May (Web-only) 2000

ARTICLE TOOLS

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Popes, including John Paul II, don't usually celebrate birthdays. But Thursday's 80th birthday celebration for the man who was born Karol Wojtila wasn't just a celebration—it was a huge commemoration. He started the day celebrating Mass with 3,000 priests, 250 bishops and untold multitudes of cardinals in what is reportedly the largest concelebration (celebration of the Eucharist with more than one officiant) ever. See more on the celebrations here.

Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) has asked the chaplain of the House of Representatives to bring in a Hindu priest to deliver a daily invocation. "There are hundreds of thousands of practicing Hindus in this country," he said. "We should fulfill our responsibility to represent the religious diversity of this country by including a Hindu priest as a guest chaplain." Though various Christians, Jews, and Muslims have delivered invocations, a Hindu has never delivered the legislative body's opening prayer.

Digital Entertainment Network, which attempted to attract Christian high schoolers to its online soap opera about spiritual warfare (other DEN shows aimed at gay teens, extreme sports fans, and other niche audiences), is out of money and has laid off its remaining 150 employees. See more articles about DEN's fall at Inside.com)

While the Globe's article, by staff writer Marcella Bombardieri, is a welcome acknowledgement of a growing movement, it puts perhaps too fine a point on the differences between Catholic and Protestant charismatics. "In Latin America," she writes, "it offers hope of competition against the explosion of Pentecostalism." But ...