Christ

Re "Women becoming priests without Vatican's blessing," May 26 The article does not best reflect the Roman Catholic Church's reasons for an all-male clergy. Unencumbered by social and religious mores, Christ could have used the generic "all are equally human" argument and also chosen his mother (who better?) to sacramentally represent him. But he did not. The priesthood is not a job, it is an identity "set apart. " In the transcendence of time and space, it is Christ who is the presider, affecter and dispenser of all sacraments.

Re "Women becoming priests without Vatican's blessing," May 26 The article does not best reflect the Roman Catholic Church's reasons for an all-male clergy. Unencumbered by social and religious mores, Christ could have used the generic "all are equally human" argument and also chosen his mother (who better?) to sacramentally represent him. But he did not. The priesthood is not a job, it is an identity "set apart. " In the transcendence of time and space, it is Christ who is the presider, affecter and dispenser of all sacraments.

Imagine Christ not as a picture of goodness in human form, but as a batch of disembodied wounds. No? Well, that's what 16th century Flemish illuminator Simon Bening did in a richly illustrated prayer book commissioned by Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg. "The Worship of the Five Wounds" depicts a crowd enthralled by a vision of Christ's punctured hands, feet and heart, beamed up to the heavens in a circle of light. "It's a striking image, a distillation of Christ's sacrifice on the cross," says Kristen Collins, a manuscripts curator at the J. Paul Getty Museum.

The young inmates in a Los Angeles County juvenile detention facility are an ocean apart from the most powerful man in the world's largest church. But this week, they were linked in an Easter Week rite of healing and humility 2 millennia old. Pope Francis chose to celebrate Holy Thursday by sinking to his knees to wash and kiss the feet of a dozen youth inmates in an Italian juvenile jail - breaking from the tradition of performing that ritual with priests in the ornate cathedrals of Rome.

Pericle Fazzini, the sculptor whose monumental statue "The Resurrection" is the backdrop for Pope John Paul II's weekly general audiences, died Friday at the age of 74. The sculptor, a native of Grottammare on the eastern Italian coast, began his career as an exponent of the Roman school of the 1930s. His early wooden pieces, characterized by their simple style, led to the stark later figures, which he fashioned almost exclusively in metal, particularly bronze.

Dave McKibben's article (Oct. 8) about Leon Vickers leaving Stanford and a possible pro football career to pursue his "faith" was interesting but left a wrong impression. For nearly 20 years, I have been an ordained "mainstream" Church of Christ minister. The article correctly stated that the Garden Grove group Vickers attends is "not connected to the more mainstream Churches of Christ." Despite this, the cult expert in the article called the Church of Christ "not a safe group."

Serrano's position about his controversial Christ image is reported as being a protest against exploitation of religious values. The picture in question is, to me, very moving and effective. But, to give it the obnoxious title the artist has chosen, "Piss Christ," smacks of blatant exploitation. With a title like that, what sort of reaction did he expect? JOHN DEGATINA Studio City

If Christ appeared on our 1992 streets, his followers would include our homeless, the drug addicted, the HIV infected, prostitutes, as well as any other man or woman believing in the rights and equality of all living things under God, assuming they accepted Christ as their messenger. Mr. and Mrs. Howard Ahmanson and their fellow contributors to the religious right candidates, sadly and ironically, would not be among the followers of the Christ they so strongly profess to believe in. At the very least, they have accepted the messenger and missed the message.

Re "Omens, Wars and a Streak in the Texas Sky," Commentary, Feb. 7: The omen that appeared to Constantine specified that his military success (vinces -- "you will conquer") was based on a certain religious connection (In hoc signo -- "in this sign," the sign of Christ's cross). But after achieving his victory, he went on to issue some Roman coins symbolizing his recognition of Christ with the chi-rho sign [an abbreviation of the Greek symbol for Christ] -- and others portraying him in dual profile with Sol, the pagan sun god. As is generally the case with omens, pure visions in the sky are one thing and the muddled reality of human affairs on Earth are another.

I agree with the essence of Thomas' commentary. The Christian church should not conform to the world's standards. Christ calls his church "the salt of the Earth." Yet Thomas uses three examples to "demonstrate the growing irrelevance of some modern Christian churches . . . " each one citing the acceptance of homosexuality. There are many ways the church is falling short, but to cite only incidents dealing with homosexuality gives the impression that Christ rejects the homosexual.

