The Rev. Jason Poling is the pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville. He's writing today on marriage and the reality show Jon and Kate Plus 8.

In my line of work, I see marriages erode the way bridge inspectors see trusses rust. I have presided over dozens of marriages and, in a different way, a small handful of divorces.

Yet even I was taken aback by Monday night’s episode of Jon and Kate Plus 8. My free-spending habits have led my wife to take over the grocery shopping, but the occasional run for bread and milk has exposed me to the tabloid headlines about the Gosselins’ marital difficulties. Sure enough, the season premiere of the show about their family put this conflict front and center.

I felt physically uncomfortable watching the Gosselins’ marital problems unfold in much the same way I felt watching Steve Carell’s character on The Office take control of a diversity training session necessitated by his misconduct … except that The Office is faux-reality TV, and Jon and Kate Plus 8 is about real people whose real actions will have real consequences for themselves and for their eight children.

It’s not that I was surprised that the Gosselins had problems: every marriage faces its challenges, and the introduction of children can accelerate the deterioration of even healthy relationships. My own experience has borne out what an old squash buddy told me about kids: going from one to two is harder than going from zero to one. I can only imagine what going from two to eight would be like.

What’s more, it doesn’t take much training or experience to see the differences in the Gosselins’ personalities; when my wife and I do premarital counseling, we use a rigorous (and, at 180 questions, tedious) test to surface the areas of difference that are likely to cause problems in a marriage. The problem isn’t that there are differences -- which can, after all, be complementary -- but that these differences make people deal with problems in ways that exacerbate those problems. So, for example, if one spouse is conflict-avoidant and the other is a verbal processor, you get the classic scenario of one person retreating and the other pursuing aggressively, which leads to deeper retreat and more intense pursuit, and so on.

Yet it’s customary for these conflicts to play out at the kitchen table or in a cold bed after the kids are asleep. One hopes that people will come to recognize that they need to bring their marital problems to a pastor’s study, or a counselor’s office, or a trusted friend’s confidence over a cup of coffee or a pint of beer. But unless we share trust (or a thin wall), we seldom have the kind of exposure to our neighbors’ marital difficulties that some 9 million Americans had to the Gosselins’ Monday night, and will continue to have next Monday, and the Monday after that, and the Monday after that, until either they separate or find a way to work through the difficulties in their marriage away from our prying eyes.

Perhaps some good can come of this; perhaps some fraction of that 9 million will join me in praying for the survival and health of this family. Perhaps other couples will recognize in their own marriages the seeds of disharmony that have sprouted in the Gosselins’, and seek help. Should their marriage survive this rough patch, perhaps the Gosselins’ example will inspire other couples to do the difficult work necessary to save their own marriages.

But I can’t imagine it will be easy. It’s hard enough to confess your faults to another person; it’s harder when you have denied or justified those faults to your spouse or counselor or rabbi or friend. Imagine how difficult it would be to take back something you said in front of 9 million people.

So my hope, and indeed my prayer, is that the Gosselins will be able to seek the help they need to work through the challenges they face in their marriage: to own their own failings, to ask and offer forgiveness, to commit together to rebuilding on firm foundations of trust, grace, love, fidelity, acceptance and kindness. Not simply painting over the corroded spots, but doing the hard work of stripping and sanding and patching and priming so that real restoration can take place.

In my line of work, I see that, too.

(Associated Press photo)

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Categories: Guest Posts, Jason Poling
        

A man and a woman who say that their father was a Josephite priest have filed a lawsuit seeking $10 million in compensation and punitive damages from the Baltimore-based order.

Carla A. Latty, 56, an attorney in New York, and Adrian Senna, 63, a retired actor and musician in British Columbia, say that DNA tests prove that the late Rev. Francis E. Ryan was their biological father. They say Ryan, who served as a priest in Alabama, Louisiana and the District of Columbia, conducted a long-running relationship with their late mother, Anna Maria Franklin Senna.

