In Friday’s RNS report Kristine M. Crane reports from Rome on a Catholic conference looking at the topics of homosexuality and sexuality: The Catholic Church does not and should not use the words “illness” and “abnormal” to describe homosexuality, according to the organizer of an international Catholic conference on homosexuality and sexuality. “These words are from the 18th century,” said professor Mario Binasco on Thursday (Feb. 23), speaking to the public at the John Paul II Institute on Marriage and the Family in Rome. The church has come under attack, however, for language that appears to condemn homosexuality, he said. The Vatican last Nov. 29 issued a document that bars openly gay men from entering the priesthood, and disallows gay ordained priests from teaching at Catholic seminaries. In addition, a priest and psychotherapist at the conference seemed to contradict Binasco by saying homosexuality is not acquired, but genetic, and can be treated.

Chris Herlinger reports that the WCC Assembly ended in Brazil with a nod to Pentecostals: During an era of global turmoil over religion, the fact that a relatively diverse body of Christians from around the world could meet and leave 10 days later without much acrimony was enough for some to call the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches a success. Ecumenical history is likely to record that the assembly, which began Feb. 14 and ended Thursday (Feb. 23) in Porto Alegre, Brazil, was not a watershed for those looking for conflict, even though a blistering letter from the U.S. conference apologizing for an Iraq war raining down “terror” did cause a stir back in the United States. Worldwide, it may be remembered as something of a transitional moment in Christian relations. It was a time when the ecumenical movement of predominantly Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox churches recognized it had to form a new kind of relationship with the Pentecostal movement, the fastest-growing segment of Christianity.