Europe’s churches find new spirit from Muslim refugees

SPIREOn a recent Sunday in Broby in southern Sweden, some 100 people settled in for morning service at their Lutheran church. There was nothing unusual about the liturgy – apart from the fact that some 20 worshipers were wearing headphones to hear a simultaneous translation. They were asylum seekers from Muslim countries.

Their presence has grown increasingly customary at this 1930s-era, peach-colored church in the past half year. In fact, as the population of asylum seekers has grown in this town of 3,000, so too has a new curiosity about Christianity. MORE

Break in ‘unholy’ cold case: Police arrest former beauty queen’s priest in her 1960 killing

BEAUTYFifty-six years ago, a young schoolteacher went to church during Holy Week and never came home.

The next day, a few of her possessions were found scattered along the road outside the local Sacred Heart Church, as Texas Monthly recounted. One high-heeled shoe, a patent-leather handbag, a piece of crumpled white lace.

The following week, her body was found, fully dressed and badly bruised, retrieved from a canal in which someone had left her to decompose, her corpse washed clean of evidence. An autopsy found that she had been raped while comatose. MORE

Russia’s warming relations with the Vatican

RUSVATPope Francis revealed that following a speech he delivered to the European Parliament in which he described Europe as “haggard” and “now a ‘grandmother’, no longer fertile and vibrant.” Speaking to Italian daily Corriere della Sera in the Feb. 8 report, Francis said he an angry phone call from German Chancellor Angela Merkel after the 2014 speech. He told the newspaper, “She was a bit angry because I had compared Europe to a barren woman, incapable of producing children.” MORE

The Moscow-Jerusalem axis over Syria

MOSCPolitics Trouble in Paradise?

Russia’s offensive in Syria is paying big dividends, and not only for the coalition assembled by Russian President Vladimir Putin. As a consequence of understandings reached between Putin and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since the beginning of the Russian bombing campaign in September, Israel has become a silent if uneasy partner, along with Iran and Hezbollah, in the energised campaign to defeat the increasingly besieged opposition.  MORE

Is Russia Winning Syrian War With Its Anti-ISIS Coalition?

Palace of Henry VIII to Hold First Catholic Service

10London-web-master675“Henry VIII will be spinning in his grave!”  Not really, if anything he would be laughing because he would know that the service is not Catholic.

LONDON — “Henry VIII will be spinning in his grave!” said the headline inThe Daily Mail, a British tabloid.

Hampton Court Palace, where the Tudor king, Henry, broke off ties with the papacy in 1530 just to divorce his first wife and marry his mistress — with whom he was besotted and whom he later beheaded — on Tuesday held its first Roman Catholic service in more than 450 years. MORE

How the Satanic Temple forced Phoenix lawmakers to ban public prayer

DEVFor weeks now, Phoenix lawmakers have wrestled with the idea of allowing members of a Satanic group to give the invocation before an upcoming city meeting.

Phoenix City Council members arrived Wednesday at a controversial solution: Banning prayer altogether.

From now on, lawmakers decided in a 5-4 vote, council meetings will no longer begin with a traditional prayer, but instead open with a moment of silence. MORE