In the lawsuit, which was filed in Baltimore Circuit Court, Latty and Senna say Ryan’s order, formally named Saint Joseph’s Society of the Sacred Heart, denied them knowledge of and contact with their birth father and his family and deprived them of child support and other economic assistance. They also accuse the order of negligence in hiring, retaining and failing to properly supervise Ryan.

The lawsuit names the archbishop and archdiocese of Baltimore as codefendants. A spokesman for the archdiocese said Thursday that the archdiocese has asked to be removed from the complaint.

“The fact is that Father Ryan was in no way affiliated with the Archdiocese of Baltimore,” spokesman Sean Caine said. “To our knowledge, he never served a day and never set foot in the State of Maryland.”

A message left for the Saint Joseph’s Society Thursday was not immediately returned. According to a 2007 story in the Boston Globe, the Rev. Edward Chiffriller, head of the society, covered the $500 cost of DNA testing.

Latty was put up for adoption shortly after her birth in 1952. She appeared outside archdiocesan headquarters in downtown Baltimore on Thursday with members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests to discuss the lawsuit with reporters.

“What upsets me about this whole story of mine is that I never got to meet my mother,” said Latty, her voice breaking. “I believe she felt compelled to put her children in orphanages to protect the identity of my father, Father Francis E. Ryan.”

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 3:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Catholicism
        

On Wednesday, we mentioned the "Summer of Peace" announcement by local Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim leaders. Peter Hermann, our former Jerusalem correspondent and crime reporter extraordinaire, has a more complete report in today's Baltimore Sun:

The leaders of the city's Catholic, Jewish and Muslim faiths have a plan to turn Baltimore's summer into the "summer of peace."

But they complained Wednesday that the mayor is making their efforts difficult because of plans to close recreation centers and pools and curtail library hours.

Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien mentioned the issue in passing in his remarks after meeting with city officials on preventing youth crime, but when questioned he openly leaped into the political fray and called for the city's chief executive to reverse course.

Cutting money to youth programs, said the leader of a half-million worshipers of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, "will make it very difficult for us to follow through" on initiatives to save lives and save children.

His auxiliary, Bishop Denis J. Madden, said, "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that rec centers and pools are going to give kids something to do."

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Local Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim leaders announced a three-point plan on Wednesday to promote peace in Baltimore this summer.

In what participants said was the first interfaith gathering of local religious leaders to discuss violence, the group held a 90-minute meeting at St. Mary's Seminary and University, and then emerged to greet the press.

Members resolved:

   • To call on city leaders to keep parks, recreation centers, libraries and polls open during the summer months, when children are not in school and crime typically increases;

   • To encourage churches, synagogues and mosques to designate job sites for the city’s Youth Works program, and to host youth centers other programs to provide safe havens for kids; and

   • Designate the weekend of June 19 to 21 as a “Peace Sabbath,” during which all churches, synagogues and mosques will pray for peace. At Masses that weekend, Catholic churches will collect $1 per parishioner to support peace-promoting initiatives such as the city health department’s Safe Streets program.

The meeting was hosted by Catholic Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien. Attendees included Baltimore Jewish Council Executive Director Arthur Abramson, Imam Earl El-Amin of the Muslim Community Cultural Center of Baltimore, Deputy Police Commissioner Anthony Barksdale, interim City Health Commissioner Olivia Farrow, Tim Hanavan of the Central Maryland Ecumenical Council, Catholic Auxillary Bishop Denis Madden, Bishop Douglas Miles of Koinonia Baptist Church, Bishop John Raab of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland and Rev. Dr. Frank Reid III of Bethel AME Church.

The group agreed to continue meeting quarterly to discuss ongoing threats to peace in the city and to work together to promote peace.

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The board of directors of the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore voted Wednesday to allow the Jewish Community Center in Owings Mills to open on the Jewish sabbath.

The proposal by the Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore to offer Saturday hours has highlighted a divide in the local Jewish community. JCC officials say the move will meet the needs of the largely nonobservant community in the northwestern suburb.

