TODAY IN GOD:
RELIGION NEWS BITES FOR YOUR SNACKING PLEASURE
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A PALM SUNDAY ROUND-UP

ECO-PALM SUNDAY:Bay Area congregations choose environmentally friendly fronds
Each year on Palm Sunday, Christians jubilantly re-enact Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, waving a combined 300 million palm fronds in the United States.

That makes for a green market in more ways than one.

But environmentalists say the traditional method of harvesting palms wastes more than it nets, and damages valuable rain forest. And while sales may shoot through the roof, intermediaries consume most of the profits.

Enter Eco-Palms, an ecologically and socially sensitive frond.

The niche-market palm comes from a method of harvesting and marketing developed at the University of Minnesota. It preserves more of the species, which in turn protects birds and wildlife that flourish in shaded forests.

Proponents say Eco-Palms will do for palms what “fair trade” purports to do for coffee and chocolate: Create a sustainably produced crop while generating a good living for communities that harvest it.

The university works with communities in Mexico and Guatemala to produce the fronds, and with Christian denominations to get them into the hands of congregants.

Interest is booming. “Oh, my goodness, yes,” said Kattie Somerfeld, Fair Trade coordinator for Lutheran World Relief.

Churches in 49 states, Washington, D.C., Canada and a U.S. Air Force base in Japan will buy a combined 360,000 Eco-Palm fronds. That’s up from 80,000 last year and 5,000 the year before that, Somerfeld said.
FOR FULL STORY (SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS) CLICK HERE

Pontiff aims Palm Sunday message at the young
VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI, in his Palm Sunday Mass, opened the Roman Catholic Church’s most solemn week by urging young people to live pure, innocent lives.

This year, Holy Week also includes the second anniversary of the April 2, 2005, death of Pope John Paul II. On Monday, the Catholic Church will close one phase of its investigation into John Paul’s saintliness as it keeps up the momentum to have the beloved pope beatified.

Holding an intricately woven palm frond, Benedict opened the Palm Sunday celebration by processing through the sun-filled St. Peter’s Square and up the steps of the basilica. He was preceded by dozens of priests, bishops and cardinals who clutched palms and olive branches as their red vestments fluttered in the breeze.

Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem, and is the start of the church’s Holy Week, which includes the Good Friday re-enactment of Christ’s crucifixion and death and his resurrection on Easter Sunday.
FOR FULL STORY (AP VIA CNN.COM) CLICK HERE

Pope Benedict XVI’s Mass: A different take from Reuters
Pope marks Palm Sunday, asks people to seek God
By Robin Pomeroy

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Benedict commemorated Palm Sunday with a call for people not to let their day-to-day lives get in the way of a search for God.

In a service marking Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem a week before being crucified, Benedict said those who chose to follow Jesus had to give themselves up completely.

“It is about the fundamental decision to no longer think about utility and earnings, career and success as the ultimate aim of my life, but rather to recognise as authentic criteria truth and love,” he told worshippers in St. Peter’s Square.
FOR THE FULL STORY (REUTERS VIA THE MALAYSIA STAR) CLICK HERE

Chocolate bunnies? Yes. Chocolate Jesus? No.
A planned Holy Week exhibition of a nude, anatomically correct chocolate sculpture of Jesus Christ was canceled Friday amid a choir of complaining Catholics that included Cardinal Edward Egan.

The “My Sweet Lord” display was shut down by the hotel that houses the Lab Gallery in midtown Manhattan, said Matt Semler, the gallery’s creative director. Semler said he submitted his resignation after officials at the Roger Smith Hotel shut down the show.

The six-foot sculpture was the victim of “a strong-arming from people who haven’t seen the show, seen what we’re doing,” Semler said. “They jumped to conclusions completely contrary to our intentions.”

But word of the confectionary Christ infuriated Catholics, including Egan, who described it as “a sickening display.” Bill Donohue, head of the watchdog Catholic League, said it was “one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever.”

The hotel and the gallery were overrun Thursday with angry phone calls and e-mails about the exhibit. Semler said the calls included death threats over the work of artist Cosimo Cavallaro, who was described as disappointed by the decision to cancel the display.
FOR THE FULL STORY (AP VIA CBS NEWS) CLICK HERE

Palm Sunday, April Fools Day, Today in History
On April 1, 1945, American forces invaded Okinawa, Japan, during World War II.

On this date:

In 1853, Cincinnati established a fire department made up of paid city employees.

In 1918, the Royal Air Force was established in Britain.

In 1933, Nazi Germany began persecuting Jews with a boycott of Jewish-owned businesses.

In 1946, tidal waves struck the Hawaiian islands, resulting in more than 170 deaths.

In 1960, the first weather satellite, TIROS 1, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

In 1963, most of New York City’s daily newspapers resumed publishing after settlement was reached in a 114-day strike.

In 1970, President Nixon signed a measure banning cigarette advertising on radio and television, to take effect after Jan. 1, 1971.

In 1984, recording star Marvin Gaye was shot to death by his father, Marvin Gay Sr., in Los Angeles. (The elder Gay pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, and received probation.)

In 1987, in his first major speech on the AIDS epidemic, President Reagan told doctors in Philadelphia, “We’ve declared AIDS public health enemy number one.”

In 2003, American troops entered a hospital in Nasiriyah, Iraq, and rescued Army Private 1st Class Jessica Lynch, who’d been held prisoner since her unit was ambushed.

Ten years ago: Federal authorities cautioned that thousands of schoolchildren across the nation might have been exposed to the hepatitis A virus by eating frozen strawberries imported from Mexico and processed in the U.S.

Five years ago: Israeli tanks and bulldozers rumbled into more Palestinian towns and massed on the edge of Bethlehem in an expansion of a West Bank offensive. Maryland won its first NCAA men’s basketball championship with a 64-52 victory over Indiana.

One year ago: Former hostage Jill Carroll arrived in Germany, where she strongly disavowed statements she had made during captivity in Iraq and shortly after her release, saying she had been repeatedly threatened. Two American pilots were killed when their Apache helicopter was shot down near Baghdad.
THANKS TO AP VIA THE BOSTON GLOBE