Religion News: Catholic Church exhumes popular saint
Popular Italian Catholic saint exhumed
The body of the mystic monk Padre Pio, one of the Roman Catholic world's most revered saints who died 40 years ago, has been exhumed to be prepared for display to his many devotees.
The body of the Capuchin friar, who was said to have had the stigmata -- the wounds of Christ's crucifixion -- on his hands and feet -- is to be conserved and put in a part-glass coffin for at least several months starting April 24.
A Church statement said the body was in "fair condition."
A Catholic magazine once found that far more Italian Catholics prayed to Padre Pio than to any other icon of the faith, including the Virgin Mary or Jesus.
Some 7 million people visit his tomb every year. There are some 3,000 "Padre Pio Prayer Groups" around the world, with a membership of around 3 million. - Reuters
Historic Boston church goes modern
The Old North Church, a beacon for Paul Revere's famous warning of the movement of British forces, and a symbol of the American Revolution, has gone high-tech with the installation of light-emitting diodes, or LEDs.
The energy-efficient lights illuminate ceiling vaults inside the church, whose steeple was used to display two lanterns as a signal about British troop movements on April 18, 1775 - the night described in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's famous poem, which included the line: "One if by land, and two if by sea."
The 18 strips of LEDs inside church's sanctuary - replacements for old-fashioned incandescents - may seem an anachronism at the most visited historic site in a city with a rich Revolutionary War legacy. But the lights are tucked into crown molding, illuminating the graceful white ceiling arches while the lights themselves are hidden from direct view by tourists and worshippers below.
"What we've added is light, and beauty," said Ed Pignone, executive director of the Old North Foundation of Boston, which oversees the 285-year-old church. -- The Associated Press
Quote of Note
"In advanced forms of ayahuasca inebriation, the seeing of light is accompanied by profound religious and spiritual feelings. On such occasions, one often feels that in seeing the light, one is encountering the ground of all being ... many identify this power as God."
Benny Shanon of Jerusalem's Hebrew University, who said the biblical Israelites may have been high on a hallucinogenic plant common in the Sinai desert when Moses brought the Ten Commandments down from Mount Sinai. Shanon wrote that he was very familiar with the affects of the ayahuasca plant, having "partaken of the ... brew about 160 times in various locales and contexts." -- Reuters
Get to Know … Saint Patrick
Saint Patrick was a Christian missionary and is the patron saint of Ireland along with Brigid of Kildare and Columba.
Patrick was born in Roman Britain. He entered the church, as his father and grandfather had before him, becoming a deacon and a bishop. He worked in the north and west of Ireland as a missionary. By the eighth century, he had become the patron saint of Ireland.
Legend credits Patrick with banishing snakes from the island, though post-glacial Ireland never actually had snakes. One suggestion is that snakes referred to the serpent symbolism of the Druids or that it could have referred to beliefs such as Pelagianism, symbolized as "serpents."
Legend also credits Patrick with teaching the Irish about the concept of the Trinity by showing people the shamrock, a three-leaved clover, using it to highlight the Christian belief of "three divine persons in the one God."
March 17, popularly known as St. Patrick's Day, is believed to be his death date and is the date celebrated as his feast day.
Survey Says
An extensive new survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life details the religious affiliation of the American public and explores the shifts taking place in the U.S. religious landscape. Over the next few weeks, we'll feature some results of the poll.
The number of Americans who report that they are members of Protestant denominations now stands at barely 51 percent. The Protestant population is characterized by significant internal diversity and fragmentation, encompassing hundreds of different denominations loosely grouped around three fairly distinct religious traditions - evangelical Protestant churches (26.3 percent of the overall adult population), mainline Protestant churches (18.1 percent) and historically black Protestant churches (6.9 percent).
Good Book?
"Wide Open Spaces: Beyond Paint-by-Number Christianity" by Jim Palmer employs a personal, homespun style to dissent from Christianity-as-usual. Palmer examines such spiritual disciplines as honing one's belief system in accordance with biblical principles; advancing the gospel outside of church walls; dismantling ineffective church practices; and discovering purpose in unexpected places. He might raise the hackles of some evangelicals with a confessional narrative of putting aside the Bible for a season. Palmer shed this conventional religion as he purposefully tuned out preachers and others quoting or referring to it, and writes that the result was that God spoke to him through nature, people, art, film and music. - Publishers Weekly
The Word
Zealots: From the Greek phrase "to be enthusiastic." Originally, it was the name of a small group of Pharisees in Judea who used terrorist tactics to attack the occupying Roman Army. Their goal was religious and political independence from Rome. The term has since evolved to refer to any extreme radical religious group or individual. -- religioustolerance.org
Religion Around the World
Religious makeup of Italy
Roman Catholic: 90 percent (about one-third regularly attend services)
Other: 10 percent (includes Protestant and Jewish communities and a growing Muslim immigrant community)
- CIA Factbook
GateHouse News Service