DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Biden: Americans should ‘pay attention’ to MLK’s legacy
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

But with the election behind him and a full six-year term ahead, Warnock fully embraced Biden at the service. “That, my friends, is God’s work,” said Warnock, adding that Biden “had a little something to do with it.”As Biden begins to turn his attention toward an expected 2024 reelection effort, Georgia is going to get plenty of his attention. “But at this inflection point, we know a lot of work that has to continue on economic justice civil rights, voting rights, protecting our democracy. … Are we a people who will choose democracy over autocracy? "I’ve spoken before parliaments, kings, queens, leaders of the world ... but this is intimidating,” Biden said in opening his sermon.

☆ Suspect in Shinzo Abe assassination to face murder charge, lawyer says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

TOKYO — Japanese prosecutors are expected to formally charge the suspect in the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe with murder on Friday, his lawyer said. Later that month, Yamagami was sent to an Osaka detention center and given a five-month mental evaluation, which ended Tuesday. One of his lawyers, Masaaki Furukawa, told The Associated Press on Thursday that he expects prosecutors to charge Yamagami with murder and gun control law violations. Police say Yamagami told them that he killed Abe, one of Japan’s most influential and divisive politicians, because of Abe’s apparent links to a religious group that he hated. Current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s popularity has plunged over his handling of the church controversy and for insisting on holding a rare, controversial state funeral for Abe.

☆ Australian Cardinal George Pell, whose abuse conviction was overturned, dies at 81
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

CANBERRA, Australia — Cardinal George Pell, who was the most senior Catholic cleric to be convicted of child sex abuse before his convictions were later overturned, has died in Rome at age 81. Pell, an Australian, was once the third-highest ranked Catholic in the Vatican after earlier serving as the Archbishop of Melbourne and Archbishop of Sydney. But Pell returned to his native Australia in 2017 in an attempt to clear his name of child sex charges. Pell’s reputation remained tarnished by the church’s child sex abuse scandal. Pell was born on June 8, 1941, the eldest of three children to a heavyweight champion boxer and publican also named George Pell, an Anglican.

☆ Danny Masterson to face second trial on rape charges
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Prosecutors announced on Tuesday that they will pursue a second trial against Danny Masterson, after a jury deadlocked on three rape charges at the actor’s first trial in November. Masterson, 46, is accused of forcibly raping three women at his home in the Hollywood Hills from 2001 to 2003. Defense attorney Philip Cohen argued that it was unlikely that any jury would vote unanimously to convict. The women, who have all since left Scientology, said they feared being excommunicated from the church for going to the police. Cohen argued that Scientology was irrelevant to the case, and he sought to minimize any mention of it.

☆ Funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict seals a contradictory legacy
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Donna B. Doucette | Donna B. Doucette Has Been The Executive Director Of Voice Of The Faithful Since She Also Serves On The Leadership Team Of The Association Of U.S. Catholic Priests. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

It’s as if Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who is being laid to rest Thursday in Vatican City, has two legacies instead of one. Despite this promise and the potential for transparency, Benedict continued the church’s centuries-old preference for handling abuse cases privately. Benedict, for example, was the first pope to acknowledge the crimes of clergy sexual abuse and attempt to make amends institutionally. We quickly grew to a worldwide presence as the scope of the clergy abuse problem became apparent. Perhaps, using the contradictions and collisions of Benedict’s work, the Spirit has set in motion the 21st century path of the Catholic Church, which Pope Francis is calling us to embrace: synodality.

☆ Pope marks New Year as Vatican prepares to mourn Benedict
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-01 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Pope Francis prayed for his predecessor’s passage to heaven as he presided over a special New Year’s Day Mass Sunday in St. Peter’s Basilica, a day after Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI died in retirement at the Vatican. Benedict, 95, died Saturday morning in the Vatican where he had lived since retirement. He departed briefly from reading his homily, with its emphasis on hope and peace, to pray aloud for Benedict. “Today we entrust to our Blessed Mother our beloved Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, so that she may accompany him in his passage from this world to God,” he said. “At the beginning of this year, we need hope, just as the Earth needs rain,” Francis said.

