Today, my religion students participated in their first Face to Faith video conference. It was part of the organization’s celebration of International  Women’s Day.  Betty Anne Donnelly, who has worked with Catholic organizations all over the world in the areas of education, social justice and lay ministry, discussed womens’ rights within the Catholic Church. She talked about working in the slums of Lima  Peru and about conversations with cardinals, one of whom told her that the biggest role for women was in the home.  She challenged my students to... Read more

Writing in the Washington Post’s On Faith Section as part of the International Women’s Day series in collaboration with Tony Blair’s Face to Faith Foundation, Joan Halifax, writes about the improving role of women in Buddhism. She says that Buddhists are reexamining patriarchal rules first developed by the Buddha himself, “with the intent to honor the equal rights and capacity for awakening of both men and women.” She further suggests that  Buddhism is making “dramatic and positive changes” in the... Read more

Two opposing sides try to define the meaning of jihad for advertisements on buses and metro in this excellent NY Times video clip. Thanks to David Korfhage for the link. Read more

The BBC Magazine reports that today, about 500 years since Spain’s Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand threw out Muslims and Jews during the Inquisition, Spain is offering “fast-track” citizenship to Jewish descendants of the original Jewish community. The story profiles one descendant who found the offer enticing but found that she did not qualify. Her descendants converted to Catholicism in order to avoid death or expulsion. Consequently,their descendants are not Jewish, so technically did not qualify for the fast-track citizenship. Read more

On Friday, if what the weather people are calling “Snowquester” does not keep us out of school, my World Religions class will discuss women’s rights and the role of women in the Catholic Church through a program called “Face to Faith.”  Tony Blair, the British Prime Minster from 1997 to 2007, started the organization as a way to bring together high school students of different faiths in different parts of the world through online-video conferences. In addition to linking together... Read more

The Tibetan Book of the Deadis probably one of most well-known Tibetan Buddhist texts in the West. It describes the stages of death from a Tibetan’s point of view. These stages include the period at the moment of death and the 49 day interval before rebirth. The book was composed by a monk in the 8th century and is often recited today by a lama (Buddhist spiritual leader) to a recently deceased person in order to help him understand his... Read more

According to the New Times, researchers have discovered and cataloged over 42,000 Nazi ghettos and camps. The numbers are much much higher than previously believed. Here’s what the Time said: “The figure is so staggering that even fellow Holocaust scholars had to make sure they had heard it correctly when the lead researchers previewed their findings at an academic forum in late January at the German Historical Institute in Washington.”  This story from The Mail Online is also very good and has... Read more

Great short clip on how the Pope is elected. Thanks to teacher, Gary Abrahamian, for tweeting the link. You can find more resources about electing the pope here. Read more

I found this on the Associated Press. Nice story! And here’s another story about the ring from the Mail Online.  And you can see great pictures of the ring and the homeless guy who returned it here at Buzzfeed. Read more

Finishing up my unit on Judaism with the different branches of Judaism today and showed my kids this excellent seven minute clip about ultra orthodox Jews. Read more