A new Master's Programme in the Faculty of Theology of the University of Helsinki will take students to other Nordic countries and to the Mediterranean area discovering the religious roots of Europe.

A few disclaimers before I begin the news about James Dobson, the director of Focus on the Family, and Barack Obama. First, my candidate didn’t make it past the primaries. As for which of the two viable candidates I am leaning towards, I think it makes little difference to this discussion.

Next week (15-20 April 2008), Pope Benedict XVI makes his first official visit to the United States. He is scheduled to meet with President Bush at the White House, deliver an address at the United Nations, and celebrate mass at outdoor stadiums in New York and Washington. The Pope will also visit The Catholic University of America; something his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, did on his first trip to the United States as well.

This meditation on Holy Saturday is based on an ancient Homily. Something strange is happening - there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep.

Under driving wind and rain, Pope Benedict XVI opted out of carrying a symbolic cross of Jesus Christ to conclude a traditional Good Friday procession.

Thousands of pilgrims in Jerusalem have taken part in the traditional procession on the Via Dolorosa, which according to the scriptures is the road taken by Jesus Christ when he carried his cross to the site of his crucifixion. Many of the pilgrims carried a wooden cross.

Researchers are revisiting their test after 20 years to see if the research tests on the timing of the Shroud of Turin were erroneous and the shroud really dates back to the time of Christ.

Good Friday is being observed across the world since the Pope will hold two services commemorating Christ's crucifiction including a procession around the ruins of Rome's Colosseum and has also called on Catholics to be of service to each other and confess their sins.

Today the Christians around the world that follow the Gregorian Calendar commemorate the Maundy Thursday, better known as Holy Thursday remembering the day when Jesus Christ was betrayed by Judas after the Last Supper in which He mandated his disciples to love one another and washed their feet as a sign of love.

Benedictus qui venit in nomine domini. There is something lyrically beautiful and majestically timeless about the Latin rendering of this supreme moment of joy pronounced on Palm Sunday 2000 years ago in Jerusalem as Jesus entered the city.

What happened to the Ark of The Covenant remains one of the biggest miseries of religion.

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent. Ash Wednesday is one of those days that I yearn to arrive. It seems as though the marking of ashes on this day and the beginning of Lent always bring so much hope within me.