But Orthodox Jews, who refrain from driving, operating electrical equipment and other activities on the day known as Shabbos or Shabbat, say it will violate Jewish law. Thousands rallied in Park Heights last week in support of the Jewish sabbath.

In a statement, Associated President Marc B. Terrill called the differing positions “noble in their intent.”

“The ultimate goal of everyone involved in this communal conversation is to connect individuals and families to the beauty of the gift of Shabbat,” he continued. “I only hope and pray that the decision today serves as an opportunity to broaden its observance. A day of reflection and inward thinking makes a great deal of spiritual and pragmatic sense.”

The final vote by the Associated board was 97 to 33 in favor Saturday hours, with four members abstaining.

Rabbi Moshe Hauer, a leader of the Park Heights rally, said the decision left him “deeply disappointed” and “tremendously sad.”

“This is weakening the strength of the community both in terms of what we as a community stand for and how we stand together as a community,” said Hauer, spiritual leader of Bnai Jacob Sharei Zion Congregation.

The JCC now will open its Owings Mills center on Saturday afternoons beginning on June 6. The later hours are intended to avoid conflict with morning synagogue services. Jewish employees would not be compelled to work and there would be no cash transactions or food service on the premises.

JCC officials say there are no plans for Saturday hours at the Jewish Community Center in Park Heights, given that neighborhood’s large Orthodox presence, or to open either the Owings Mills or Park Heights facilities on major Jewish holidays.

JCC officials describe Saturday hours in Owings Mills as an attempt to address the needs of a diverse community. The Owings Mills center offers a range of fitness, cultural and educational programs on Sundays through Fridays; internal documents make reference to growing competition from gymnasiums that open on Saturdays and an "exodus" of members who wanted "a recreational facility that gave them a schedule that met their needs."

“We feel this decision will enable us to connect with even more Jewish families and individuals,” JCC President Louis “Buddy” Sapolsky said Wednesday in a statement. “We have many exciting plans to make Saturdays a very special and distinct Shabbat-focused day at the Rosenbloom Owings Mills JCC. Discussions are taking place to see how we can better connect and work with the Orthodox community moving forward.”

Hauer, too, spoke of rebuilding the broader Jewish community. While some at the rally spoke of sharing Shabbos with nonobservant coworkers and relatives, Hauer spoke of a need to connect on more basic levels.

“We have to get to know each other better,” he said. “I think sharing Shabbos together is a very important and good goal and we have to find ways to do that. But we have to find all kinds of ways to be able to forge a greater sense of understanding of each other and rallying together around the kinds of things we have rallied as a people for millennia.”

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Categories: Judaism
        

The board of directors of the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Greater Baltimore is scheduled to vote Wednesday on a controversial proposal to begin opening the Jewish Community Center in Owings Mills on the Jewish sabbath.

The proposal by the Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore, which operates facilities in Owings Mills and Park Heights, has revealed deep divisions within the diverse local Jewish community.

The JCC says the move would help meet the needs of the largely nonobservant community in Owings Mills.

But Orthodox Jews, who refrain from driving, operating electrical equipment and other activities on the day known as Shabbos, say it would violate Jewish law. Thousands of Orthodox Jews rallied in Park Heights last week in support of Shabbos.

The board of the Associated, which owns the property, will meet at noon behind closed doors. We’ll post results and reactions here, as soon as we get them.

(Photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor/The Baltimore Sun)

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Categories: Judaism
        

Less than half a century ago, the Catholicism of Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kennedy was seen as so great a liability in Protestant America that he was compelled to give a speech to the Baptist ministers of Greater Houston describing how his patriotism would trump his papalism.

Today, Sonia Sotomayor is poised to become the sixth Catholic on the Supreme Court – “a remarkable accomplishment for American Catholics,” writes Michael Paulson of the Boston Globe, given that they comprise less than a quarter of the population but would control fully two-thirds of the bench.

