Harris brings Baptist, interfaith roots to Dem ticket (AP) Kamala Harris, tapped on Tuesday as Joe Biden’s running mate, attended services at both a Black Baptist church and a Hindu temple growing up – an interfaith background that reflects her historic status as the first Black woman and woman of South Asian descent on a major-party presidential ticket. The 55-year-old first-term Democratic senator identifies as a Baptist as an adult and brought another faith into her life in 2014 when she married Douglas Emhoff, a Jewish attorney…
Man charged with stealing $2.5 million from Catholic Church, using pandemic relief money to yacht (The Washington Post) A District man has been charged with fraudulently obtaining more than $2.1 million in federal coronavirus relief loans and stealing more than $427,000 from the Catholic Church, using the money to buy a yacht, a million-dollar rowhouse and a luxury car, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday…
Pope at audience: recognize the human dignity of every person (Vatican News) Pope Francis, continuing his catechesis on the effects of the current pandemic in light of the Church’s social doctrine, noted how Covid-19 has highlighted how vulnerable and interconnected everyone is. “If we do not take care of one another, starting with the least, with those who are most impacted, including creation”, he said, “we cannot heal the world…”
Junípero Serra supported by some Indigenous Catholics, California mission workers (National Catholic Reporter) Andrew Galvan is part of a movement of people speaking out in defense of Serra — local Catholics, Indigenous peoples, and those who work with and in the missions who support the 18th-century priest who founded the California mission system and converted thousands of natives to Christianity…
Lebanon’s message of fraternity (Vatican News) After praying the Angelus on Sunday, Pope Francis said Lebanon has a particular identity, that it is the fruit of the encounter of different cultures, that has emerged over the course of time as a model of living together. In an interview with Vatican News, Bishop Gregory Mansour, Maronite Eparch of Saint Maron of Brooklyn, which covers the eastern United States, explains how Christians outside of Lebanon were sustaining their country prior to the explosion, and how Lebanon’s “identity as a model of different cultures” is sustaining it in the aftermath of last Tuesday’s explosions…
Assisi Franciscans report 18 COVID-19 cases (CNA) While Assisi was largely sheltered from a major coronavirus outbreak during Italy’s lockdown, ten Franciscan friars and eight novices at the landmark pilgrimage destination tested positive this week for COVID-19. On Aug. 10, Fr. Enzo Fortunato, spokesman for the community at the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, said that all 18 men are in isolation and in good health…
Harvey Keitel talks faith and ‘Fatima’ movie (Aleteia) Harvey Keitel is fresh off his latest role as a mob enforcer in Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, and he’s turned around to take a part in the upcoming film Fatima, which follows the true story of the three children who witnessed a series of Marian apparitions in Portugal, during World War I. As the film draws closer to its release (August 28), Keitel has given an interview about his experience on set and how the story of Fatima touched him…
