News stories tagged with "faith"

(03/08/12) Church officials in Ogdensburg say Roman Catholic parishes across the North Country will lose roughly a third of their priests over the next decade.

The Diocese has expanded efforts to recruit new seminarians willing to serve as priests. But the rapid decline is forcing big changes in the way Catholic churches operate.

Brian Mann spoke recently with Bishop Terry LaValley and has this update. more

(03/01/12) This week, North Country Public Radio has been talking to religious leaders and politicians in our region about the national debate surrounding birth control and sexuality. It's become a big issue for Republicans in the 2012 presidential primary.

Republicans in Congress are also advancing national legislation that would allow all employers, not just religious groups, to deny health insurance coverage for things like contraception if those services violate the beliefs of the company's owners.

These culture-war debates could shape big races here in the North Country this November, including the battle for the 23rd district congressional race. Republican challenger Matt Doheny has accused Democratic congressman Bill Owens, of working "to violate the free exercise of religion."

Republican Assemblywoman Janet Duprey from Peru is also expected to face a strong primary challenge, in part because of her support for same-sex marriage, which is now legal in New York.

This political debate may, at times, seem disconnected from the reality of modern American life. According to the widely-respected Guttmacher Institute, roughly 90% of fertile, sexually active women in the United States are using contraception. But for some women, religious teachings play a profound role in shaping and defining their sexuality. Away from the glare of politics, faith and intimacy can be closely intertwined.

Our Plattsburgh correspondent Sarah Harris sat down recently to talk in-depth with Erica Macalintal. She's a 22-year-old nursing student at SUNY Plattsburgh who will graduate this May. Macalintal is a devout Roman Catholic who says her sexual life has been deeply influenced by the theology of her Church. more

(02/28/12) After the long recession, most pundits expected the 2012 political campaign to revolve around economic issues.

But politicians on the right and left have instead been reviving some surprising social questions, ranging from contraception to prenatal testing to the role of religion in politics and public life.

In an interview with Newsweek magazine, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat, argued that opposition to insurance coverage for those services amounts to "an attack on women."

"Many of us are outraged, really outraged," Sen. Gillibrand told the magazine. "In the year 2012, we should not be debating access to birth control. No boss should be making a decision about what health care their employees should be eligible to take."

Polls show that the vast majority of American families use contraception and think contraception should be widely available. Surveys also suggest that a smaller majority of Americans think religious groups should provide full insurance benefits to employees.

But Bishop Terry Lavalley, who heads the Diocese of Ogdensburg, sees this very differently.

He argues that Federal changes to healthcare laws proposed by the Obama administration threaten the religious freedom of groups like the Roman Catholic Church.

Bishop LaValley met recently with Brian Mann to talk about the Church's prominent role in this year's political campaign and about the difficulties of teaching Catholic doctrine in an age when even many Roman Catholics are making very different moral choices. more

(12/26/11) Last week, the Vatican declared that a Washington state boy's recovery from a deadly and debilitating illness was a miracle. The Pope signed documents attributing 11-year-old Jake Finkbonner's survival to the intercession of Kateri Tekakwitha. She was a 17th century Mohawk woman who lived in what is now Upstate New York and who converted to Catholicism.

The Pope's decision moves Kateri one step closer to full sainthood. Last week, Bishop Terry LaValley, head of the Diocese of Ogdensburg, issued a statement saying "we eagerly await that day when the church declares that she is numbered among the saints in heaven."

Back in April, NPR's religion corrrespondent, Barbara Bradley-Hagerty, examined the process by which the Vatican decides which miracles are authentic.

(10/13/11) Potsdam writer Evelyn Weissman's first novel, Jairus' Daughter, is a fictional autobiography that began as a series of stories for her children as an answer to questions about her conversion from Judaism to Christianity. She calls it a modern tale of religious conversion. Weissman, like Sara in her book, grew up in a traditional Jewish family and reluctantly followed a spiritual path that led her to Christianity. Todd Moe spoke with her in the backyard of her Potsdam home about the book and her spiritual journey. She'll sign copies of her book at the Brewer Bookstore in Canton this Saturday afternoon (3 pm).

(04/08/10) How can people of different religions learn to live together in peace? Especially, since 9/11, many religious leaders and scholars have been trying to answer that question. Gustav Niebuhr's book, Beyond Tolerance, explores the importance of interfaith dialogue and action in a post 9/11 world. Niebuhr has worked as a religion reporter, most recently for the New York Times, and has established a reputation as a leading writer about American religion. His work has been published in books, magazines and websites, and he does occasional commentaries on religion for NPR. Gustav Niebuhr will give a lecture on his book "Beyond Tolerance" at SUNY Potsdam tonight (7 pm). Niebuhr is a professor of journalism and religion at Syracuse University. He told Todd Moe that it's not enough for us to speak about being tolerant, but that we must actually be tolerant of those different from ourselves.

(08/07/09) Yesterday we reported that New York's National Guard is struggling to hire enough clergy to serve as part-time chaplains. The problem reflects an aging clergy and also a growing shortage of priests across the North Country - and across New York state. Brian Mann spoke with Father Douglas Decker. He's the priest at St. Cecilia's in the Jefferson County town of Adams. He also serves with New York's Air National Guard.

(08/06/09) The National Guard has solved its recruiting problem, for the most part, finding plenty of rank-and-file soldiers willing to sign up. But here in New York and across the country reserve units are struggling to find enough clergy willing to serve as chaplains. All the Guard services are scrambling to bring more religious into their ranks, but the Army National Guard has the deepest shortage. In New York, only 8 out of 24 chaplain's posts are filled. And there are no Roman Catholic priests serving in the Army Guard despite the fact that nearly half the soldiers are Catholic. Brian Mann sat down to talk about the problem with Colonel Eric Olsen from Saranac Lake. He's the state chaplain for New York's State Division of Military Affairs.

(04/29/09) Choirs and readers from local Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Hindu groups will gather in Potsdam this Sunday afternoon for the annual Spring Festival of Sacred Music and Text. Todd Moe spoke with organizer Benjamin Pyckles about people from many faiths gathering to learn more about each other.

(04/28/09) A growing number of Americans see same-sex marriage as a civil right. But for the Roman Catholic Church, legalization of gay marriage represents another erosion of traditional marriage. In the eyes of the Church, the institution of marriage has already been battered by high divorce rates and by more children being born out of wedlock. Brian Mann spoke in-depth with Sister Jennifer Votraw. She's chancellor and director of communications for the Diocese of Ogdensburg.