In the wake of President Barack Obama’s first high court nomination, several bloggers have spent the day exploring what, if anything, Sotomayor’s Catholicism means. Paulson gives a good overview of the chatter, but answers prove elusive, in part because the court's Catholics have spanned the ideological spectrum, and in part because the nominee’s faith and her positions on the public issues typically associated with it – principally, abortion – are unclear.

At BeliefNet, a White House source tells editor Steven Waldman that “Judge Sotomayor was raised as a Catholic and attends church for family celebrations and other important events.” Waldman and others note that while her record on abortion is thin, it includes at least a couple of rulings that could hearten opponents of abortion rights.

In the first, Sotomayor rejected a bid by abortion rights supporters to overturn the so-called “Mexico City policy” implemented most recently by President George W. Bush, which barred organizations that received U.S. funding from performing or promoting abortion.

In the second, Sotomayor ruled in favor of anti-abortion protestors who claimed that police in West Hartford, Conn., used excessive force against them while dispersing a demonstration.

Meanwhile, the Orthodox Union is calling an early review of her record on religious liberty -- a favorite cause among social conservatives -- "very encouraging." Cases included rulings favoring a rabbi in White Plains, N.Y., who wanted to display a menorah in a city park and prison inmates in New York who wished to wear beads under their clothes as part of their practice of Santería.

(Photo by the Associated Press)

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A trio of Lutheran pastors from West Virginia will be wheeling their bamboo bicycle-built-for-three into Baltimore next week to talk about hunger here and around the world.

Baltimore is one of 65 cities that the Revs. Reinold “Ron” Schlak Jr., Frederick A. “Fred” Soltow Jr. and David A. Twedt are planning to visit during their 100-day, 13,000-mile Tour de Revs. The riders are hoping to raise $5 million for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America World Hunger and Disaster Appeal.

“We will be encouraging people to make giving to the [appeal] a regular part of their stewardship, not just contributing when a special offering is collected,” Twedt said in a release. “Beyond that, I would hope and expect that this church will continue to increase its support of those who, through no fault of their own, can not support themselves. Jesus is saying that to me in Matthew 25.”

Matthew 25:40 includes the injunction: “Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me.”

Schlak, Soltow and Twedt, who describe their goals as “revelation, revolution and revenue,” will enter Baltimore on Monday via the Gwynns Falls Bike Trail. They are to be received at the Lutheran Center by Bishop H. Gerard Knoche, the Rev. John Nunes of Lutheran World Relief, Ralston Deffenbaugh of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services and Jill Schumann from Lutheran Services in America.

Schlak said they chose a bicycle because "cycling is the most advanced transportation a lot of hungry people can afford. Whether it is a modern American city or a small village in Africa, many people ride bokes because they cannot afford a vehicle with a motor."

They opted for the bamboo bicycle, he said, "because people in Ghama are lifting themselves out of poverty by harvesting locally grown bamboo and forming it into bicycle frames and attaching the necessary bike parts."

They are scheduled to appear at 7 p.m. Monday at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church at West 36th and Chestnut streets in Hampden to talk about world hunger and their effort to help to bring about its end. The ELCA World Hunger Appeal estimates there are 963 million hungry people worldwide today, up 100 million since the start of the global economic downturn.

The Rev. Lee Hudson of the Lutheran Office on Public Policy for Maryland will discuss hunger and poverty in Maryland, and others will describe the work of an ecumenical food pantry that serves the Hampden area. Those attending are asked to bring a canned or non-perishable food item.

(Photo by the Associated Press)

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Local Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders will come together on Wednesday to discuss a new plan to promote peace in the city this summer.

The group, to be hosted by Catholic Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien at St. Mary’s Seminary and University, will include Arthur Abramson of the Baltimore Jewish Council, Imam Earl El-Amin of the Muslim Community Cultural Center, Bishop John Rabb, suffragan bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, the Rev. Frank M. Reid, III, pastor of Bethel AME Church, and the Rev. Johnny Golden of New Unity Church Ministries and the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance.