VATICAN CITY -- In his first mass as head of the Roman Catholic church, Pope Francis delivered a stern homily in the Sistine Chapel, where cardinals had elected him as the 266th pope a day earlier. Stressing the power of prayer, Francis told the cardinals, "He who does not pray to the Lord prays to the devil. When we don't proclaim Jesus Christ, we proclaim the worldliness of the devil, the worldliness of the demon. " LIVE DISCUSSION: Join our live video chat at 2 p.m. PT Standing before Michelangelo's fresco of the "Last Judgment," the new pontiff added, "When we walk without the cross, when we build without the cross and when we proclaim Christ without the cross, we are not disciples of the Lord.

Former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin has a new book coming, the  Associated Press reports .  The book, "A Happy Holiday IS a Merry Christmas," will discuss the "over-commercialism" and "homogenization" of Christmas,  publisher Harper Collins said. The book will be released in November, in time for the holiday shopping season. In a statement, Palin described "Happy Holiday" as a "fun, festive, thought provoking book, which will encourage all to see what is possible when we unite in defense of our faith and ignore the politically correct Scrooges who would rather take Christ out of Christmas.

INDIANAPOLIS - Determined to curtail the fumbling problem that plagued him earlier in his career, UCLA running back Johnathan Franklin carried a football with him everywhere he went before his senior season, taking it to dinner, the movies … even when he went to bed. All the while, people on campus - teammates and others - would try to poke, jab and rip it from his grasp. "Just random people would come up and try to hit my ball," Franklin said Friday at the NFL scouting combine.

No image I know in the history of Western painting is more brutal than the crucifixion scene in the Isenheim Altarpiece. Its violence would make Quentin Tarantino blush. When German Renaissance artist Matthias Grünewald first set brush to limewood panel to paint the mammoth altarpiece around 1512, however, his intention was not to gross out viewers. Shock them, perhaps, but not disgust them. In fact the artist had something entirely different in mind - something generous and committed.

"O Holy Night," 1847, by Adolphe Adam This is John Sullivan Dwight's translation from 1855. He was a Unitarian minister and a schoolmaster at the Brook Farm commune who went on to become America's first influential music critic. That might be one reason the song is much more popular in the United States than in Europe. O holy night! The stars are brightly shining, It is the night of our dear Saviour's birth. Long lay the world in sin and error pining, 'Til He appear'd and the soul felt its worth.

The head of a Christian charity that provided its Duarte headquarters as a set for "Innocence of Muslims" said Monday that he was duped into participating in the low-budget anti-Islam film that has generated anti-American protests across the Arab world. Joseph Nassralla, president of Media for Christ, made the assertion in a statement posted on the website of anti-Muslim blogger and activist Pamela Geller. Nassralla wrote that a fellow Egyptian immigrant named Nakoula B. Nakoula had approached him last year for help making a movie about Christian persecution and said "it would examine the culture of the desert and how it is related to what is going on right now. " PHOTOS: Protests over anti-Islam film spread Nassralla said he offered the charity's broadcast studio for 10 days of filming but had nothing further to do with movie, which depicted the prophet Muhammad as a buffoon and sexual deviant.

I am offended by still another reference to the Christian response to "Piss Christ" as censorship ("Censorship: A Decade of Tighter Control of the Arts" by Allan Parachini and Dennis McDougal, Dec. 25). Anyone who cannot be offended has no soul. When so many other groups are so quick to take offense, why do you call our voice censorship? When someone sticks Christ's image in urine and titles it "Piss Christ" and then you call our protesting voices censorship, you are wrong. When the Japanese-American community took offense at a work of art to be installed at MOCA you had no criticism.

We very much enjoyed your article, "The Historic Elegance of West Adams." Our church, Second Church of Christ, Scientist of Los Angeles at 948 W. Adams Blvd., is a branch of First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass. It is said that the dome atop the extension of the mother church in Boston is an adaptation of the dome atop our church structure. In 1968 our church building was named a historical landmark by the city of Los Angeles Heritage Board. JANE McGUIRE BIGGS Los Angeles

One ran a low-profile Christian charity from a sleepy suburb east of Los Angeles. The other was a financially strapped gas station operator just out of federal prison. In the last year, these men, both Egyptian immigrants, became unlikely collaborators in an endeavor that has shaken the stability of the Middle East. Joseph Nassralla Abdelmasih, the president of the Duarte-based charity Media for Christ, and Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a convicted felon from Cerritos, emerged Thursday as forces behind "Innocence of Muslims.

"I'm about to do it for the first time," chirps goofy Mormon missionary Elder Cunningham. "And I'm gonna do it with a girl!" The young man in a white shirt and tie isn't singing about a lusty encounter, but a holy rite of passage in "Baptize Me," a bubbly show tune in the Broadway phenomenon "The Book of Mormon. " "I just died during that part," said Joanna Brooks, author of "The Book of Mormon Girl: Stories From an American Faith," recalling the first time she heard the cast album.