☆ Death of former Pope Benedict overshadows New Year at Vatican
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-01 | by ( Philip Pullella | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/4] Candles stand next to St. Peter's Square after former Pope Benedict died in the Vatican, in Rome, Italy, December 31, 2022. REUTERS/Guglielmo MangiapaneVATICAN CITY, Jan 1 (Reuters) - Pope Francis marked the Roman Catholic Church's traditional World Day of Peace on Sunday but the start of the new year at the Vatican was overshadowed by the death of his predecessor, Benedict. It will be the first time in many centuries that a sitting pope will preside at the funeral of his predecessor. PRAISE, BUT ALSO CRITICISM FOR BENEDICTOn Saturday night the Vatican released Benedict's two-page "spiritual testimony" written in 2006, a year after his election as pope. Francis on Saturday called Benedict a noble, kind man who was a gift to the Church and the world.

☆ Is the Catholic Church Rethinking Contraception?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Francis X. Rocca | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Some two dozen Catholic theologians, philosophers and other scholars gathered in Rome this month for a three-day conference dedicated to defending and explaining the implications of the Catholic Church’s prohibition of contraception, as set out in St. Paul VI ’s 1968 encyclical “Humanae Vitae.”The conference, whose speakers included the legal philosophers John Finnis of Notre Dame Law School and Robert George of Princeton University, was organized in response to what just a few years ago would have been an unlikely source of questioning on the topic: the Vatican.

☆ Dutch leader apologizes for Netherlands’ role in the slave trade, establishes fund to grapple with slavery's legacy
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte apologized Monday on behalf of his government for the Netherlands’ role in slavery and the slave trade, in a speech welcomed by activists as historic but lacking in concrete plans for repair and reparations. Ahead of the speech, Waldo Koendjbiharie, a retiree who was born in Suriname but lived for years in the Netherlands, said an apology was not enough. And on how this history still plays a negative role in the lives of many today,” the government says. The Dutch first became involved in the trans-Atlantic slave trade in the late 1500s and became a major trader in the mid-1600s. Eventually, the Dutch West India Company became the largest trans-Atlantic slave trader, said Karwan Fatah-Black, an expert in Dutch colonial history and an assistant professor at Leiden University.

☆ Anti-abortion priest Frank Pavone defrocked for blasphemous posts
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican has defrocked an anti-abortion U.S. priest, Frank Pavone, for what it said were “blasphemous communications on social media” as well as “persistent disobedience” of his bishop who repeatedly told him to stop his partisan activism for Donald Trump. Even before then, Pavone successfully appealed 2011 restrictions on his ministry that Amarillo Bishop Patrick Zurek had placed on him. Pavone remained a firm supporter of Trump and in 2020 disputed the outcome of the election won by Joe Biden. Ahead of the election, the Amarillo diocese denounced Pavone’s use of social media for political ends, distanced the diocese from him and said his positions weren’t consistent with Catholic teaching. The statement said Pavone was given “ample opportunity to defend himself” as well as to submit to his bishop.

☆ Japan Clamps Down on Moon Church’s Fundraising
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( Miho Inada | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The new Japanese law bars religious groups such as the former Unification Church from taking advantage of followers’ anxieties or fears in soliciting money. TOKYO—Japan’s Parliament on Saturday passed a law that bars high-pressure fundraising tactics, a measure aimed at the church founded by the late Rev. Moon Sun-myung. The law’s final approval came just five months after the July 8 assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe triggered a reappraisal of the former Unification Church, which until the killing had ties to many ruling-party members while drawing little public attention.