The group plans to meet with interim Health Commissioner Olivia Farrow, and then hold a press conference to announce a summer peace initiative. Watch here for more details.

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What is the nature of God? Is it possible to force a postponement of death? How is true piety manifested? What is the power of sin and repentance? What happens to souls in the afterlife?

Rabbi David Greenspoon of Beth El Congregation concludes his five-month exploration of the Zohar, called “the most important literary work” of Jewish mysticism, with a "Lunch & Learn" session at noon Tuesday at Baltimore’s Institute for Christian & Jewish Studies.

“Come and join us as we delve into the mystical world of the Kabbalists,” invites the institute, located at 956 Dulaney Valley Road. Those interested are asked to bring a brown-bag dairy lunch; all texts are to be provided in translation. RSVP to info@icjs.org; more information is available here.

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Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien and the board of trustees of Catholic Charities of Baltimore have tapped William J. McCarthy Jr. to lead the organization on the retirement of longtime Executive Director Harold A. Smith.

“The combination of Bill McCarthy’s executive experience in the Baltimore area, as well as his deep personal commitment to the church’s mission of serving the neediest among us, made him an ideal choice,” O’Brien said in a statement.

A parishioner of the Church of the Nativity in Timonium, McCarthy is president of SunTrust Bank, Greater Baltimore, and executive vice president for wealth and investment management of SunTrust Bank Mid-Atlantic.

“I cannot imagine a more powerful calling to public service than leading Catholic Charities,” he said.

McCarthy takes over on Aug. 1. Smith, who has been executive director for 33 years, will remain on staff through the end of the year to assist in the transition.

O’Brien praised Smith as an effective leader.

“Since coming to Baltimore in the fall of 2007, I have been struck by the scope of Catholic Charities’ reach in every corner of our archdiocese and by the well-earned reputation it has gained locally and nationally as a model charitable outreach system,” he said. “While Hal’s vision and compassion will be greatly missed as he enjoys a well-deserved retirement, his legacy will likely continue to be felt by those who turn to our Church for compassion and help for many years to come.”

With 80 programs assisting 160,000 individuals and families every year, Catholic Charities is the leading private provider of human services in Maryland.

Baltimore Sun File Photo

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Categories: Catholicism, Charity
        

Did the Evangelical vote put Kris Allen over the top in the American Idol finale? That’s one of the theories that has emerged in the hours after the surprise ending Wednesday to the pop music competition.

The discussion is premised on the widely held expectation that Adam Lambert, adventurous in both performance and appearance, would win the final vote.

Certainly the falsetto-prone glam rocker left a deeper impression than the humble church singer from Arkansas. Even Allen, a worship leader at New Life Church in Conway, Ark., appeared taken aback by the result; when host Ryan Seacrest called his name, his first words were “Adam deserves this.”

But a legion of Christian voters is saying the right man won. Chief among them: Allen’s pastor at New Life, who has been boasting of a faith-based campaign for Allen.

“Churches go crazy with support!” the Rev. Rick Bezet told Fox News. “Thousands of churches twittering and facebooking! It’s been a blast.”

Fox News and other speculate that Allen got a boost from supporters of Danny Gokey, who was eliminated in the week before the final. Another evangelical Christian, Gokey was worship leader at Faith Builders International Ministries in Milwaukee and Beloit, Wisc., prior to qualifying for American Idol.

There is also the question of America’s comfort with Lambert’s presumed sexual orientation. Blogger Danielle Berrin of the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles summarized the matchup thusly:

Lambert is the dark knight. He has raven hair, wears dark eyeliner, black nail polish and leather trench coats. His style recalls classic rock stars, school serial killers and vampires all at once. Beyond his trademark flamboyance, Lambert possesses a sexual ambiguity he’s hardly interested in dispelling: When photos of him dressed in drag and kissing other men leaked on the Internet, he responded with indifference: “I am who I am,” he said, and left his detractors to their own devices. And, if that wasn’t enough to jilt the evangelical crowd, Lambert is also Jewish.

