WASHINGTON (RNS) — Calling the White House “a symbol of ongoing support for destruction of human lives,” Catholic Bishop John Stowe appeared at a prayer vigil outside the presidential mansion on Friday (May 3), joining a group of religious demonstrators as they urged President Joe Biden to back a permanent cease-fire in Gaza and halt offensive weapons shipments to Israel.

Stowe said the protesters hoped to appeal to Biden’s Catholicism, saying the group intended to deliver a new letter signed by more than 200 U.S. Catholic leaders, including a cardinal, an archbishop and several nuns, to the president, urging him to do more to stop the violence. Activists read the letter aloud during the demonstration.

It is rare in recent years for an active American Catholic bishop to participate in a political demonstration. The Catholic hierarchy more commonly expresses its views as a group as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, most often in written statements. Stowe, who heads the Catholic diocese of Lexington, Kentucky, is president of Pax Christi USA, a Catholic anti-war advocacy group that helped organize the vigil as part of Christians for Ceasefire.

RELATED: Catholic Leaders, Urging Cease-Fire, Call on Biden to Halt Weapons Shipments to Israel

But Stowe has become known for his willingness to speak out on a range of issues. In 2019, he publicly criticized former President Donald Trump for what the prelate characterized as a narrow pro-life agenda, pursuing an end to Roe v. Wade while failing to show concern for human lives when it came to immigration and the environment.

On Friday the bishop addressed the crowd of a few dozen demonstrators after several minutes of ecumenical prayer, music and speeches from other demonstrators. “We stand outside this symbol of power, this symbol of authority and, right now, a symbol of ongoing support for the destruction of human lives,” Stowe said, referring to the White House.

The demonstration expressed solidarity with the ongoing student protests on college campuses across the country. Asked about the protests the day after encampments at Notre Dame and Fordham universities, both Catholic schools, were cleared, Stowe told Religion News Service he appreciated the students’ “interest in the situation and their solidarity with the Palestinians,” but stressed the need for protests to be “measured in a peaceful way that is going to make a positive impact.”

RELATED: More Than 140 Global Christian Leaders Call for Gaza Cease-Fire in Holy Week Letter

In his remarks to the protesters, Stowe lamented the plight of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where Israel continues to wage a military campaign that has claimed the lives of more than 34,000 people, according to local authorities, and pushed a displaced population to the brink of famine. The ground assault came in the wake of an attack in southern Israel launched by Hamas militants that killed 1,200 people and took hundreds more hostage.

“When food cannot get in, when medical help is limited or inaccessible to the people in Gaza, when innocents are being killed day in and day out, when people are trapped and being forced into even smaller confinement — we have to raise the voice, a voice that is not supportive of Hamas or terrorism, but a voice that calls for peace,” Stowe said.

The bishop noted that Friday was the 41st anniversary of a statement by the U.S. Catholic bishops calling on the church to promote peace and non-violence. “It’s a requirement of our faith that we are called to be peacemakers, not by some movement of the moment, but by the Lord Jesus Himself,” he said.

John-Paul Miller, founder and pastor at Solid Rock at Market Common in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, made the shocking announcement at the end Sunday’s (April 28) worship service that his wife, Mica Miller, died by suicide.

Miller and his 30-year-old wife were married in 2017—a marriage that provided her with five stepchildren. The church’s website describes their family as ones “who have a heart to love God and love people.”

According to Mica’s obituary, which was written by her husband but doesn’t list her cause of death, the pastor’s wife died on Saturday, April 27.

She is described as a “great stepmother, and an amazing wife and helpmate. She helped Pastor John-Paul with the church in every way.” The description continues, “Mica was the worship leader, graphics designer, youth leader, women’s ministry leader, and Pastor’s assistant. And she did all of this with the upmost integrity and faithfulness.”

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“She would praise her husband after every church service telling him he was the best preacher in the world (even if it wasn’t true). She also told him he was the funniest preacher in the world (even though that wasn’t true either),” her obituary stated. “Mica loved her family soooooooo much…[and] desired to see people come to Jesus!”

“We’re not going to do altar call today,” Miller told the congregation Sunday. “Instead, I’m going to have you stand up and I’m going to make an announcement. And after the announcement I’m going to ask that you leave church quietly and don’t talk about the announcement here in the building.”

In a new interview, retired pro wrestler Hulk Hogan described how his recent baptism represented a “major pivot” in his life. Speaking to Tom Buehring on “The 700 Club,” Hogan said his baptism last December broke down walls, allowing him to “tell people the truth about my Lord and Savior.”

