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Greetings, World of Faith readers, 

This week, we report on a memorial that illustrates the Catholic Church's shift to a more compassionate approach to suicide. We look back at the scandal-ridden life of televangelist Jim Bakker. And we explain why some are upset Meryl Streep was cast to provide the voice for a fictional lion.

A plane flies above a sculpture of ascending doves at a memorial for survivors and lives lost to suicide dedicated by the Archdiocese of Chicago in Hillside, Ill. (AP Photo/Luis Andres Henao)

SUICIDE MEMORIAL

First suicide memorial by a US archdiocese signals Catholic Church's compassionate shift

A memorial for lives lost to suicide and their surviving families who grieve them has been dedicated by the Archdiocese of Chicago. The archdiocese says it's the first memorial of its kind in the United States and illustrates the Catholic Church’s major shift to a more compassionate understanding of suicide and mental illness. Read more.

Why this matters:

• Catholic teaching still considers suicide a grave sin. But it acknowledges that mental health problems can lead people to suicide and says salvation is possible for those who take their own lives. 
  
  
• Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV has dedicated some of his monthly prayer intentions to people suffering from mental health problems and suicidal thoughts. He called on the church to become “a safe space where everyone has a place." 
  
  
• Though the memorial is on Catholic grounds, it seeks to support mourners across faiths. It features sculptures of an angel and bronze doves that rise upwards in a symbol of “hope and transcendence.” 

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

• Priest, at funeral, criticized teenager who killed himself 
• Family loses appeal in lawsuit over priest’s funeral remarks 
• Pope convenes cardinals and asks their priorities for 2 years, with Latin Mass off the agenda

JIM BAKKER

Televangelist who lost his ‘PTL Club’ empire in sex and money scandals dies at 86 

Jim Bakker built a huge TV following and evangelical empire with his first wife, Tammy Faye, which later collapsed in a sex scandal and financial crimes. It was “The PTL Club,” which at its peak in the mid-1980s drew 13 million nightly TV viewers, that made the couple cultural icons — so much so that they were often skewered in the 1980s and '90s by late-night comedians and parodied on “Saturday Night Live.” Read more. 

Key points:

• Bakker, who suffered a stroke in 2020, lived with his second wife near Branson, an entertainment destination in Missouri, where they had filmed their TV show “The Jim Bakker Show” since its launch in 2003. 
  
  
• "The PTL Club" featured chats with guests and Christian entertainers. Bakker offered upbeat sermons and Tammy Faye — charismatic and always wearing her trademark heavy mascara — sang.
  
  
• Their standing began to crumble in 1987, when Bakker admitted to a sexual encounter with church clerk Jessica Hahn and was forced to resign. In 1989, he was convicted for fraud and conspiracy after an investigation of PTL’s finances, and was sentenced to prison. 

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

• Elton John turns the saga of televangelist Tammy Faye into song for Broadway 
• Review: With empathy, Chastain plays Tammy Faye Bakker 
• Pat Robertson, broadcaster who helped make religion central to GOP politics, dies at 93 
• Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, whose ministry was toppled by prostitution scandals, dies at 90 

NARNIA CONTROVERSY

A familiar figure, a new voice: Meryl Streep's Aslan stirs gender debate over Gerwig's ‘Narnia’ 

Director Greta Gerwig's film adaptation from "The Chronicles of Narnia" is sparking controversy over casting Meryl Streep to voice Aslan, the divine lion in "Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew." Some conservative Christians note that in C.S. Lewis' books, Aslan is depicted as male and a representation of Jesus. They argue casting a woman challenges their faith, given that Jesus is depicted as the Son of God in the Bible. Read more. 

Key points:

• The casting of Streep doesn't necessarily mean Aslan will be depicted as female. But to Christian critics, even the possibility of portraying a divine Christ figure as anything but male goes beyond artistic license.

• Gerwig hasn’t addressed the gender question, but said Streep is one of the few actors who could meet her criteria for Aslan’s voice. "I wanted someone who was older than 70, so there was a wisdom of experience, but who also had the capacity of fresh wonder, like a child," she said.
  

• Narnia has a broad reader base, with reported sales of 120 million books worldwide since the first volume's publication 75 years ago this month. Its Christian readers feel a particular sense of ownership.