The pope has named San Antonio Archbishop Jose Gomez as coadjutor archbishop (designated successor) of Los Angeles; he is expected to succeed longtime LA Cardinal Roger Mahony when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 75 next year. The move also places Gomez in line to be the first Hispanic cardinal in the U.S. church, and one of the most prominent Hispanic leaders in the Catholic Church worldwide.
The NYT continues to push the Catholic sex abuse story, this time with a story about a known abusive priest who worked in Minnesota and is now assigning teachers at Catholic schools in India. A county attorney in Minnesota is trying to have the Rev. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul extradited to face charges. A Vatican attorney said officials there wanted him defrocked, but the local bishop instead ordered him to a year of prayer in a monastery.
President Obama is breakfasting with Christian leaders this morning over at 1600. Our own Dan Burke, who’s on the scene, said Obama held a private meet-and-greet with black church leaders prior to the main breakfast in the White House East Room.
The Washington Times is starting a new series on efforts to bridge interfaith differences. The (London) Guardian reports that angel-themed teen books are giving vampire novels a run for the money. A federal judge has tossed out a lawsuit brought by a woman who claimed she wasn’t paid enough while working for the Church of Scientology‘s elite inner circle.
A trial is scheduled to start today in Mobile, Ala., for an traveling evangelist accused of killing his wife and stuffing her body in a freezer. A Texas man has threatened to use “deadly force” at abortion clinics if the US Supreme Court doesn’t immediately outlaw abortion. The Ohio teenager who left her Muslim family for a Florida evangelist she met on Facebook now faces deportation to her native Sri Lanka.
In Egypt, Muslims are tussling over whether women have the appropriate emotional wherewithal to hold top judgeships. Some 88 gay couples have tied the knot in Mexico City since same-sex marriage became legal last month (and gay couples in the US are being encouraged to check the “married” box on Census forms). A second Jihad Jane wannabe (she’s also pregnant) is expected to plead not guilty to terrorism charges, lawyers said.
An ordinarily quiet Christian art museum in the Netherlands is drawing crowds — and raising eyebrows — with its exhibit of 122 artistic representations of the lingam, the phallus-shaped representation of the Hindu god Shiva.
