Religion

Vatican laws have changed to toughen sexual abuse punishment for perpetrators . . . Oh, and, by the way, women still are not allowed to enter the priesthood

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The photo is of the Seven Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, nuns who survived 13 desert days travelling from San Diego to Tucson in a covered wagon in May of 1880. The women, hired to teach at Archbishop Jean-Baptist Salpoint's school, soon opened schools of their own, as well as St. Mary's Hospital, the first hospital in Arizona. That facility, along with others belonging to the Carondelet Sisters, was recently sold.

On June 1, 2021, the Vatican announced punishments directed at priests and clergy regarding the protection of children from sexual abuse: Pope Francis has changed the Roman Catholic Church laws to explicitly criminalise sexual abuse of children with penalties described at all levels of complicity. . It’s the biggest overhaul of the criminal code for …

Read moreVatican laws have changed to toughen sexual abuse punishment for perpetrators . . . Oh, and, by the way, women still are not allowed to enter the priesthood

Legislative Lion Sister Clare Dunn Receives AzWHF Honor

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Sister Clare Dunn, the first Catholic nun elected to public office in the United States and who served as a Tucson Democrat in the Arizona House of Representatives from 1975 to 1981, will be inducted into the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame on March 23. Sister Clare and her legislative assistant, Sister Judith Lovchik, were …

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The Shadowy Fundamentalist Organization at the Heart of Government (and Mike Pence is a Member)

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Picture of Vice President Mike Pence

Given that our new Vice President is a member of the powerful, but shadowy, Washington, D.C. evangelical group “The Family” (officially, the Fellowship Foundation), Jeff Sharlet’s 2008 book The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power would seem worth looking at again. And it is hardly a reassuring re-read for anybody already …

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American Bestsellers, Jesus, and the Slaughter of All Non-Believers

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Book cover for the Left Behind Series

Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, The Left Behind series, Tyndale House Publishers, 1995-2004 There is a trend afoot to lash out violently at the apparent dominance of “cosmopolitan” culture. This was vividly seen in the violent attack in Paris, traditionally a citadel of cosmopolitanism, on the freewheeling, anti-clerical publication Charlie Hebdo. But of course …

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