As almost everyone noted on Saturday, the Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson, announced that he will retire in 2013, citing the “constant strain” of controversy and death threats.
Five Church of England bishops announced on Monday that they are defecting to the Roman Catholic Church over homosexuality and the ordination of women.
In Spain over the weekend, Pope Benedict XVI defended traditional families and the rights of the unborn, attacking Spanish laws that allow gay marriage, fast-track divorce and easier access to abortions; the pontiff was met by 200 kissing gays and lesbians on his way to dedicate Barcelona’s iconic basilica, La Sagrada Familia. Upon his return to Rome, B16 summoned 200 cardinals for an unprecedented summit on the clergy sexual abuse scandal on Nov. 19.
Israeli authorities have charged a Palestinian imam with inciting hatred against B16; a black-robed man threw a pie in the face of a controversial Belgian bishop at Mass last Monday.
President Obama and Michelle celebrated Diwali at a Catholic school in India yesterday. POTUS also took some tough questions from Indian students, who asked about jihad, and why the U.S. doesn’t call Pakistan a “terrorist state.”
Saudi Arabia’s high court has declared Nov. 15 the start of hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Islam’s holy sites.
The head of the world’s largest Islamic group compared growing Islamophobia to the rise of anti-Semitism in the 1930s, with U.S. leaders resisting it but Europeans abetting the trend for political gain. A U.S.-born radical Yemeni cleric linked to the Underwear Bomber, Fort Hood shooter, and Times Square plot called for Muslims around world to kill Americans. A U.S.-based extremist Islamic website was taken down after the British authorities complained of a post praising a young woman who stabbed a British lawmaker over his support for the Iraq war.
Iraqi Christians celebrated Mass on Sunday in the church that last week was the scene of a horrific bloodbath. Poland is building a big statue of Jesus.
The Constitution is the Tea Party’s Bible, inerrant, inspired, and infallible, says the NYT. Motorists at Talladega Superspeedway are racing with Jesus. A Catholic priest in Rome has installed a nightclub in a crypt in order to attract young blood. A baseball card raised $220,000 at auction for an order of American nuns. A 91-year-old Dutch man finally had his bar mitzvah on Sunday.
