Many adjectives describe Cardinal Jaime Ortega, who died last week: father, brother, cardinal of Cuban youth, voice of Cuba’s poor, Cuban bridge to the US, accomplished pianist. He “was an important, and at the same time, controversial man of the church, who played a critical role in gaining ‘more spaces’ so that the Catholic Church Read more
Islamic terrorism doesn’t exist because religion is not about murder, President Barack Obama says. He is defending his refusal to speak about “Islamic terrorism”. He wants us to “make sure that we do not lump these murderers into the billion Muslims that exist around the world who are peaceful … responsible … fellow troops and police Read more
When Barack Obama vows to destroy Islamic State’s “brand of evil” and David Cameron declares that Islamic State (ISIS) is an “evil organisation” that must be obliterated, they are echoing Tony Blair’s judgment of Saddam Hussein: “But the man’s uniquely evil, isn’t he?” Blair made this observation in November 2002, four months before the invasion Read more
A US survivor of the deadly Ebola virus has stated her belief in the power of prayer. Nina Pham, a nurse from Texas, was the first person to contract the virus within the United States. This is believed to have happened when she was nursing Thomas Duncan, who subsequently died. Now declared free of Ebola Read more
The American journalist shown being beheaded by Islamist extremists in a video prayed the Rosary during a previous kidnapping in the Middle East. James Foley, 40, was the oldest of five children in a Catholic family in New Hampshire. Working for the Global Post and AFP, he was kidnapped in Syria in 2012. Commenting on Read more
In a meeting room under Holy Name Cathedral, a rapt group of black Roman Catholics listened as Barack Obama, a 25-year-old community organiser, trained them to lobby their fellow delegates to a national congress in Washington on issues like empowering lay leaders and attracting more believers. “He so quickly got us,” said Andrew Lyke, a Read more
Neither presidential campaign has distinguished itself with its veracity. But there is a hierarchy of deceit in campaigns, as in life. I recall an incident during the 1976 campaign, perhaps apocryphal, perhaps not. Jimmy Carter had said he would never lie to the American people. A group of reporters came to Plains, Ga., to interview Read more
A new poll conducted by the Pew Research Center showed that support among Catholic voters for US President Barack Obama has surged since June despite the Catholic bishops’ religious freedom campaign. On June 17, Obama held a slight edge over Mitt Romney among Catholics (49-47 percent). Since then, Obama has surged ahead, and now leads Read more
On Tuesday, the New York Times put together a remarkable chart showing that, with the naming of Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney’s vice-presidential running mate, there are now no white protestants among this country’s top leaders in Washington. Both Joe Biden and Paul Ryan are Catholics (as are six of the nine Supreme Court justices and House Speaker John Boehner), Read more