All posts tagged: masses

Ash Wednesday protests and Masses make solidarity with immigrants a Lenten theme

Ash Wednesday protests and Masses make solidarity with immigrants a Lenten theme

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — Christian leaders — from Catholic cardinals and Episcopal and Lutheran bishops to moderate evangelical Christians — took their faith’s day of penitence and prayer as an opportunity to speak out on behalf of immigrants and against President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign. Ash Wednesday began and ended with Masses led by two of the three current cardinal archbishops, with vigils at the White House and in New York’s Federal Plaza, the center of federal government in the city, in between. In his homily at a large outdoor Mass in solidarity with immigrant families in Melrose Park, Illinois, Cardinal Blase Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, addressed immigrants directly, saying the anti-immigrant environment has brought home to them the day’s Gospel passage about practicing one’s devotions in secret. Deploring the way they have been “treated like dust that can be swept away,” the cardinal told immigrants, “This day is made for you.” “When you cry in secret, he sees you. When you work hard for your children while no one is watching, he sees you,” …

Cardinal Tobin leads Ash Wednesday Masses inside New Jersey ICE facility

Cardinal Tobin leads Ash Wednesday Masses inside New Jersey ICE facility

Published by Sam Flores

NEWARK, N.J. (RNS) — Cardinal Joseph Tobin, the archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, entered the Delaney Hall Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility Wednesday morning (Feb. 18) to celebrate an Ash Wednesday Mass for detainees. Newark Auxiliary Bishops Pedro Bismarck Chau, Manuel Cruz and Gregory Studerus, who is retired, are also expected to celebrate Ash Wednesday Masses at Delaney Hall later Wednesday. Tobin, who will celebrate Ash Wednesday Mass again later at St. Patrick’s, Newark’s historic “old cathedral,” said starting the day with detainees was his priority. “It’s important for the church to be part of this place, of the respect for the dignity of those women and men,” he said as he exited the facility escorted in the Newark sheriff’s blacked-out GMC. The cardinal celebrated two Masses with the women detained inside and said that despite their detention, they showed strength. “It was sad and yet there was a serenity among them, because they’re women of great courage,” he said. Providing spiritual support in this moment is important, said the cardinal, adding that faith …

Dark matter may consist of particles with different masses

Dark matter may consist of particles with different masses

Published by Jenni Sidey

Dark matter keeps getting blamed for the universe’s big patterns while staying stubbornly out of reach. You cannot see it, touch it, or capture it. Yet its gravity helps shape galaxies, and that makes it hard to ignore. For decades, many astronomers have leaned on the cold dark matter model to explain how cosmic structure forms. The model works well on large scales. Trouble starts when you zoom in. As measurements sharpen, a set of small-scale puzzles has piled up that does not sit neatly inside the classic picture. Some dwarf galaxies, for example, seem to have dark matter that spreads out, with surprisingly low density in the center. At the same time, strong gravitational lensing has uncovered dark substructures that look almost too compact, far denser than traditional expectations. These two signals have lived side by side for years, and they pull in opposite directions. Projected dark matter density distribution and the induced strong lensing critical curves in a two-component self-interacting dark matter model. (CREDIT: Science China Press) One Dark Matter, Or More Than …

As it preps Specs for the masses, Snap’s Q4 shows revenue growth but fewer daily users

As it preps Specs for the masses, Snap’s Q4 shows revenue growth but fewer daily users

Published by skeptic

Snap is on a mission to diversify its revenue sources—moving from a business model in which it largely chases ad revenue to one where it can also make money through subscriptions and, eventually, hardware. The company’s latest quarterly earnings report shows that, so far, the firm is having moderate success with that strategy. In Q4, Snap’s revenue was $1.7 billion, which is up 10% year-over-year. Its average revenue per user was also up, slightly (to $3.62 from $3.44). The company’s net income was $45 million, up from $9 million the previous year, its earnings report shows. The company has also continued to generate a significant amount of revenue from Snap+, the paid subscription service that the platform launched back in 2022. The service’s subscribers grew 71% year-over-year, reaching 24 million. While those numbers might seem to suggest a company whose trajectory is headed in the right direction, the earnings report also shows the platform had slightly fewer daily active users last quarter—dropping from 477 million to 474 million. Those users fell away in North America …