Allen, by contrast, is clean-cut and pristine looking. He wears tshirts and jeans, sings sweetly and leads worship services at New Life Church back home. One look at him and you can imagine the hordes of teenage girls virtuously gathering their friends to call up and vote for him. Allen is the all-American boy, as inoffensive (and unexciting) as vanilla cream pie.

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For its annual meeting Thursday, the Baltimore Jewish Council has enlisted a trio of heavy hitters to discuss the state of civil rights in Maryland.

Appearing from 4 to 6 p.m. at Beth Tfiloh Congregation at 3300 Old Court Road in Baltimore will be Kweisi Mfume, the former congressman and former NAACP president, Rabbi Mark G. Loeb, for 32 years the spiritual leader of Beth El Congregation, and WYPR news analyst C. Fraser Smith, a former Baltimore Sun reporter, editor and columnist.

Dana P. Moore of Venable LLP will moderate. The event is open to the public.

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Colleague Liz Bowie had a story this week that touched on the challenge the Archdiocese of Baltimore is facing in funding some of its schools.

St. Mary of the Assumption School in Govans, with declining enrollments and $1 million in debt, will be the second school in Baltimore and the third in Maryland to shut down at the end of the school year. The Catholic Community School in Federal Hill and St. Michael School in Frostburg also are closing their doors.

"To us, it speaks to a much larger issue," archdiocese spokesman Sean Caine told Bowie. "No matter what, we have to find additional revenue to support these schools."

There appear to be no easy answers for schools that often provide a low-tuition alternative to the public system for low-income families. The schools currently receive $3.6 million in public money, Bowie writes; the archdiocese has asked the General Assembly for additional tax dollars to keep the schools operating but has not persuaded legislators to support the idea.

Read the rest of the story at baltimoresun.com.

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Megan Goldsmith is approaching her graduation from Baltimore Hebrew University with mixed emotions.

The 25-year-old Pikesville woman talks about the joy of completing her master's degree in Jewish communal service, the honor of having been selected by her classmates to deliver the student commencement address, and the anticipation of her new career.

But she speaks also of nostalgia. With state officials expected to approve the integration of Baltimore Hebrew into Towson University next month, she and 14 fellow degree recipients Thursday night are likely to be the final class to graduate from an institution long at the center of local Jewish cultural and intellectual life.

"There's been so many different people that have gone through that building," says Goldsmith, who was inspired to apply to the school in part by a series of mentors who held BHU degrees. "It's really sad that it's ending. I mean, it's been around for 90 years."

Read the rest of the story at baltimoresun.com.

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Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien commissioned a panel of experts on Tuesday to investigate the allegedly miraculous healing of an Annapolis woman through the intercession of a 19th century Baltimore cleric.

Mary Ellen Heibel, a parishioner of St. Mary Catholic Church in Annapolis, says prayers to Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos led to the healing of her metastasized esophageal cancer, according to the Archdiocese of Baltimore. If accepted as miraculous by Rome, such a cure could lead to his canonization as a saint.

O’Brien commissioned the five-member panel at the request of the Redemptorist order, to which Seelos belonged. The members include the archdiocesan judicial vicar, a canon lawyer and the chief of surgery at Mercy Medical Center, each of whom swore an office during Mass on Tuesday at the Baltimore Basilica.

The Rev. Gilbert J. Seitz, the judicial vicar, said the panel would interview Heibel, her doctors and her parish priests, among others. The information the panel gathers is to be forwarded to the Congregation of the Causes of the Saints in Rome, which will determine whether a miracle has occurred.

“We don’t decide. We investigate,” Seitz said. “We’re the fact-finders.”

Becoming a saint in the Catholic Church involves three major steps: The declaration of the candidate’s heroic virtues, beatification, and canonization. In general, the church must accept the candidate’s intercession in two miracles – typically, medical cures that cannot be explained scientifically – before he or she may be declared a saint.

