History Archives - Page 2 of 3

When Americans tried – and failed – to reunite Christianity

By 1900, atheists and agnostics were becoming more prominent in the United States. Anxious Protestant religious leaders started to argue in favor of a united Christianity to stop the spread of these ideas. For this group, unity meant more than cooperation or mutual understanding. It meant the actual reunion of Protestantism and Catholicism.

Little-known facts about how Halloween came to be

Many practices associated with Halloween have origins in the pre-Christian, or pagan, religion of the Celts, the original inhabitants of the British Isles, as well as parts of France and Spain. Because the Celtic harvest festival Samhain led into the cold, fruitless and dark days of winter, the feast was also an opportunity to contemplate death and to remember those who had gone before.

Korea exhibit at Vatican shares history, peace through art
- Catholic News Agency, Vatican
- Sep 20, 2017
An exhibit at the Vatican, called “Come in cielo cosi in terra” (“On earth as it is in heaven”), is the first-ever collaboration between the Vatican Museums and the Seoul archdiocese. It is also sponsored by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the South Korean embassy to the Holy See. The exhibit outlines, chronologically, the history of Catholicism in Korea from its start through the present time. It includes religious books and objects, as well as Korean religious art.
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Catholics tangled with KKK during Klan’s 1920s resurgence
- Catholic News Service, Church in the US
- Sep 6, 2017
The intersection of the KKK with Catholics came to an ugly head in the 1920s, when the second version of the Klan was making inroads not just in the South but throughout the nation. In the 1920s, the Klan mushroomed in membership. Estimates put its number at between 3 million and 5 million — staggering numbers when the total U.S. population in 1920 was 106,021,537.
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Haunted by its history, Berlin debates restoring kaiser’s gilded cross
- Global Church, Religion News Service
- Jun 11, 2017
Catholic Archbishop Heiner Koch said the cross was “the sign of the good news of the Christian faith for all people” and should not become a political football. “By putting the cross on the cupola, its builders showed they had a special responsibility to be rulers accountable to God,” he said. “Even today, recalling this attitude would mean a lot for Berlin.”
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