I thought folks in the faith community might be interested in this story about Notre Dame and how Catholicism and football merge tonight.

At the heart of Notre Dame’s legendary football program is a careworn balancing act. The team is unapologetically Catholic,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Read the entire article for yourself: 

Wall Street Journal: “Notre Dame’s Holy Line”

Carla Hinton

Religion Editor

Judging from his rapidly increasing number of followers, lots of folks are interested in what Pope Benedict will say when he shares his first few tweets latt this month.

The Vatican announced the Pontiff’s intent to begin tweeting yesterday and the pope has already amassed more than 200,000 followers, according to some news reports.

Here are a few news stories about Pope Benedict’s coming foray into the Twitterspere:

Huffington Post: “Pope Joins Twitter”

Boston Globe: “Pope joins tweeting masses with Pontifex handle”

And then there’s Bloomberg Business Week’s list of some of the more interesting tweets following the Vatican’s announcement: Bloomberg Businessweek: “The 10 Best Tweets About Pope Benedict Joining Twitter”

The tweets featured by Businessweek were pretty humorous … and pretty tame, for which I am glad.

I’m going to Twitter right now to follow the Pope.  

Carla Hinton

Religion Editor 

I had an interview with Tim O’Connor, executive director of Catholic Charities, this afternoon and he told me that he and several members of his staff and a board member visited Notre Dame this week for a workshop. He said he wore blue and gold, Notre Dame’s colors, as he told other workshop participants about Catholic Charities’  work in Oklahoma.

 O’Connor said at the end of his talk, he took off his gold sweater with a flourish … to reveal an OU jersey.

He said he just had to reveal that crimson and cream after all.

The crowd loved that … a jolt of humor about what everyone is talking about these days any way… the BIG game.

Carla Hinton

Religion Editor  

Actually, O’Connor said he has many reasons to root for both schools. He said he has always had great respect for Notre Dame. He said a few years ago, the university presented him with an award for his community service in Oklahoma City.

As for OU, O’Connor said three of his four children attended the university.

“You love ‘em both,” he said, chuckling.

That’s according to a news story from the Catholic News Service. 

The news service is reporting that the Vatican just published its rules for verifying Marian apparitions.

“More than 1,500 visions of Mary have been reported around the world, but in the past century only nine cases have received church approval as worthy of belief,,” the news service said in its report.

Read more here: ”Vatican publishes rules for verifying Marian apparitions”

Carla Hinton

Religion Editor

She talked about her new book ”Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War” in which she shares that she was raised Roman Catholic but found out that her family is Jewish and many of her family members died during the Holocaust.

See the segment here:  “Madeleine Albright Reflects on a Childhood During Wartime” 

By the way, I’m reading “A Wrinkle in Time” again as this is the book’s 50th anniversary. How did I not catch all the religious symbolism before? As a kid, maybe I just wasn’t able to put it all in context.

Anyway, I’m enjoying it again. I do plan to pick up “Prague Winter” and read it as well.

Carla Hinton

Religion Editor

Pope Benedict celebrated his 85th birthday on Monday and marks another important milestone today.

The pontiff celebrates the 7th anniversary of his election to the papacy today. I have read several stories on different websites that the pope might be thinking about retiring to enjoy the rest of his days without the demands of the papacy. No one has heard that come from the pope himself so it’s safe to say that that isn’t happening at this time.   

Here’s an Associated Press story from Vatican City that sheds some light on the pontiff’s milestones and his thoughts about them:  

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI prayed Sunday for the strength to carry on as he marks two major milestones this week: his 85th birthday and the seventh anniversary of his election to the papacy.

The comments, while innocuous, were the clearest sign yet that Benedict has no intention of resigning anytime soon despite his age and increasing frailty.

“Next Thursday, on the occasion of the seventh anniversary of my election to the See of Peter, I ask for your prayers, so that the Lord gives me the strength to fulfill the mission he entrusted to me,” he said in French to thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square.

Benedict has slowed down recently – he was seen in public for the first time using a cane when he boarded his plane for Mexico last month. During the long, six-day trip to Mexico and Cuba, he at times looked exhausted. He looked similarly tired during the busy Holy Week services that greeted him upon his return to Rome.

