The Catholic Church’s ban on female priests will stand forever, Pope Francis said Tuesday.
CHR Comment: Francis is frustrating progressives in the Roman Catholic Church. Although he has expressed openness on many issues, little is actually changing under his charge. Here is a significant example. Despite his apparent conservatism, he makes many statements that rile conservative Catholics.
Catholic Europe shunned England so the Protestant queen traded with its enemies—and changed her country’s culture forever.
CHR Comment: The article is a book review for The Sultan and The Queen, which explores the trade relationship between Protestant England and Muslims.
Source: The Secret History of Elizabeth I’s Alliance With Islam
The Catholic Church in England and Wales is launching a new website aimed at practically and spiritually helping both Catholics and non-Catholics alike grapple with issues around death and dying, and to prepare, ideally, for a “good death”.
CHR Comment: This is a modern version of the late medieval Ars Moriendi, by which people prepared to face death.
Surrounded by charred walls and in front of a ruined altar, dozens of Iraqi Christians celebrated mass at the Church of the Immaculate Conception.
CHR Comment: Christians were driven out in August 2014 when ISIS troops occupied the city and issued an ultimatum that they should convert or else.
CHR Comment: The inn located at Assos included a Byzantine chapel. Pictured above is a theater at Assos, which overlooks the Aegean Sea.
Source: Byzantine-Era Inn Found in Anatolia – Archaeology Magazine
Church attendance is correlated with longer life and a sense of meaning.
CHR Comment: This may explain why religion, despite its detractors in modern life, will simply never go away—there are simply too many benefits associated with religious beliefs and practices.
Researchers recently uncovered a stone burial slab which many believe Jesus Christ’s body may have been laid on after his death.
CHR Comment: The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built in AD 325 during the reign of Constantine and is the traditional site where Jesus was buried.
Source: ‘Burial slab’ of Jesus found in Jerusalem church
Here is a link directly to a National Geographic story.
Here is a link to the Washington Post story.
Martin Luther created one of Christianity’s greatest rifts when he denounced the Catholic Church in 1517. But Pope Francis is taking part in the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.
CHR Comment: This article’s title is written in a shockingly prejudicial way, blaming Luther for the break up of Western Christendom since he criticized practices of medieval Catholicism. A more balance description might acknowledge that Roman Catholicism also acknowledged problems and sought to address them at the Council of Trent and in other actions.
The article itself shows more historical balance.
A mother who cited religious freedom as a defense for beating her son with a coat hanger was sentenced to a year on probation.
CHR Comment: In her defense, Burmese refugee Khin Par Thaing cited Proverbs 23:13 as the basis of her actions.
The Ten Commandments now has a tentative price tag: $250,000.
CHR Comment: This is a Samaritan copy of the Ten Commandments from the era of early Christianity, though written in paleo-Hebrew.
church history review 