Saturday, March 30, 2013
Rabbis approve holiday cigarettes
JERUSALEM - Observant Jews in Israel craving a smoke during the week-long Passover holiday that ends Tuesday can now enjoy a rabbi-approved puff.
It’s the first time cigarettes have joined the long list of goods stringently checked to ensure they comply with Passover rules on what items are allowed, or kosher for the holiday - meaning they have not come in contact with grains or other forbidden ingredients.
The stamp of approval came from the Beit Yosef private rabbinic group, which certifies foods as compliant with Jewish dietary restrictions. Last month, Beit Yosef approved three local cigarette brands for smoking during Passover. The chief rabbinate in Israel, however, disapproved of the measure.
“Poison is not kosher. For all days of the year, not just Passover,” said the chief rabbinate’s spokesman, Ziv Maor.
Cuba cleric: Pope criticized church
HAVANA - Pope Francis issued a strong critique of the church before the College of Cardinals just hours before it selected him as the new pontiff, according to comments published Tuesday by a Roman Catholic magazine in Cuba.
According to Havana Cardinal Jaime Ortega, then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio urged the Vatican to eschew self-absorption and refocus its energies outward.
“The church is called on to emerge from itself and move toward the peripheries, not only geographic but also existential (ones): those of sin, suffering, injustice, ignorance and religious abstention, thought and all misery,” Bergoglio said.
In his statements, the future pontiff also warned of the dangers of stagnation.
Priest to plead guilty to charge
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - A suspended Roman Catholic priest accused of taking in more than $300,000 from sales of methamphetamines plans to plead guilty to one of the charges against him.
Kevin Wallin is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Hartford, Conn., next week for a hearing in which he would plead guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine.
Authorities say the 61-year-old Wallin had meth mailed to him from co-conspirators in California. Wallin, dubbed in some media as “Monsignor Meth,” was the pastor of St. Augustine Parish in Bridgeport, Conn., for nine years until he resigned in June 2011, citing health and personal problems.
Southern Baptists pick ethics leader
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Russell D. Moore, a theology professor from Biloxi, Miss., has been elected as the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.
The nation’s largest Protestant denomination said on Tuesday that Moore will start June 1 in his new role as the top ethics official, who will address social and moral concerns and their implications on public policy issues, such as same-sex marriage.
He follows Richard Land, who was a well-known spokesman for the convention before retiring last year after 25 years in the position. Moore is dean of the School of Theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.
Religion, Pages 12 on 03/30/2013