But Benedict’s health is remarkably strong for someone his age. He has never canceled a planned event due to illness and suffers from no known chronic illnesses. Few men his age go to work every day, run a 1 billion-strong church, write books, deliver speeches and meet with visiting heads of state.

And Benedict has some very pressing issues on his agenda. The Vatican is expected to receive word soon from a breakaway group of traditionalist Catholics on whether they will accept the Holy See’s terms for reconciliation.

The group, the Society of St. Pius X, opposes some of the core teachings of the Second Vatican Council, particularly its outreach to Jews. Benedict, who is not unsympathetic to some of their concerns, has worked since the start of his pontificate to try to bring the group back under Rome’s wing out of fear that its members are essentially creating a parallel church.

On the other side of the spectrum are hundreds of dissident priests who are making their voices heard in Europe: Priest movements in Austria and Ireland are calling for a relaxation of the celibacy requirement for priests and for the church to ordain women – two things the Vatican has ruled out.

Benedict appeared so concerned by the Austrian initiative in particular that he dedicated much of his Holy Thursday homily to reminding its members that he had no authority whatsoever to allow female priests since an all-male priesthood is an “irrevocable” church teaching.

Other big events on the pope’s agenda include a trip to Lebanon in September, a meeting of the world’s bishops in Rome the following month and, farther ahead, World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in the summer of 2013.

(Cutline: AP Photo/ Pope Benedict XVI blesses faithful while touring St. Peter’s Square during the weekly general audience at the Vatican on Wednesday, April 18.)

Carla Hinton

Religion Editor

 Pope Benedict XVI has met with Cuba’s former leader, Fidel Castro, Vatican officials said Wednesday.  

The pope also met with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The pontiff celebrated Mass in Havana’s Revolution Plaza on Wednesday, steering clear of political statements but saying that “Cuba and the world need change.”

 Earlier in his trip, the pontiff prayed for “those deprived of freedom” and told reporters that Cuba’s Marxist political system “no longer corresponds to reality.”

On Tuesday evening, the pope met with Cuban President Raul Castro, both privately and publicly. Raul Castro took over the reins when older brother Fidel stepped down six years ago.

(AP PHOTO: A woman receives a communion wafer from Pope Benedict XVI at an open-air Mass led by the the pontiff in Revolution Square, in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday March 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Ismael Francisco, Cubadebate) Carla Hinton

Religion Editor

Baptist Press reports that Southern Baptist leaders wrote a column published in The Washington Post in which they voiced their opposition to the contraception mandate. They called the mandate, a  ”blatant and outrageous encroachment on religious freedom.”

The column was co-signed by Richard Land, The SBC’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission president; SBC President Bryant Wright; and GuideStone Financial Resources President O.S. Hawkins.

Land has visited Oklahoma City at least once over the last several years as a guest speaker for various events sponsored by Oklahoma Southern Baptists.

Read the Washington Post column, posted on the Post’s On Faith blog: “Why Baptists stand with Catholics on birth control mandate”

Carla Hinton

Religion Editor  

Apparently, this is part of the pontiff’s desire to reach the techno-savvy.

Will you follow the pope @Pope2UVatican?

Here’s more on the subject from MSN:  “Pope will tweet during Lent to reach the ‘media savvy’“  

Carla Hinton

Religion Editor

Coakley, who celebrates his first year as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City this month, has expressed interest in seeing the Church connect with other through the Internet.

So it comes as no surprise that the archdiocese has unveiled its newly revamped website at http://archokc.org/

Today, Loutitia Eason, the archdiocese’s chancellor, said archdiocesan staff began working on the website’s new look about a year ago because the site’s presentation was antiquated.

“It was old and it hadn’t been updated in years,” she said.

Eason said the new website went live on Feb. 17.  She said there’s still work to be done but “we’re really happy that it’s up and running.”

About Coakley, Eason said the archbishop welcomed the new look.

“He’s very into technology,” she said.

Coakley’s installation as Oklahoma City archbishop was held Feb. 11, 2011 in Edmond.

Carla Hinton

Religion Editor