☆ LGBTQ students wrestle with tensions at Christian colleges
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +12 min

“It’s kind of a tightrope,” said John Scarano, campus ministry director at John Carroll University, a Jesuit school near Cleveland with “safe zone trainings” as part of its ministry to LGBTQ students. Last year, 33 LGBTQ students or former students at federally funded Christian schools filed a class-action lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education, claiming the department’s religious exemption allows schools that receive federal dollars to unconstitutionally discriminate against LGBTQ students. In May, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights launched a separate investigation for alleged violations of the rights of LGBTQ students at six Christian universities — including Liberty University. A high-stakes clash between students, faculty and the school’s board of trustees over hiring LGBTQ faculty is unfolding at Seattle Pacific University, a 131-year-old school affiliated with the Free Methodist Church. “I find that tragic.”To students like Fisher in Minnesota, concrete actions will show if LGBTQ people can truly be welcomed on Christian campuses.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday hears the latest clash between religious conservatives and LGBTQ rights as it weighs a conservative evangelical Christian web designer's bid to avoid working on same-sex weddings. Lower courts ruled against Smith, prompting her to appeal to the Supreme Court. The remaining 21 states do not have laws explicitly protecting LGBTQ rights in public accommodations, although some local municipalities do. The court ruled on the baker case before the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, who voted in favor of LGBTQ rights in key cases. In another major victory for LGBTQ rights, the Supreme Court in 2020 — to the surprise of many court-watchers — ruled that a federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in employment protects LGBTQ employees.

☆ Black leaders on Buffalo’s East Side are building markets to address food insecurity
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Claretta-Bellamy-Byline-Jm.Jpg | Claretta Bellamy | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

The only supermarket on the East Side is Tops, where a white gunman killed 10 Black residents in May. AHRIE / African Heritage Food Co-op“It’s about gainful employment,” Wright, 43, said in October of his future grocery store. African Heritage Food Co-Op“That’s why I don’t call this a food desert,” Wright said. One organization, the Buffalo Black Billion, is led by a local pastor, Michael Chapman of St. John and Gethsemane Missionary Baptist churches. African Heritage Food Co-OpBy providing healthy food, Chapman said he also wants to increase the lifespan of Black residents in the community, for whom health disparities are all too familiar.

CNN —Severe storms and tornadoes swept through parts of the South from Tuesday into Wednesday morning, killing at least two people in Alabama and damaging homes, other buildings and downing trees in several states, officials said. Tornadoes decimate parts of AlabamaThe tornado that killed two in the Flatwood area near Montgomery had winds estimated at 110 mph, the National Weather Service said. The storm, which might have included a tornado, sounded “like a train coming through,” Perkins told CNN on Wednesday. “We were successful in getting (to) some people that had to hunker down in their homes that were messed up,” Austin told CNN on Wednesday. Some parts of the South, including between Huntsville and Birmingham in Alabama, saw between 2 and 4 inches of rain Tuesday.

☆ Mormon church comes out in support of same-sex marriage law
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Yet it said it would support rights for same-sex couples as long as they didn’t infringe upon religious groups’ right to believe as they choose. The faith opposes same-sex marriage and sexual intimacy, but it has taken a more welcoming stance to LGBTQ people in recent years. 8, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman in response to cities such as San Francisco granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples. It has since made incremental changes, including allowing the children of same-sex couples to get baptized. The faith opposes laws that would make it illegal for churches to not allow to same-sex couples to marry on their property.

☆ Candace Cameron Bure Wants to Put Christianity Back in Christmas Movies
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Ellen Gamerman | Photography Daniel Dorsa For Wsj. Magazine | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

CLAREMORE, Okla.—Candace Cameron Bure is on a fake-snow-covered set shooting a church scene for her new holiday movie, “A Christmas…Present,” when it comes time for her character to feel the sudden presence of God. A tech guy stands on a ladder, waggling two plates of glass in front of a light to create a shimmering effect on her upturned face. The crew uses black electrical tape to outline the church’s stained-glass cross so it will pop on-screen. Ms. Bure works herself into tears for each take, asking the crew to play an emotional Christmas song again and again so she stays in the mood. Ms. Bure isn’t just selling a made-for-TV moment, but a Christian epiphany for the masses.

☆ Arson suspect arrested after 7 fires set across Mississippi's capital city
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

— Authorities have arrested a suspect in connection with seven fires set across Mississippi’s capital city early Tuesday. At least two of the buildings set ablaze in Jackson were churches; one was burned to the ground. Another fire broke out on fences surrounding the baseball practice field at Jackson State University, a historically Black public university. We have about a third of our department on sites.”A fireman observes the remains of a burned Epiphany Lutheran Church in Jackson, Mississippi, on Nov. 8, 2022. Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba addressed the fires at a Tuesday city council meeting.

