Pope Benedict XVI concluded a “glitch-marred” World Youth Day in Spain on Sunday, after searing heat and thunderstorms played havoc with the weekend’s schedule, according to the AP. The next WYD will be in Brazil in 2013, the Vatican announced.
Church attendance among white Americans who did not go to college has fallen more than twice as quickly as it has among whites with fancy-pants degrees, according to a new study. Americans have lost faith in their religious leaders, argues a new book by a Duke University sociologist.
WaPo profiles a founding father of American Islam and finds that while supporters say his rights have been trampled by overzealous investigators, others doubt his loyalties and motives. The AP catches up with Muslim children navigating the challenges of growing up in a post-Sept. 11 America.
Catholic priests in Philadelphia have formed an independent association amid “a vacuum of information” about the latest clergy-abuse scandal, the AP reports.
In 1968, nuns or priests served as chief executives of 770 of the country’s 796 Catholic hospitals. Today, they preside over just 8 of 636 hospitals, and only 8 of 59 Catholic health care systems, according to NYT.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry barreled across South Carolina’s “most conservative and evangelical region,” WaPo reports, in an article that contained nary another word about religion.
A staffer involved in Rep. Michele Bachmann’s faith outreach compared Perry to Old Testament King Saul and Bachmann to King David. “One looks everything like a king, while the other is annointed,” saith the staffer.
A Chicago Trib column asks “Who Should Atheists Vote For?” Maybe a grammarian?
Tourists and Washingtonians will get their first look Monday at the new memorial to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
The NYT investigates the changing menus of Southern churches. Hmmm….where have I read this story before?
Rabbis are turning to comedy writers for help with their prime-time sermons. “The High Holy Days is like your sweeps,”said one writer.
Egyptian police arrested a man for posting insulting comments about Islam on Facebook, according to AFP.
A Catholic priest has composed a Litany for the Conversion of Internet Thugs:
“From faceless Facebook admin drones, spare us O Lord.
From tweeting Twitter idiots, spare us O Lord.
From from heart-hardened spammers, spare us O Lord.
From liberal nut-case smear-blogging hacks, spare us O Lord.
From thread-dominating combox trolls, spare us, O Lord.
From sophomoric drive-by commentators, spare us, O Lord.”
Lord, hear our prayer.
Yr hmbl aggregator,
Daniel Burke
