An Australian Catholic bishop blamed the sex abuse scandal on the Catholic Church’s focus on “sin and forgiveness rather than crime and punishment.” A Polish priest has turned himself into police in Brazil after authorities said transformed his rectory into an “erotic dungeon.” The AP says Maronite Christians in Cyprus (AP photo, left) see the pope’s upcoming visit as a shot in the arm to rejuvenate their beleaguered clan.
WaPo asks what became of the Democrats‘ faith-based outreach: “These days, the Democratic National Committee’s faith staff of more than a half-dozen has dwindled to one part-time slot. Its faith issues Web site led this week with greetings for Passover (which was in March) and Rosh Hashanah (which was in September).” Ouch. WaPo also discovers the nation’s first Christian ballet company in, of all places, Mississippi.
In a sign you can never quite leave the office behind, protesters plan to picket the bar mitzvah in Jerusalem for WH Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel‘s son. At least one South Dakota church has taken up gubernatorial candidate Gordon Howie’s challenge to go ahead and endorse his Tea Party campaign; we’ll see what the IRS says about that. California, meanwhile, wants nothing to do with the conservative rewrite of textbooks used in Texas.
The Dalai Lama, wrapping up a five-day visit to the Big Apple, said the U.S. could have avoided the war in Iraq by negotiating with Saddam Hussein. The LAT probes the church and gospel roots of American Idol contestants. That itinerant Alabama evangelist charged with killing his wife and stuffing her body in a freezer was sentenced to life in prison.
Muslims in Toronto are trying to marry Arabic, Islam, the Quran and American Sign Language (there’s no ASL sign for “Mecca,” for example.) Across greater Washington DC, equality-minded Muslim women are taking their place alongside men at prayer, and it’s not always a pretty scene.
Two interesting polls from Gallup: one, showing the number of nonreligious Americans holding fairly steady at 16 percent, and the other showing opposition to same-sex marriage decreasing slightly, while support inches up (no seismic shifts in either poll).
Archaeologists in Egypt got a glimpse at the country’s religious history when 57 ancient tombs were discovered, most of them with mummies inside and decorated with religious iconography to help the dead cross through the underworld.