☆ Pro-DeSantis midterm mailer did more than mock LGBTQ communities
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Nicholas Mitchell | Nicholas Mitchell Is An Assistant Professor Of Curriculum Studies At The University Of Kansas. He Is A Curriculum Theorist Whose Scholarship Focuses On The Intersection Of Education Theory | Policy | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

It and other publications rightly called it out for mocking the LGBTQ community. Republicans are belittling knowledge that they find threatening to the status quo that gives the lives of social conservatives meaning. To play on the words of Ben Shapiro, I call this movement the “feelings over facts” orientation, and it has been positioned as a bulwark against indoctrination by disciplines that focus on race, gender and art. This is the not-so-subtle implication of the mailer supporting DeSantis. For everyone who doesn’t believe gender studies is threatening, the student in the photo the mailer used is just a new nonbinary college graduate.

LOS ANGELES — One Hollywood star claimed he was arrested and charged on multiple counts of rape by police and prosecutors who are biased against his church. Another prominent Hollywood figure charged with rape contends he was set up by members of a church he has publicly renounced. In both cases, the church in question is the Church of Scientology. Haggis denied Breest’s rape allegation in a counter-complaint and accused her and her lawyer of trying to extort $9 million from him. “She decided she had to do something.”In the Masterson case, he and his accusers are all current or former members of the Church of Scientology.

☆ Raleigh teen's rampage began when he fatally shot his brother, according to new report
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

RALEIGH, N.C. — Police believe the shooting rampage that left five dead in North Carolina’s capital city last week began when the 15-year-old suspect shot his older brother, according to a report released Thursday. The report said the teen had traveled nearly 2 miles from where his brother was found shot and stabbed. The report said officers gave repeated commands for the suspect to surrender and special officers worked to figure out his exact location. Based on the teen’s estimated direction of travel, police believe James Thompson was shot first, the report said. Police believe the teen shot Marcille Lynn Gardner, who was found wounded in the driveway, then fired at Nicole Connors, 52, who lived in the house.

☆ Japanese prime minister orders investigation of Unification Church
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida ordered an investigation Monday into the Unification Church in an apparent move to calm the public outrage over his governing party’s cozy ties with the controversial group, which were revealed in the wake of Shinzo Abe’s assassination. Former Prime Minister Abe was shot to death during an outdoor campaign speech in July. The suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami, told police he killed Abe because of his apparent link to a religious group he hated. An LDP survey in September found nearly half of its lawmakers had ties to the church, including Cabinet ministers. Nagaoka, the culture minister, said she will set up a panel of legal and religious experts next week to discuss a rare investigation into a religious group.

During the game, she said, the crowd nearby began chanting “F--- the Mormons.” Over and over. As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, BYU’s sponsoring institution, Aubrey wanted the chanting to stop. Latter-day Saints have a fair track record when it comes to cheek-turning. There’s of course a balance to strike in the case of the Oregon chants. And yet, if you can publicly chant “F--- the Mormons” with only minimal social consequences, it’s time for Latter-day Saints to collectively push, as Aubrey sought to do, for greater and more immediate action.

SANTA FE, N.M — Alec Baldwin was on the set of his latest film, a low-budget western called “Rust,” working on a scene in which his character, a grizzled outlaw named Harland Rust, finds himself in a small wooden church, cornered by a sheriff and a U.S. Members of the small crew — including the director, cinematographer, cameraman and script supervisor — clustered around Mr. Baldwin inside the cramped, spartan set. As light poured through the church’s windows, casting slanted rays in the dust that swirled over the pews, a shadow fell, and the crew had to adjust the camera angle. The crew had been assured the gun was “cold,” meaning it held no live ammunition, according to court papers. In fact, investigators said, it was loaded with a live round.

Persons: N.M — Alec Baldwin, ”, Harland Rust, Baldwin, Jimmy Stewart Organizations: SANTA FE, Hollywood Locations: SANTA, U.S, Santa Fe, Laramie ”

Search resuls for: "Church’s"

24 mentions found