Web Chick's Blog

By ARIEL DAVID Associated Press Writer

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Believing that the universe may contain alien life does not contradict a faith in God, the Vatican's chief astronomer said in an interview published Tuesday.

The Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, was quoted as saying the vastness of the universe means it is possible there could be other forms of life outside Earth, even intelligent ones.

"How can we rule out that life may have developed elsewhere?" Funes said. "Just as we consider earthly creatures as 'a brother,' and 'sister,' why should we not talk about an 'extraterrestrial brother'? It would still be part of creation."

A fellow passenger on the United flight Wednesday from John F. Kennedy airport in New York to San Francisco says the Orthodox Jewish man was praying near the lavatories during boarding and ignored flight attendants telling him to return to his seat.

When the man stopped praying, he explained that he couldn't interrupt his religious ritual.

An airline spokeswoman says the man was taken off the plane, and put on another flight Thursday.

The baby, Lali, has a single head with one set of ears. But she has two noses, two pairs of lips and two pairs of eyes. The local hospital director says Lali is healthy otherwise, "drinks milk from her two mouths and opens and shuts all the four eyes at one time."

Rural India is deeply superstitious and the little girl is being hailed as a return of the Hindu goddess Durga, a fiery deity traditionally depicted with three eyes and many arms.

Her father says up to 100 people have been visiting Lali at her home every day to touch her feet out of respect, offer money and receive blessings. A village official says, "Lali is God's gift to us."

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Read more about the baby and see photos HERE.

They're giving up their convent and moving in with another order 60 miles away.

The Carmelites, who've maintained a presence on Indianapolis' northwest side for 75 years, are moving this summer to the southeastern Indiana town of Oldenburg to live alongside the Sisters of St. Francis.

Only nine of the Carmelite convent's nuns are left, and their average age is in the mid-70s. Meanwhile, efforts in recent years to recruit new members have produced few takers.

It's a fate other religious orders for women also face. The Sisters of St. Francis in Oldenburg, where the Carmelites are headed, have dropped from a peak of 850 to about 290.

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Here is the link to the St. Louis order.

Prison Fellowship vice president Pat Nolan says he'll attend today's signing ceremony, although his ministry doesn't plan to apply for grants under the Second Chance Act.

Nolan says the funds can help local churches recruit and train volunteers who can minister with the personal concern that keeps inmates accountable and makes mentoring effective.

Nolan says, "We can't expect the government to love people that way, but that's what the church is supposed to do."

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Does your house of worship sponsor any programs like this?

Should tax money be given to programs like those mentioned above?

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Islam has surpassed Roman Catholicism as the world's largest religion, the Vatican newspaper said Sunday.

"For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top: Muslims have overtaken us," Monsignor Vittorio Formenti said in an interview with the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano. Formenti compiles the Vatican's yearbook.

He said that Catholics accounted for 17.4 percent of the world population -- a stable percentage -- while Muslims were at 19.2 percent.

"It is true that while Muslim families, as is well known, continue to make a lot of children, Christian ones on the contrary tend to have fewer and fewer," the monsignor said.

Formenti said that the data refer to 2006. The figures on Muslims were put together by Muslim countries and then provided to the United Nations, he said, adding that the Vatican could only vouch for its own data.

When considering all Christians and not just Catholics, Christians make up 33 percent of the world population, Formenti said.

Spokesmen for the Vatican and the United Nations did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment Sunday.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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Here are some more stats on world religions ...

Wikipedia

Adherents

ReligiousTolerance.org

Bush Names Muslim Businessman As Envoy To Islamic Conference

WHITE HOUSE (AP) -- President Bush, acknowledging that the U.S. needs to burnish its image in the Muslim world, has named a Texas businessman as liaison to The Organization of the Islamic Conference.

Sada Cumber, who is a Muslim by faith, is the first U.S. special envoy to the OIC, which represents more than 50 Islamic states and promotes Muslim solidarity in social and political affairs.

Bush said the United States is misunderstood and that Cumber's mission is to explain to the Islamic world that America "is a friend of freedom" and that the United States values the freedom of religion.

Bush's new envoy has founded six companies in the past 25 years and currently is chairman of SozoTek, a global imaging technology company.

Pastor Wants Fine For Pre-War Travel To Iraq Rescinded

NEW YORK (AP) -- A pastor who defied government restrictions and traveled to Iraq in 2003 to protest the pending U.S. invasion wants the $6,700 fine that was levied against him rescinded.

A lawyer for the Reverend Frederick Boyle told a federal judge Wednesday that the government unfairly singled Boyle out for punishment because of his anti-war stance.

Boyle's lawyer contends that the Methodist pastor's anti-war advocacy was a core part of his constitutionally-protected religious beliefs.

A lawyer from the U.S. Attorney's Office responded that the government was within its rights to implement the travel ban to pre-war Iraq, and said there was no evidence that Boyle was prosecuted for his views while others were not.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- Senator Hillary Clinton says one of her favorite Bible verses teaches that "we cannot just be hearers of the word; we must be doers."

