4+ day, 19+ hour ago (1018+ words) But quiet and worship are just what airport chapels have provided for decades to travelers and to the airport workers that many were originally designed for. "I love seeing travel bags and workers" outfits. It gives hope that you"re ministering to a need," said the Rev. Brian Daley, one of the priests at Our Lady of the Airways at Boston"s Logan International Airport. Built in the 1950s so that airport employees could attend Mass right in their sprawling workplace, it"s widely considered the first airport chapel in the United States. It"s also among the last to still function as a Catholic church instead of an interfaith space " though Muslim prayer rugs discreetly placed on the rear pews show it welcomes a variety of believers. Midday on a Friday, a man rolling a carry-on suitcase prayed for a…...

1+ week, 6+ day ago (782+ words) Every once in a while I come across a passage in a book that hits me with the force of revelation. Here's one: "A person's way of being human is the most authentic expression of their belief or unbelief. A person's life speaks more about their faith than what they think or say about God." That passage is from Tomas Halik's book "The Afternoon of Christianity." Halik is a Czech sociologist, priest and philosopher. When the Czech Republic was communist, he served in the underground church; after 1989, he was a close friend and adviser to Vaclav Havel and an admirer of Pope Francis. I like the passage because Halik is cutting through the categories we commonly use to define people. That is a rarity. These days a pollster or a social scientist might call you up and ask some superficial…...

1+ week, 3+ day ago (519+ words) By MIKE PESOLI, Associated Press The church's history and tradition, said Washington National Cathedral Provost Rev. Canon Jan Naylor Cope, put it "at the intersection of the civic and the sacred." The funerals held there shed light both on the deceased and their place in the country's history. Titans of American history keep watch over the cathedral, as statues of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln stand in two separate bays near the entrance of the nave. The cathedral has five chapels on the main level and four chapels and burial vaults on the lower level, or the crypt. French-born architect Pierre L'Enfant's original design for Washington included a church "for national purposes." In 1893, a congressional charter was authorized to build a cathedral dedicated to religion, education and charity. Construction on the Protestant Episcopalian church began in 1907, with President Theodore Roosevelt…...

3+ week, 1+ day ago (333+ words) Causs, 62, joins an all-male governing body called the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, which sits just under the church's president and his two top counselors. Apostles help set church policy while overseeing the faith's many business interests. With his appointment, he joins the order of succession to the church presidency, which is decided by seniority in the Quorum of the Twelve. A native of France, Causs spent the past decade as a presiding bishop who managed the church's money and welfare programs. Under his leadership, the church increased its humanitarian spending and dotted the globe with lavish temples where the faith's most sacred ceremonies take place. The faith known widely as the Mormon church does not disclose or discuss its finances, but the latest filings from its investment arm, Ensign Peak Advisors Inc., valued its portfolio at $58 billion. The church's…...

1+ week, 17+ hour ago (484+ words) Turkey was not on the menu when St. Paul celebrated its first Thanksgiving 175 years ago. The iconic American game bird was "as scarce as hen's teeth" in the infant city when residents sat down to their holiday dinners in late 1850, according to a report in the Minnesota Pioneer. And although it was a more overtly religious occasion than the Thanksgiving we know today, one thing not in short supply was booze. "Of course turkeys were quite scarce, but whisky was in abundance, and "the boys' whooped it up until very late in the night," early St. Paul historian Thomas McLean Newson wrote three decades later. "They were a great deal more thankful for what they had in those days than we are now, even if the whisky was adulterated with strychnine and tobacco." It wasn't until the Civil War that…...

1+ week, 2+ day ago (1294+ words) By DAVID CRARY and HOLLY MEYER The U.S. feminist movement's perpetual quest for gender equality has suffered notable setbacks during President Donald Trump's second term " including the dismantling of various nondiscrimination programs and the ouster of several high-ranking women in the military. Yet strikingly, outspoken women from the Catholic Church and the ranks of conservative evangelicals are engaging with gusto in ongoing political and social debates even as their faiths maintain longstanding rules against women serving as priests or senior pastors. Many of these women see these ministry barriers as a nonissue. In a Dallas suburb, more than 6,500 conservative Christian women attended an Oct. 11 conference organized by commentator Allie Beth Stuckey. "Welcome to the fight," was her greeting. Ahead of the conference, Stuckey evoked the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, saying she had been inundated with messages from Christian women…...

3+ week, 3+ day ago (334+ words) The Chicago-born pope was responding Tuesday to a range of geopolitical questions from reporters outside the papal retreat at Castel Gandolfo, including what kind of spiritual rights migrants in U.S. custody should have, U.S. military attacks on suspected drug traffickers off Venezuela and the fragile ceasefire in the Middle East. Leo underlined that scripture emphasizes the question that will be posed at the end of the world: "How did you receive the foreigner, did you receive him and welcome him, or not? I think there is a deep reflection that needs to be made about what is happening." He said "the spiritual rights of people who have been detained should also be considered," and he called on authorities to allow pastoral workers access to the detained migrants. "Many times theyve been separated from their families. No one knows whats happening, but their…...

1+ week, 4+ day ago (387+ words) Leo, who has previously urged local bishops to take the lead on speaking out on matters of social justice, said he appreciated the U.S. bishops" statement and urged Catholics and all people of goodwill to listen to what they said. "I think we have to look for ways of treating people humanely, treating people with the dignity that they have," said the Chicago-born Leo. "If people are in the United States illegally, there are ways to treat that. There are courts, there"s a system of justice." Speaking to reporters as he left the papal country house south of Rome, Leo acknowledged there are problems in the U.S. migration system. But he stressed that no one has said the U.S. should have open borders, and that every country has the right to determine who can enter and how. "But when people are living…...

2+ week, 4+ day ago (617+ words) By TIFFANY STANLEY, Associated Press The United States" Catholic bishops will elect their next president and vice president on Tuesday in Baltimore. The vote acts as a barometer for the bishops" priorities, hinging on whether they choose an outspoken culture warrior as their next leader. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops as a whole was often at odds with the approach of Pope Francis. His successor, Pope Leo XIV, is continuing a similar pastoral emphasis on marginalized people, poverty and the environment. Half the 10 candidates on the ballot come from the conservative wing of the conference. The difference is more in style than substance. Most U.S. Catholic bishops are reliably conservative on social issues, but some place more emphasis on opposing abortion and LGBTQ+ rights. "The slate of 10 candidates perfectly reflects the dynamics of the American hierarchy in that it"s split…...