The German-born Seelos was ordained in Baltimore in 1844 and served parishes in Baltimore, Annapolis and Cumberland. He died in New Orleans in 1867 after contracting yellow fever while ministering to the sick and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2000.

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Pope Benedict XVI issued a plea for the dwindling Christian community of the Holy Land during his trip last week to the Middle East. Now National Geopraphic has made their plight the cover story of its latest issue.

"Today native Christians in the Levant are the envoys of a forgotten world, bearing the fierce and hunted spirit of the early church," Don Belt writes in the June issue, which landed in our mailbox over the weekend. "Their communities, composed of various Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant sects, have dwindled in the past century from a quarter to about 8 percent of the population as the current generation leaves for economic reasons, to escape the region's violence, or because they have relatives in the West who help them emigrate. Their departure, sadly, deprives the Levant of some of its best educated and most politically moderate citizens—the people these societies can least afford to lose."

Another cause for the dispersal: The war in Iraq. When I traveled last year to Jordan and Syria to report on the Iraqi refugee crisis, I met several Christians who said they had fled Iraq in fear for their lives. (They are among several religious minorities who have been persecuted in Iraq; others include Sabean Mandaens -- followers of John the Baptist -- and Sunni Muslims, who were favored under Saddam Hussein).

Benedict addressed himself to the region's Christians during a Mass at the International Stadium in Amman.

"The strong Christian families of these lands are a great legacy handed down from earlier generations," he said during his homily. "May today’s families be faithful to that impressive heritage, and never lack the material and moral assistance they need to carry out their irreplaceable role in service to society."

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

As promised, Torah.org has posted video of Sunday's rally for Shabbos, here and above.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Judaism
        

The Archdiocese of Baltimore is touting the ordination of 13 deacons this Saturday as the latest sign of growth in the local Catholic Church this year.

Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien is scheduled to ordain 12 permanent deacons and one transitional deacon during a Mass at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen. The archdiocses says it is the second largest class of deacons to be ordained in the last deacde.

Transitional deacons are seminarians who go on to become priests, while permanent deacons -- often married men -- do not. Deacons, on which the church has increasingly relied in the face of the long and ongoing shortage of priests, may proclaim the Gospel during Mass, perform baptisms, witness marriages, perform vigil services and bring the Eucharist to the sick.

It's that shortage that the Jesuit-run America magazine addressed recently with what the editors deemed "A Modest Proposal:" Allow married men to become priests.

"Silence and fervent prayer for vocations are no longer adequate responses to the priest shortage in the United States," the editors write. "As the church prepares to observe the Year of the Priest, which begins on June 19, open discussion about how to sustain the church as a eucharistic community of faith and fortify the pastoral life of Catholic congregations has become imperative. For making do within the limits set by present demographic trends presents a double threat to Catholic life: Catholic communities will become only infrequent eucharistic communities, or eucharistic communities will be severed from the pastoral care and public witness of priests.

The editors propose the recruitment and training of married men to serve as priests.

"Married priests already minister in the Catholic Church, both East and West. Addressing the married clergy of the Eastern Catholic churches, the Second Vatican Council exhorted “all those who have received the priesthood in the married state to persevere in their holy vocation and continue to devote their lives fully and generously to the flock entrusted to their care” (Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests,” No. 16). That exhortation now applies to the more than 100 former Anglican priests and Lutheran ministers who have entered the Catholic Church, been ordained and now serve in the Latin rite. As we face the challenges of the priest shortage, some of the more than 16,000 permanent deacons in the United States, many of them married, who experience a call to priestly ministry might be called to ordination with a similarly adapted discipline."

In a press release, the archdiocese cites several recent "positive growth indicators" for the church: The initiation last month of the lagest number of new Catholics (981) in at least a decade, the largest number of participants (1,300) in the annual youth pilgrimage and the return of more than 8,000 Catholics to confession as part of a Lenten campaign to promote the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

O’Brien is scheduled to ordain four men to the priesthood next month.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

As we reported in Monday's Sun, thousands of Orthodox Jews rallied in Park Heights yesterday in support of Shabbos. (Moshe Hoffman, above, was among those at Sunday's rally.) Now torah.org has put audio from the event online, with video to come.

