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Verdi's Jewish opera
CNN's Michael Schwartz attended a dress rehearsal for "Nabucco" — known as Verdi's Jewish opera — in the Israeli desert and spoke with maestro Daniel Oren. Here's some background from Schwartz:
The stars illuminating the velvet black night gaze down on the blue skull cap, or kippah, of the T-shirted conductor. Suddenly, he halts the dress rehearsal.
Filed under: Culture & Science • Judaism
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Sacred Spaces: Mormon temple in Vancouver
From time to time the CNN Belief Blog will take a look inside sacred spaces from different faiths. CNN's Chris Ford brings us this look inside a Mormon temple in Canada:
For years, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints living in British Columbia had to travel either to Seattle, Washington, in the United States or to Alberta, Canada, to visit a Mormon temple.
Filed under: Belief • Mormonism
Sexy nun too far for Lady Gaga?
Lady Gaga appears in costumes resembling a nun's habit in the video "Alejandro."
Tough story to ignore this week, it's one that's making noise across the religious blogosphere.
Lady Gaga's exceptionally long music video (which apparently people still make) "Alejandro" uses a lot of Catholic imagery - including Gaga dressed up as a sexy nun in a shiny red and white habit and eating a rosary.
Eric Marrapodi - CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor
Filed under: Culture & Science
Faces of Faith: U.S. Senate chaplain
In this week's Faces of Faith, CNN's T.J. Holmes sits down with U.S. Senate chaplain the Rev. Barry C. Black to talk about providing spiritual care on the Hill to a "congregation" of 7,000 senators and staffers.
Filed under: Faith • Politics
My Take: Why I can't accept the pope's latest apology
Editor's Note: David Clohessy is executive director of the U.S.-based international support group SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
By David Clohessy, Special to CNN
Let's be brutally honest: all of us want the Catholic Church's ongoing clergy sex abuse and cover-up crisis to end. Like the BP Gulf oil catastrophe or the never-ending Middle East conflict, it's tragic, wearing and seemingly intractable.
In fact, we're all so desperate to see some light—any light—at the end of this awful tunnel that often we look for, cling to, and exaggerate even a hint of progress. It's a dangerous place to be, because such despondency tempts us to seize on "false idols" and apparent glimmers of hope that, sadly, are illusory.
Such is the case with Pope Benedict XVI's apology on Friday.
Filed under: Bishops • Catholic Church • Opinion • Pope Benedict XVI • Sex abuse
Cardinal should quit over abuse scandal, most Irish say
Three out of four Irish adults say the country's top churchman, Cardinal Sean Brady, should resign for his role in hiding abuse of children by one of the country's most notoriously abusive priests decades ago, according to a poll published by the Irish Times Monday.
Brady (pictured) was part of an internal church investigation into Father Brendan Smyth in 1975. He did not report his findings to the police and asked two teenagers who gave him evidence to sign oaths of secrecy.
Child abuse by Catholic clergy in Ireland has become such a widespread scandal that the pope addressed it in an unprecedented pastoral letter to Irish Catholics.
Richard Allen Greene - Newsdesk editor, The CNN Wire
Filed under: Bishops • Catholic Church • Sex abuse
Church abuse scandal gets unprecedented ink in Europe
Pope Benedict XVI during a visit to Malta in April.
We all know the news media has covered the Catholic sex abuse scandal intensely these last few months, as allegations of church abuse have piled up like never before in countries across Europe. But a new report from the Pew Research Center, released on the heels of the Pope's remarks on the abuse scandal Friday, shows exactly how historic the press coverage has been.
Dan Gilgoff - CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor
Filed under: Catholic Church • News media • Pope Benedict XVI