Hogan, whose real name is Terry Gene Bollea, emphasized that he’s “all in” with the Lord. Believing in Jesus “just seems like such an easy choice for everyone, if you’ll just surrender and accept him as your Savior,” he said. The 70-year-old, wearing a shirt that said “John 3:16,” also discussed the character aspect of pro wrestling and the comfort of knowing that God is in total control.

Hulk Hogan: Just a ‘Meat Suit Filled With the Spirit of Christ’

When asked what Jesus brings to him, Hulk Hogan responded, “That God presence in us, you know, that still small voice. What Terry brings to the table is a meat suit…a meat suit filled with the Spirit of Christ, and it’s a testing ground for me.”

RELATED: Hulk Hogan’s Top Priority Now Is ‘Being a Messenger for My Lord and Savior’

Although Hogan became a Christian at age 14, “I derailed,” he admitted. “[Christ] has given me the opportunity to prove that I’m faithful, and I’ll never make those same mistakes again,” said Hogan. “Going back to my faith, the momentum was overwhelming. There was nothing stopping me.”

Pastor Aaron Filippone of Indian Rocks Baptist Church in Largo, Florida, spoke about the worldwide “ripple effect” of Hogan’s baptism. “This is the way that Christians go public in their faith, and he felt it important to do what Christians do,” Filippone said. While reposting video of Hogan’s testimony, the pastor wrote, “Proud of Terry. Excited about what God is doing in his life. Honored to be his pastor.”

Hogan described the challenges of being involved with the “crazy genre” of wrestling, including having to play a character. “The moment I walk out the front door,” he said, “the world doesn’t want Terry,” just the Hulk.

Comparing that to the Christian life, Hogan said, “It’s almost like people [who] say they’re a Christian and they know of our Lord and Savior, but they really don’t know him. Everybody I meet’s a wrestler, talking about wrestling, but there’s a huge difference when you actually get in that ring.”

How Hulk Hogan Witnessed to Former Foe Roddy Piper

During the interview, Hulk Hogan paused to talk about “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, a former wrestling foe who died in 2015. “He was really trying hard to…surrender and try to get his life straight,” said Hogan. Although the two men “couldn’t stand each other” for 25 years as wrestlers, they began texting each other “every single day” in retirement.

“We basically had some conversations and…he started asking me about my spirituality,” Hogan continued. “[Piper] really didn’t connect, but he was very curious. He wouldn’t surrender, and all of a sudden he passes away.”

Two days later, Hogan received a text-to-voice message from Piper, who told him, “I’m just loving you, my brother. I’m just walking with Jesus. Walking with Jesus and loving you, my brother.”

Legal negotiations between former Hillsong College student Anna Crenshaw and Hillsong Church fell through this week, despite the parties reaching an “in principle” settlement Monday, April 29. Crenshaw, who sued the church over its handling of her 2018 report of sexual assault by a former church staff member, said Thursday that the megachurch wanted her to sign an NDA and agree to a timeline of events different from her account.

“We were unable to come to a settlement today because Hillsong changed their plan in a ploy, I would say, to intimidate and silence me, and I will not give up my voice,” said Crenshaw, speaking to reporters outside the New South Wales Supreme Court in Sydney. “This has never been about money for me but about justice and accountability, which we’ve not received this week.”

RELATED: Hillsong Church Settles Assault Case Involving Former Staff Member Jason Mays

Anna Crenshaw: Hillsong Has ‘Delayed the Pain’

Anna Crenshaw was 18 and a student at Hillsong College when she was assaulted in 2016 at a social gathering by Jason Mays, a former staff member of Hillsong Church. Crenshaw reported the incident to the church in 2018. 

Mays initially denied the allegation but in 2020 pleaded guilty to indecent assault. Hillsong implemented a one-year ban on Mays, who also received two years of probation without the incident going on his criminal record. He was later reinstated at the church.

Crenshaw went public with her story in 2021 and later filed a lawsuit against Hillsong, alleging the church was negligent in its response when she revealed that Mays had assaulted her and that Hillsong breached its duty of care. She is claiming damages, aggravated damages and exemplary damages.

Mays is also a defendant in the suit and denies some of the specific allegations Crenshaw has made about where he groped her. 

Crenshaw traveled from the U.S. to Sydney prepared to participate in a trial Monday, but instead, she and Hillsong reached an “in principle” settlement. It fell through, in part, said Crenshaw, because the church wanted her to sign an NDA. 

According to NCA NewsWire, one condition of the failed settlement was that Crenshaw would release a joint statement with Hillsong saying that the church had reported the assault immediately. She has said it took the church five months to report the incident to police. 

Hillsong has denied culpability and stated that when the assault occurred, Mays was not “acting in any capacity relating to his paid employment or volunteer duties with Hillsong.”