Orthodox rabbis organized the rally as Jewish leaders consider a plan to open a community center in Owings Mills on Saturdays. Officials at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore, which operates facilities in Owings Mills and Park Heights, say the move is necessary to meet the needs of the largely nonobservant community in the northwestern suburb. But the Orthodox, who refrain from labor, operating electrical appliances and other activities from sundown on Friday until nightfall on Saturday, say it would violate Jewish law.

The final decision rests with the board of directors of the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Greater Baltimore. A vote is scheduled for next week.

Torah.org, by the way, estimates 6,000 attended the event. The photo of the crowd published inside today's Sun doesn't seem to show that many, but that photo doesn't show the large crowd that stretched to the left of dais. An estimated 3,500 attended a similar rally in 1997 (the last time the JCC sought approval to open on Saturdays) the Sun reported at that time. People I spoke with on Sunday who said they had been at both rallies said the 2009 crowd was larger.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 9:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Judaism
        

It’s looking as if the 15 men and women set to receive degrees at Baltimore Hebrew University this week will be the last graduates of the 90-year-old institution.

After months of negotiations, BHU administrators have signed a memorandum of understanding to integrate the school into Towson University. The Maryland Higher Education Commission and the University System of Maryland Board of Regents are expected to approve the merger next month, with the new Baltimore Hebrew Institute opening this fall on the Towson campus.

BHU's imminent demise has lent a valedictory air to commencement week. The school is planning a dinner Wednesday to honor the memory of Louis L. Kaplan, its president from 1930 to 1970; to give its distinguished leadership award to board member Lowell R. Glazer, who helped to shepherd the merger negotiations; and to grant an honorary doctorate to Marc Terrill, president of the Associated, the city’s most prominent Jewish organization.

Commencement is Thursday.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

While church fathers continue to come out against the University of Notre Dame for inviting President Barack Obama to commencement, ordinary Catholics support the university’s decision by a margin of nearly 2-1, according to a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

Obama’s support for abortion rights and embryonic stem cell research put him at odds with Catholic teaching. Nonetheless, Notre Dame has invited the president to speak and receive an honorary degree during commencement exercises Sunday.

The web site LifeSiteNews.com has counted 76 American bishops who have spoken out against Notre Dame since the invitation was announced. Baltimore Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien was among the first, writing to Notre Dame President John Jenkins in March that he was “disappointed and bewildered” by the invitation.

Locally, the controversy recalls the outcry that greeted the decision of Loyola College of Maryland to invite former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, another abortion rights supporter, to participate in commencement there in 2005.

According to the Pew survey, 50 percent of Catholics polled between April 23 and 27 said Notre Dame was right to invite Obama. Twenty-eight percent said the school was wrong.

“These findings are consistent with Catholics’ overall views of Obama: A majority voted from him in the 2009 presidential election and express approval of his performance in office thus far,” Pew reports. “The new findings are also consistent with Catholics' views on abortion and embryonic stem cell research, with pluralities in the poll expressing support for each.”

The survey noted a divide between more- and less-observant Catholics. Those who said they attended mass weekly said Notre Dame was wrong by a margin of 45 to 37 percent; those who attend less frequently said Notre Dame was right by a margin of 56 to 23 percent.

Asked about the controversy during his prime time press conference last month, Obama spoke of a White House task force that he said was working with groups on both sides of the abortion divide on ways to reduce “the number of unwanted pregnancies that result in women feeling compelled to get an abortion or at least considering getting an abortion.”

“I believe that women should have the right to choose, but I think that the most important thing we can do to tamp down some of the anger surrounding this issue is to focus on those areas that we can agree on,” he said. “And that’s where I’m going to focus.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)