Explainer: What Is Rome’s Holy Year? What Are Indulgences?

January 17, 2025 By Richard Ostling

THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: Italy’s tourism agency expects 35 million pilgrims to visit Rome during the Catholic Church’s current “Holy Year” or “Jubilee” that runs through Epiphany on January 6, 2026. In modern times, Holy Years usually occur in 25-year intervals, though Pope Francis called an “extraordinary” one in 2015 and has announced a 2033 Jubilee will commemorate the approximate 2,000th anniversary of the redemption won in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Although Rome is the traditional destination,... Read more

Why Is This 1,700-Year-Old Creed So Important?

January 3, 2025 By Richard Ostling

0 Comments

THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: No text ever written can compare with the impact of the Nicene Creed in this way: Whenever the world’s 2 billion-plus Christians gather for their regular Communion services, most recite these ancient words to define their core beliefs affirmed across the centuries, in a multitude of nations and languages, in churches that may differ on many other matters. This New Year marks the 1,700th anniversary of this credo, which was produced by bishops attending Christianity’s... Read more

Are Mass Deportations Moral? What Do Christians Say?

December 6, 2024 By Richard Ostling

0 Comments

THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: Many Bible readings during Christmas services will recount that the infant Jesus escaped murder at the hands of paranoid King Herod because Egypt provided safe refuge to the fleeing Holy Family (per Matthew 2:13-15). Given Christianity’s historic concern for exiles and immigrants, how do believers view Donald Trump’s pledge to immediately launch “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” no matter what the “price tag.” Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan says the incoming administration will... Read more

How Will the New Archbishop of Canterbury Be Chosen?

November 22, 2024 By Richard Ostling

0 Comments

THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: The Archbishop of Canterbury, whose position has a 1,427-year history, is a major figure in world Christianity as head of the Church of England and, because of that, in modern times is also the spiritual leader of the international Anglican Communion. This branch of Christianity encompasses some 85 million members in churches across the world. Most of them originated with missionary efforts in the colonial era, including America’s Episcopal Church. The archbishop is no pope, and... Read more

What are the most religious places in the world?

November 8, 2024 By Richard Ostling

0 Comments

What are the most religious places in the world? THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: Let’s start by comparing nations. America’s Pew Research Center recently concluded 15 years of surveys about religion in 102 foreign countries, and a press release designates Indonesia as the most pious of them all. The basis for these new rankings is how many adults told the pollsters that religion is “very important” in their lives. That was expressed by 98% of those sampled in Indonesia, a fascinating... Read more

How Are Catholic Bishops Chosen?

October 24, 2024 By Richard Ostling

0 Comments

THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: Before the final session of a Synod of Bishops that concludes at the Vatican October 27, much printer’s ink was spilled because Pope Francis removed the issue of allowing women deacons from the agenda. Jesuit Father Thomas Reese, the Catholic columnist for Religion News Service, reminds us that the pope took other delicate matters off the table, and among these delegates have privately discussed reforming the church’s system of appointing bishops. To Reese, this is a... Read more

Could New Science Verify the Famous Shroud of Turin?

September 27, 2024 By Richard Ostling

0 Comments

THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER The Shroud of Turin, the world’s most famous and most-examined artifact, is revered by devotees as the actual burial cloth that covered Jesus Christ’s body after his crucifixion. Many will consider that inconceivable, but is there reason to accept the claim? Or is this celebrated cloth merely a pious artwork, or a clever fraud, that originated in medieval times? The Vatican has never ruled on authenticity, but encourages Turin devotions to reflect on Christ’s saving sacrifice... Read more

What issue is shared by Catholics, Evangelicals and Muslims?

September 13, 2024 By Richard Ostling

0 Comments

THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: In recent months, all three faith communities have been in he news over women’s proper role in religious organizations and cultures. Here’s a rundown. Start with the Catholic Church, where it’s newsworthy when there’s no news. That is, delegates to a closed-door Vatican Synod a year ago shared considerable interest in allowing women to be deacons. But Pope Francis has removed this question from the agenda for the second and final Synod session running October 2–27,... Read more

How did the LDS Church erase its 126-year limit for Blacks?

August 30, 2024 By Richard Ostling

0 Comments

THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: The answer is that a complicated process occurred during decades before and after June 1, 1978, a truly historic day for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS, formerly nicknamed “Mormon”) when ranking authorities met in the upper room at the Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah, for prayer and deliberation. The group agreed that day that God desired the church to open its “priesthood and temple blessings to all worthy male members,” as... Read more

Could Islam Undergo a 21st Century Reformation?

August 17, 2024 By Richard Ostling

0 Comments

THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: That seems highly unlikely at the moment, but it’s certainly intriguing to suppose that the faith might eventually deal with modern exigencies through dramatic change equivalent to, let’s say, Europe’s 16th Century Protestant Reformation. The implications would be enormous, considering that this powerful faith has just reached a global total of 2 billion followers, compared with 2.6 billion for Christianity (by latest count from the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.)... Read more