April 14, 2008

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
'Bitter' remarks cloud faith, values forum
Peter Nicholas/Los Angeles Times (04/14/2008)
Making back-to-back appearances Sunday night in a televised forum on faith and values, the Democratic rivals continued the escalating fight over a recent comment in which Obama said, among other things, that embittered small-town voters "cling to guns or religion."

Obama tackles Catholic challenge
Glenn Thrush and Nia-Malika Henderson/Chicago Tribune (04/14/2008)
Catholics are among the most powerful swing voting blocs in American politics; they backed the winner in seven of the last eight presidential elections. And Obama’s failure to connect with a majority of Catholics in the Democratic primaries is one of his campaign’s biggest headaches — one that poses a major threat to his chances of winning heavily-Catholic Pennsylvania next week and the big prize in November, experts say.

BENEDICT XVI
Uncertain Church Awaits Pope in U.S.
Laurie Goodstein/New York Times (04/14/2008)
When the pope arrives in the United States on Tuesday, he will find an American church in which many Catholics are eager not only for his spiritual guidance, but also for his acknowledgment that their church is going through a time of pain and uncertainty.

Bush Readies Big Welcome for Pope
Jennifer Loven/Associated Press (04/14/2008: chicagotribune.com)
WASHINGTON - The leader of the world's Roman Catholics has been to the White House only once in history. That changes this week, and President Bush is pulling out all the stops: driving out to a suburban military base to meet Pope Benedict XVI's plane, bringing a giant audience to the South Lawn and hosting a fancy East Room dinner. These are all firsts.

Pope and Bush have foreign policy differences
Tabassum Zakaria/Reuters (04/14/2008)
WASHINGTON - Pope Benedict and President George W. Bush disagree on the Iraq war and other foreign policy issues, but their White House meeting this week may focus more on areas of agreement like abortion.

Vestments are more than just clothes for the pope
David Gibson/Star-Ledger (04/14/2008)
During Pope Benedict XVI's visit this week, the first since his election three years ago, Catholics will listen intently to what he says, and how he says it, all in hopes of figuring out if Joseph Ratzinger has indeed become a kindly German shepherd or whether he remains God's Rottweiler, one of the many monikers he earned during a long tenure as the Vatican's doctrinal watchdog. Yet as important as Benedict's words will be in introducing the pope to an American audience that knows little about him, it may be just as important to check out what he's wearing.

POLYGAMY
Polygamy case poses 'logistical nightmare' for courts
CNN (04/14/2008)
A judge needs to determine what will happen to more than 400 children removed from a polygamist sect in central Texas. But that means a small town must find a way to accommodate lawyers, journalists, church members and activists.

Tex. Compound Was Considered A 'Holy Land'
Sylvia Moreno/Washington Post (04/14/2008)
ELDORADO, Tex., April 13 -- The secretive and insular community established near this West Texas town by a radical offshoot of the Mormon Church is considered by the sect's members to be a holy shrine populated by its most fervent adherents and is propped up financially by members of the group living in other states, according to law enforcement officials and former members.

DEATH PENALTY
Child Rape Tests Limits Of Death Penalty
Robert Barnes/Washington Post (04/14/2008)
Ever since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty more than 30 years ago, justices have been finding ways to limit it. But on Wednesday the court will consider whether a person who rapes a child is different. Louisiana prosecutors will argue that the same societal mores that have persuaded justices to spare certain categories of criminals lead in the opposite direction when it comes to child rapists, demanding an expansion of capital punishment, not a retrenchment.

DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE
Quick cuts part of Passover tradition
Stephanie Desmon/Baltimore Sun (04/14/2008)
The Sunday before the holiday is a big day for a hair salon in Pikesville as parents rush their kids in for one more trim

Skillfully preserving Jewish ritual
Erica Noonan/Boston Globe (04/14/2008)
With just two dozen or so active mohels serving Eastern Massachusetts, many young parents seeking a traditional berit mila - religious circumcision in accordance with Jewish law - describe a frantic and stressful search to book a mohel in the days following their newborn's birth. To increase the numbers requires lobbying an already busy group of men and women to take on a time-consuming and important religious responsibility.