North Carolina may have a reputation as an anti-union/work-first state, but support for workers rights’ is strong among most of the state’s religious denominations. They’ve turned out in force in recent years to support some of the state’s lowest paid and most exploited workers, ranging from housekeepers on Triangle college campuses to the Farm Labor […]
Patrick O'Neill
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Raleigh bishop supports Bush war policy
When he was installed as bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Raleigh last year, Catholic progressives wondered what kind of ally they might have in Bishop Michael Burbidge. Of course, Burbidge strongly backs the Catholic Church’s stances against abortion and stem cell research, but the jury was out on where the new bishop might stand […]
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‘I’m a free man,’ a father sings after pardon
Steve Snipes was singing on the West Jones Street sidewalk; he couldn’t stop smiling. On Feb. 2, Snipes received a full pardon from Gov. Mike Easley, officially clearing his name for an armed robbery he never committed. Snipes, a father of seven children, was arrested Feb. 13, 1998, for allegedly holding up a Sanford convenience […]
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Many in faith community hail delay in executions
During his homily on Friday, Jan. 26, the Rev. Robert T. Schriber, of Garner’s St. Mary Mother of the Church, said he came to mass with “a light heart” because the execution of Marcus Reymond Robinson did not happen earlier that morning. Robinson, 33, received an eleventh-hour reprieve when Wake Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens […]
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N.C. rights award winner: We’re not the good guys
John Gibney always wished his son, Mark, would attend Sunday mass. While Mark lost interest in the Catholic ritual as he grew older, he didn’t reject the core teachings of Christianity exemplified in the New Testament story of the Good Samaritan. Mark Gibney, the Belk Distinguished Professor in Humanities at UNC-Asheville, went on to become […]
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Raleigh’s St. Francis of Assisi Catholic church reaches out to GLBTs
Scores of gay and lesbian Christians have left their churches because of isolation and outright condemnation of their sexual orientation. Catholics Jane Paris and Chuck Small are gay, but rather than leave the church they love, the pair maintain a ministry to help fellow GLBT Catholics and their families. Members of Raleigh’s Catholic community of […]
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On Army harassment, Israeli environmentalism
When she spoke on the phone with her daughter, Sara Rich tried to keep her wits about her. She wanted her daughter, Suzanne Swift, a soldier deployed in Iraq, to take strength from her mother, who is a deacon at Unity of the Valley Church in Eugene, Ore. It wasn’t insurgents in the war zone […]
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Witnesses for peace and against execution
In his tribute to peace activist Gail Phares, the Rev. David McBriar, a Franciscan priest, told a story about the time he invited Phares “with some pressure from her” to preach a sermon at Raleigh’s St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, where McBriar then served as pastor. Suffice it to say, it’s unusual to see […]
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N.C. socialists gather in Garner
Members of the Socialist Party of North Carolina will meet July 29, bringing together in the Wake County town of Garner the South’s only statewide chapter of a party that traces its roots back to the turn of the 20th century and includes past giants such as Eugene Debs, Norman Thomas and, more recently, David […]
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Happy birthday, Father Dan
It was the left’s version of the red carpet, but it was just a Park Avenue sidewalk at 83rd Street in Manhattan, in front of St. Ignatius Loyola Catholic Church. Scores of friends and admirers were in town to celebrate the Rev. Daniel Berrigan’s 85th birthday in the church basement, a huge room lined with […]