Wednesday’s Religion News Roundup

President Obama signed legislation this morning that will allow gays to serve openly in the military (pic at left). Gay rights advocates scored a victory on the international scene, too, as UN member states restored sexual orientation to a resolution opposing arbitrary executions. The Vatican sought to clarify the pope’s controversial comments about condoms, saying […]

President Obama signed legislation this morning that will allow gays to serve openly in the military (pic at left). Gay rights advocates scored a victory on the international scene, too, as UN member states restored sexual orientation to a resolution opposing arbitrary executions.

The Vatican sought to clarify the pope’s controversial comments about condoms, saying he did not suggest condom use could be condoned as a means of avoiding pregnancy. The statement, issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, reiterated, however, that HIV-positive prostitutes “who seek to diminish the risk of contagion by the use of a condom may be taking the first step in respecting the life of another.”


The Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix stripped a major hospital of its affiliation with the church because of a surgery that ended a woman’s pregnancy to save her life. But St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center acted in accord with Catholic directives on medical ethics, the head of the Catholic Health Association told National Catholic Reporter.

The Vatican has withdrawn from an agreement to join a Holocaust memorial organization because of tensions over of Pope Pius XII, the pontiff during WWII, WikiLeaks diplomatic cables show, according to the Guardian. Israel’s Holocaust memorial says it has identified four million of the six million Jews who were killed by Nazis.

China fired back at the Vatican, slamming its criticism of the country’s state-run Catholic Church as “imprudent” and “dangerous.”

A former leader of the Catholic Church in Belgium called on the church to be more open and humble after the clergy sex abuse scandal. A group that represents victims of clergy sex abuse is accusing the Diocese of Green Bay of plotting to destroy abuse evidence.

The top Roman Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land lamented the stalemate in Mideast peace efforts, but said he sees reason for hope. Iraqi Christians canceled Christmas festivities in three cities as al-Qaida threatened more attacks on the beleaguered community.

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the first Muslim elected to Congress, took a GOP colleague to task for pledging to hold hearings on the “radicalization” of American Muslims next year. American Muslims are asking where they stumbled in reaching out to the broader American culture. A federal judge ordered the government to pay $2.6 million in lawyers’ fees and damages to a shuttered Islamic charity in Oregon that was wiretapped without a court order under a surveillance program approved by President George W. Bush.

Two more Muslim inmates are trying to join American Taliban John Walker Lindh in a federal lawsuit asking to be allowed to hold group prayers in their cell block, the AP reports. A 20-year-old Somali immigrant reported being attacked with pepper spray outside an Ohio mosque.


Islamic clerics are uncertain about what to do with a Quran written in Saddam Hussein’s blood. A Turkish town is trying to cash in on its ties to St. Nicholas. A Florida Pentecostal minister is complaining that co-workers turned his Facebook page into a tribute to Satan.

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