Below The Beltway

Brad Warbiany writes about a University of Central Florida student who decided to engage in what some would probably call “performance art”:
University of Central Florida student claims that he is getting death threats for messing with something sacred.
Webster Cook says that, instead of eating a Eucharist wafer as he was expected to do during the [...]

The Catholic Church is moving to excommunicate Catholics who have participated in unsanctioned, and illegal under Canon Law, ordinations of women priests:
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican issued its most explicit decree so far against the ordination of women priests on Thursday, punishing them and the bishops who try to ordain them with automatic excommunication.
The [...]

Not so much from his boss, or his boss on Earth, but from Chicago’s Cardinal:
The leader of Chicago’s Roman Catholic Archdiocese today sharply criticized a former adviser to Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign after the priest mocked Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) during two separate sermons on Sunday.
Saying he wanted “to avoid months of turmoil in [...]

A celebration of the 150th anniversary of On The Origin Of Species will be held next year at The Vatican:
The Vatican is planning a special conference in 2009 to mark the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of the Species, Charles Darwin’s groundbreaking theory of evolution.
First printed in November 1859, Darwin’s evolutionary [...]

The Vatican talks about the issue of extraterrestrial life:
VATICAN CITY (AP) - The Vatican’s chief astronomer says that believing in aliens does not contradict faith in God.
The Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, says that the vastness of the universe means it is possible there could be other forms of [...]

Early today, Pope Benedict XVI visited the memorial site at Ground Zero in New York City:
NEW YORK, April 20 — Pope Benedict XVI transformed a four-story-deep hole at the bedrock of Ground Zero into a prayer site Sunday morning, lighting a candle symbolizing resurrection and praying with victims of the Sept. 11 attacks for “peace [...]

Kudos to Pope Benedict XVI for speaking up for immigrants and ignoring the nativism that’s becoming more popular in the United States:
Even as he was flying to the United States, Pope Benedict XVI spoke of protecting immigrant families, not dividing them.
He raised the issue again in a meeting on Wednesday with President Bush, and later [...]

The winner by far, Congressman Tom Tancredo for dissing the Pope:
Rep. Tom Tancredo blasted the pro-immigrant message of visiting Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday, accusing the pontiff of using “faith-based marketing” to boost foreign-born attendance at parishes in the United States.
“I suspect the pope’s immigration comments may have less to do with spreading the [...]

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As America welcomes Benedict XVI to Washington, D.C., Rick Sincere provides a first-hand account of another Pope’s visit, and a Mass on the National Mall.