcome and Audience with Queen Elizabeth II
- Fraternal Visit to the Archbishop of Canterbury
- Prayer Vigil for the Beatification of Cardinal Newman
- Mass and Beatification of John Henry Cardinal Newman
5. Pope Benedict Arrives in the United Kingdom
On his first day in the United Kingdom, the Holy Father was received by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip at Holyroodhouse, the queen's official Scottish summer residence. Holyroodhouse, as the Vatican Information Service notes, was "built as an Augustinian monastery in the year 1128 [and] dedicated to the Holy Cross by King David I of Scotland after he saw a vision of the crucifix between the antlers of a stag that attacked him." The VIS also quietly notes that Holyroodhouse "was transformed into a royal residence" in the 16th century, during the confiscation of monastic lands by the newly Protestant rulers.
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6. Pope Benedict on the True Fruits of Ecumenism
In October 2009, when Pope Benedict XVI established new procedures through which entire congregations of Anglicans can be reunited to the Catholic Church, Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury and the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, was none too pleased. Yet in a joint press conference with Catholic Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols, the archbishop of Canterbury all but conceded that the game is over for the Church of England. Those in the Anglican Communion who truly believe that the Church is meant to be one, and to have one visible head, will increasingly make their way to Rome; those who remain in the Anglican Communion will continue to move further away from orthodoxy.
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7. Reader Question: Why Do Catholics Have To Pray Through Saints?
Many non-Catholics, and even quite a few Catholics, often ask, "Why do Catholics pray to saints?" Certain Protestants believe that praying to saints is a form of idolatry—in other words, they confuse prayer with worship, which is properly directed to God alone. But this question is different. We might rephrase it this way: Must Catholics pray through saints?
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8. Spinning the Knights of Columbus's Defense of Traditional Marriage
In 2009 (the Washington Independent website reports), the Knights of Columbus (KoC) donated $1.4 million to the National Organization for Marriage (NOM). In other words—that is, in the words of the Washington Independent—the 129-year-old KoC, best known for providing reasonably priced insurance for its members, used a portion of its charitable money for the year to "deny marriage rights to gay and lesbian couples."
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9. Divorcing Marriage From the State
As an increasing number of states in the United States redefine marriage as something other than the lifelong union of one man and one woman, one potential solution that's occasionally mentioned is returning authority over marriage entirely to the Church. Let the law define marriage however it wishes; but real marriage would be a union blessed by the Church (with or without the consent of the state).