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (RNS) — United Methodist delegates adopted a revised definition of marriage on Thursday (May 2) at their quadrennial meeting called the General Conference and deleted from their rule book a condemnation of homosexuality that has riven the denomination for 52 years.

The afternoon actions on the floor of the Charlotte Convention Center further secure a transformational change in the nation’s second-largest Protestant group — one that embraces the full equality of LGBTQ members in every aspect of church life.

While some African and U.S. delegates rallied outside the convention center against the new definition of marriage, which they contended is contrary to Scripture, the vast majority of delegates voted 523-161, or more than 3-to-1, to accept the changes to the rule book, known as the Book of Discipline.

RELATED: United Methodists Strike down Ban on Ordination of Gay Clergy

The condemnatory passage in its Book of Discipline that says the practice of homosexuality is “incompatible with Christian teaching,” which was added to the Book of Discipline in 1972, was scrapped. The passage had caused great pain to its LGBTQ members and allies over the years. Delegates agreed to drop it without any discussion.

But delegates spent more than an hour debating and refining the definition of marriage. A Zimbabwean delegate, Molly Mwayra, proposed an amendment to the definition of marriage that acknowledged that marriage is a union between a man and woman but adds that it can also be a union between “two adult persons of consenting age.”

That revision was overwhelmingly agreed to by delegates as a way to accommodate Methodists in Africa.

“I just thought it was a beautiful example of someone trying to bridge cultures and make space for everyone to be included,” said Randall Miller, who chaired the denominational task force charged with revising the denomination’s statements about social principles,

Homosexuality is illegal, indeed a crime, in more than two dozen African countries. Many African United Methodists wanted a definition of marriage that does not put them in crosshairs of national laws. They are also trying to fight the plague of child marriage; hence the wording about “consenting age.”

The broader, more inclusive definition seemed to meet that need. The revised social principles adopted by delegates also include sections rejecting child marriage and polygamy and supporting consent in sexual relationships.

“Our goal was to create a church in which everyone is respected and every voice is heard,” said the Rev. Ande Emmanuel, a Nigerian pastor who was a member of the social principles task force. “Africa is a different reality. America is a different reality. In this document, we try as much as possible to find common ground.”

After the vote, a group of more than 100 delegates and observers called a meeting outside the convention center bemoaning the changed definitions.

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — After five days of meetings and an audience with Pope Francis in the past week (April 28-May 2), more than 200 parish priests from around the world are preparing to return home and bring the pope’s mission of synodality to their local communities.

The Rev. Clinton Ressler, a parish priest in Texas City, Texas, one of seven U.S. pastors at the International Meeting of Parish Priests this week, said the media often portray the synod not as an open dialogue the pope intended, but as an effort to change church doctrine.

“When it’s presented that way, I think it’s often disturbing, scary, unsettling,” Ressler said during a meeting with Vatican journalists Thursday (May 2). “I think that’s an unfair representation of what the synod actually is. It’s a much more practical, I’d say grassroots level, way to teach people how to do communitarian discernment and take responsibility for their parish and community.”

RELATED: Vatican Puts the Brakes on Synod on Synodality, Pushes ‘Controversial’ Topics to 2025

Ressler’s parish near Galveston has a tactical discernment team that works with the pastoral council to determine the goals of the community and how to implement them. “It’s been two years of struggle, but also deepening trust, deepening relationships and deepening vulnerability and learning how to be honest with your pastor,” he explained.

Ressler said he has learned the power of fostering dialogue and relationship during his 20-year tenure as the Catholic chaplain for the Houston Texans. “Sports teams have very small circles of trust,” he said, “but I’m pretty friendly. I’m Texan, after all!”

The meeting, which took place in Sacrofano, a small town north of Rome, was promoted by the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Synod and the Vatican department for clergy. The event, which also included the participation of the Vatican office for evangelization and relations with Eastern Orthodox churches, answered the call of the Synod of Bishops in October 2023 to engage with local parishes in the synodal efforts.

Pope Francis, sitting at right, participates in the opening session of the 16th General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Oct. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

The Synod on Synodality began in October 2021 with a call for Catholic communities around the world to inquire for themselves what most concerned them. It’s the largest consultation of Catholic faithful in history, involving bishops, cardinals and ordinary faithful from the diocesan level to “continental assemblies” that have refined the questions for the synod meetings in Rome.

Francis, whose project it is, hopes to foster a spirit of unity in the church while addressing difficult questions ranging from leadership to lay participation and outreach to marginalized faithful.

After the Rome meeting last fall, bishops will convene for the second session of the synod in October, where they will work from a document summarizing the discussions so far. It will include the reports from the parish priests’ meeting and the discussions of the episcopal conferences. It will also report the work of the commissions of theologians and canon lawyers tasked by Francis to address complex issues, including the role of women in the church, LGBTQ inclusion and sexual abuse.

