Free Republic

Let Us Pray A Call for More Orthodoxy, and Latin Mass, for the Troubled Church Jersey City There was a time in the Roman Catholic Church, a generation ago, when codified rituals and whispered prayers embraced the mysterious power of God. In more recent days, the whispers have been of a more profane nature as Catholics from the occasional congregant to the Pope have wrestled with the painful issue of priests who sexually abuse children. The ensuing scandal - which is roiling the American Catholic Church as nothing else in its history - has prompted many to call for...

My Catholic in-laws get together one Saturday each month to break bread and to pray the rosary. They always invite me and my wife to join them – in hope, I suspect, that my wife will return to the Catholic faith of her youth and that her husband, a lifelong Protestant, will convert. With the start of the new year, we decided we would attend the family’s very first montly gathering. And I very much enjoyed spending time with my in-laws. But during the almost hour-long, ritualistic praying of the rosary, I never felt the presence of the Holy Spirit....

Two weeks ago, somebody broke into a Woodland church and stole donation money out of a safe. Last night vandals returned and did even more damage, including spray painting statues. Holy Rosary Catholic Church has stood at the corner of Walnut and Court Streets for more than a half century. Church volunteers spent today doing what they could to remove black spray paint from statues of Mary Magdalene, Mary the Mother of Jesus, and Jesus on the cross. One of the helpers just happened to be driving by, saw the damage, and asked for a washcloth. "It's just very, there...

Goddess RosaryJoining scholars like Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza and Letty Russell and a growing number of feminist theologians in reconceptualizing the canon and biblical authority ... connect with the Holy Other in holy writings and sacred rites. The banner on the outside of Ebenezer Lutheran Church boldly proclaims “Goddess Rosary Every Wednesday 7 p.m.” Doubtless this precipitates questions in the minds of passers-by: a rosary at a Lutheran church? A feminist take on a ritual indigenous to a denomination with an especially strong patriarchal foundation? I was eager to experience this new phenomenon, and it was with open mind and heart...