The Democratic presidential hopeful spoke Sunday morning from the pulpit of the Northminster Presbyterian Church USA in Columbia, South Carolina.

Clinton told the predominantly black congregation, "Faith without works is dead." But she added, "I know from long experience that works without faith is just too hard."

She delivered the same message recently at the Reverend Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in California.

Clinton and Democratic rival Barack Obama both have courted black Christians as they compete for the large black Democratic vote in South Carolina's January 26th Democratic primary.

Giuliani Asks Church For Prayers

MIAMI (AP) -- With his plan for winning the GOP presidential nomination riding largely on a Florida victory at the end of the month, Rudy Giuliani has asked an evangelical congregation for prayers.

Giuliani quoted the Bible on Sunday, telling several thousand worshippers at El Rey Jesus church in Miami, "Fear not, be strong, and of good courage."

The church was his first stop on a three-day bus tour through Florida.

Giuliani said, "I'm not coming here to ask for your vote. That's up to you and it's not the right place." But he said, "I am coming here to ask you for something very special and more important: I'm asking for your prayers."

Huckabee Preaches In Primary States

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) -- Republican Mike Huckabee continues to court evangelical Christians as he campaigns in Michigan and South Carolina, which hold presidential primaries this week.

After preaching Sunday morning at the First Baptist Church of Spartanburg, South Carolina, Huckabee flew to Michigan for a Sunday evening service at the Apostolic Church of Auburn Hills.

As he has in other churches, Huckabee avoided politics while he was in the pulpit Sunday morning, preaching instead about the need to trust in Jesus Christ to get into heaven.

But First Baptist Spartanburg's senior pastor encouraged members of his megachurch to vote the way they try to live their lives, by the principles of the Bible.

On Saturday, Huckabee met with about 100 pastors in Grand Rapids, Michigan, urging them to use their address books and e-mail lists to get out the vote.

Christian Teens Learning How Washington Works

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Christian organization called TeenPact is taking 63 Christian teenagers to Washington this week to teach them how to impact the culture and the nation.

They plan to hold a pro-life news conference on Capitol Hill, work alongside Christian lobbyists at the Family Research Council and visit the National Press Club.

Asher Bontreger, an 18-year-old student from Rensselaer, Indiana, says he wants to challenge his generation to "fight for what is morally right in our nation."

Kirstin Roseveare, an 18-year-old from Colorado, says Christian teens also can make a difference by living up to their principles and explaining them to other young people.

TeenPact's Web site says it "brings kids closer to Jesus Christ, makes them better leaders and positions them to impact public policy."

Just imagine all the changes this guy saw in his lifetime!

-- Jill --
The Web Chick

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Kansas City Catholic Priest Dies After Longest Active Tenure In A Parish

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) -- A Roman Catholic priest died Christmas Day after leading his parish for 63 years, ending what is believed to be the longest active tenure at a U.S. Catholic church. He was 98.

Monsignor Heliodore Mejak became a priest in 1935. He said his first Mass at Holy Family Church on Aug. 1, 1944, and never left. The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas believes Mejak was the nation's oldest active priest.

He celebrated Mass until about a week before his death despite failing health and eyesight.

"He couldn't see," said Kevin Fogarty, a Wyandotte County firefighter who had attended the church for about 10 years. "He wore 'welding goggles' with huge magnifiers. When he said Mass, it was obvious he was reciting from memory. He couldn't read it at all."

Holy Family, a Slovenian parish, drew parishioners who shared Mejak's theological conservatism. He resisted attempts to have laymen serve Holy Communion and said it should be served only from a priest's hand, not in the hand of the recipient.

Mejak also ignored a Second Vatican Council recommendation for parishioners to shake hands or hug as a sign of peace during Mass, saying it distracted from the Eucharist.

In addition to his religious duties, he carried out repairs in the church, cut the grass, managed the finances and even prepared the weekly bulletin.

Mejak graduated from St. Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan., and Catholic University in Washington. He served several churches in Kansas before being sent to Holy Family, where he had to learn the Slovenian language

Obama Endorsed By Dozens Of Black SC Ministers

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama picked up the endorsement today of almost 130 black South Carolina ministers.

South Carolina is an early voting state where Obama is running even with rival Hillary Rodham Clinton for the crucial black vote.

The endorsements for the Illinois senator came a week after Clinton visited upstate South Carolina, where she announced the endorsements of more than 80 black ministers.

A poll this week by The Associated Press and the nonpartisan Pew Research Center found Clinton and Obama even in support from black voters. They comprise about half of the Democratic primary voters in South Carolina.

Fall brings around many celebrations that seem rather fun - hayrides, Halloween, harvest festivals, etc. 

Many people know a little about All Saints Day (which follows Halloween), but I found it interesting to learn as an adult about Dia De Los Muertos. What a fantastic idea!  Remember back on your loved ones in a happy way, not just a sad way.

The little Cuban market where hubby and I get those great media noches also has a few things for Dia De Los Muertos, so I researched it a few years ago.

Have you ever celebrated Dia De Los Muertos?  Would you like to learn more about it and try it out?

-- Jill --
The Web Chick