But while synodality has been amply discussed at the Vatican, in bishops’ conferences and lay organizations, its implications remain puzzling for many believers.

That’s where the parish priests come in, with the mandate from Francis to inject synodality in local communities’ experience of the church.

In Thursday’s closed-door meeting with Francis, parish priests shared their expectations and projects for synodality in their communities. In a separate “Letter of the Holy Father to the parish priests,” Francis underlined the crucial role of pastors in promoting communal discernment and building communities with other parish priests and bishops.

Synod on Synodality logo. (Courtesy image)

Francis invited the priests “to be missionaries of synodality, among yourselves and, once you return home, with your fellow parish priests.”

The parish priests who participated were selected by their national bishops’ conferences with the requirement that they be experienced in synodality and represent a diversity of backgrounds. According to the Vatican’s report on the meetings, they enjoyed sharing their experiences with others in the same position. While they expressed gratitude for their work, the report said, they also admitted to feelings of “burnout, overwhelmed by the demands placed upon them,” and “isolation.”

“In my experience, in the beginning I felt lonely,” said the Rev. Harry Quaedvlieg, who runs a parish in the Netherlands, in an interview on Thursday. “But in the process of synodality, of becoming ‘we,’ you don’t feel that lonely,” he added.

(RNS) — More than 200 Catholic leaders, including a cardinal, an archbishop and numerous nuns, have put their names on a letter urging President Joe Biden to push for a cease-fire in Gaza, secure the release of Israeli hostages and halt the shipment of weapons to Israel.

“We call on President Biden, a fellow Catholic, and other U.S. and international leaders, to do everything possible to ensure a permanent end to hostilities, including halting additional shipments of U.S.-funded offensive weapons to Israel, a return of all hostages, and the immediate distribution of robust humanitarian aid to Gaza,” the letter, released on Thursday (May 2), reads in part.

The letter cites Pope Francis’ repeated calls for a cease-fire in the region, as well as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Society of Jesus. “As U.S. Catholics, we recognize our country’s contribution to the present violence and to the ongoing systemic injustices in Israel-Palestine,” the letter reads.

RELATED: More Than 140 Global Christian Leaders Call for Gaza Cease-Fire in Holy Week Letter

Organized in part by the Catholic Advisory Council of Churches for Middle East Peace, the letter calls for the release of the roughly 200 hostages still held by Hamas in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that left 1,200 dead, noting that children and the elderly are among those being held. It goes on to criticize the subsequent assault on the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces that has killed as many as 34,000 people and left hundreds of thousands facing famine, and urged the “release of all Palestinian political prisoners held unjustly by Israel.”

The plight of Palestinian Christians is also a focus of the letter, arguing that many people in the U.S. “misperceive the Israel-Palestine situation as a conflict of equally matched sides” when “in reality … there is a great power imbalance.”

Many of the signers have visited the Holy Land and have seen “some of these realities firsthand,” the letter notes, before accusing Israel of “denying many basic rights to stateless Palestinians and governing much of their lives through military occupation and illegal settlements (in the West Bank and East Jerusalem), blockade (in Gaza), and other measures of control.”

It adds: “We pray that in the land of Israel-Palestine, where seven million Jewish Israelis and seven million Palestinians live, a political solution can be achieved which ensures justice, equality, peace, security, and freedom for two peoples.”

Among the signatories are Cardinal Robert McElroy, the archbishop of San Diego; Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico; Sister Simone Campbell, former leader of Network, a Catholic social justice lobby; Sisters Michelle Gorman and Ginger Andrews, who serve in leadership in the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas; the Revs. Tim Taugher and Michael J. Bausch, who serve in leadership roles at the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests; and professors from major Catholic universities such as Georgetown, Fordham and Notre Dame.

Organizations also signed the letter, including the Archdiocese of Santa Fe; the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests; Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy; Ignatian Solidarity Network; and Pax Christi USA.

In November, several Catholic organizations — some of which signed on to Thursday’s letter — hosted a ”pray-in” vigil outside the White House, with participants arguing that “President Biden and Pope Francis are not on the same page” regarding the Israel-Hamas war. Later that month, a delegation of Palestinian Christians visited Washington carrying a letter signed by Bethlehem’s major Christian communities — including Catholics — urging the president to push for a permanent cease-fire.

In January, McElroy and Wester released a joint statement calling for a cease-fire in the region, and more recently, a Guatemalan Catholic cardinal was among 140 global Christian leaders who signed a letter addressed to Biden calling for a cease-fire and for an end to foreign military support for Israel. Francis, for his part, included a call for peace in Gaza in his Easter message.

This article originally appears here.