Quote of the Day

“While I have never denied my sexuality, I haven’t publicly acknowledged it either, until now. So let me be clear: I’m proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me.”

–Tim Cook, Apple CEO quoted in Bloomberg Businessweek

Talk of death.

Today is All Hallows Eve, aka Halloween. Tomorrow is All Saints day. Sunday is All Souls Day. It’s that time of year when the boundaries between the living and the dead are blurred and ghosts return to walk the Earth.

For most of us, those ghosts will arrive in the form of trick-or-treaters knocking on your door once a year when they beg for candy.

But if your Halloween plans call for visiting a Hell House, a professor of religious studies at Stanford University offers some enlightenment on the history of such spectacles. “Hell houses are just one manifestation of the impulse to save one’s self by “saving” others,” she writes.

While we’re on the subject of hell, Pope Francis reminded the faithful yesterday, “the devil exists and we must fight against him.”

A classier Halloween outing: The Metropolitan Museum of Art has opened a new exhibit: ”Death Becomes Her: A Century of Mourning Attire.” Vanity Fair says: “It is morbid and exquisite….Morticia Addams would swoon.”

Speaking of death

Brittany Maynard said she no longer has a set date for her assisted suicide. But Cathy Lynn Grossman writes that the 29-year-old newlywed’s struggle to end her own life because of a brain tumor is popular with many people.

Here’s another take on physician assisted suicide: Mark Silk writes about how his mother decided to end things by starving herself to death, an increasingly popular technique called VSED, or voluntarily stopping eating and drinking.

Speaking of cancer, Thomas Menino, Boston’s longest-serving mayor, died of the disease Thursday. Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston issued a statement.

Still on death: Lauren Markoe looks at a new documentary that asks the question: How will we remember the Holocaust when its last survivor has died?

All this death talk need not be morose. On a trip to Lowe’s the other day, Jana Riess realized grief is the gift that keeps on giving: “Grief has kept my heart softer, more open.”

An institutional kind of death

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, the archbishop of New York, said about 14 percent of the city’s 368 parishes — more than 50 — would be merged with others.

Same story in Chicago: The archdiocese announced it would shutter seven elementary schools and consolidate six more by next school year.

One reason for all those closures? A dwindling number of priests. “Why We Walked Away” presents the stories of 12 of the 18,000 American priests who left active ministry in the church in the wake of Vatican II.

The color of death: The Sistine Chapel’s precious frescoes were starting to turn white from the air pollution caused by so many visitors passing through each day to marvel at Michelangelo’s masterpiece.

And while we’re at it, The Guardian’s Andrew Brown says the conservative backlash to Pope Francis is gathering momentum: “…for the first time a split looks a real, if distant, possibility.”

Jumah prayers go on

Muslim men over 50 prayed at the Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City on Friday amid intense security. The site was closed on Thursday in response to the shooting of prominent right-wing activist Yehuda Glick on Wednesday night. Protest marches are expected to take place throughout the West Bank today.

 Politically incorrect

Some students at the University of California, Berkley have organized a campaign to prevent the comedian Bill Maher from giving a commencement speech in December. They’re upset because he insulted Islam.

And finally, some comic relief

After Americans United for Separation of Church and State sent out 84,000 letters urging faith leaders and churches to be mindful of IRS restrictions that govern political activity, the organization received dozens of fiery responses. “Drop dead,” was one.

Here’s another: “As for your solicitude regarding our legal well-being, I ask that you shove it up your fat white a–.”

Happy Halloween, y’all! Check the box below to get our ‘back among the living’ edition on Monday.