When Pope Benedict refers to the ever-growing scandal threatening the Church as “petty gossip of dominant opinion” he shows, for all his theological learning, a shocking disregard for both his flock and for the moral standing of the institution he heads. Is it curtains for the Church as we know it?
In the midst of new developments in the Catholic sex abuse scandal and in light of last year’s surprise invitation from the Pope to conservative Episcopalians, a new invitation is extended to disheartened Catholics.
When power is abused, it is important to have regulatory structures in place that can hold the power-holders accountable to the people. Those are the institutions that have failed in Rome.
In a poverty-stricken nation with a failed state and rampant political corruption, the recent violence between Christians and Muslims has been blamed solely on religion. But to a reporter who spent two years covering Nigeria, it’s far more complicated than that.
David Sloan Wilson is a biologist who claims that the so-called “selfish” gene is a myth. What if we have evolved to do what’s best not for ourselves, but for the groups we live in? The implications for religion, the ultimate social organism, are huge.