by Cathleen Falsani | Aug 19, 2011 | News
(RNS) In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, “Lojong” is the practice of training one’s mind to be clearer and more compassionate by studying and meditating on 59 short aphorisms from the Buddha’s teachings. No. 21 on the Lojong list: “Approach every situation with a...
by Ramon Antonio Vargas | Aug 18, 2011 | News
NEW ORLEANS (RNS) Louisiana’s funeral industry isn’t ready to give up the fight to preserve its exclusive right to sell caskets. On Monday (Aug. 15), lawyers for the Louisiana Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors appealed a federal judge’s July 21 ruling that...
by Francis Rocca | Aug 18, 2011 | News
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Catholic priests at this week’s World Youth Day (WYD) celebrations in Madrid will be specially empowered to lift the excommunication of anyone who seeks forgiveness for having undergone or assisted in an abortion. The special authorization from...
by Jack Jenkins | Aug 18, 2011 | News
WASHINGTON (RNS) Truth be told, when asked to name a spiritual role model, few people would likely pick a sitting U.S. senator. In fact, with congressional approval ratings at record lows, few lawmakers—Democrats or Republicans—would seem to qualify as a profile in...
by Cathleen Falsani | Aug 17, 2011 | News
(RNS) A week or two after the 2004 election, I was dining with some friends in New York when the conversation turned to religion and politics—the two things that you’re never supposed to discuss in polite company. George W. Bush had just been re-elected with the help...
by David Gibson | Aug 17, 2011 | News
(RNS) Sending a small band of young people to talk about condoms at World Youth Day, the triennial Catholic jamboree that opens in Madrid on Tuesday (Aug. 16), sounds like penance, if not a kind of martyrdom. The six-day event is expected to draw close to 1 million...
