The Vatican didn’t make any promises . . . but it did make big news . . .

Vatican gay icebreaker

Some who follow the Vatican are describing this as nothing less than “stunning.” The Synod on the Family, halfway through its work, issued a communique Monday from about 200 bishops and lay delegates that asks if it’s time for the church to acknowledge the good in gay relationships, and includes this semi-rhetorical question about offering an embracing church to gay and lesbian Catholics:

Are we capable of welcoming these people, guaranteeing them a fraternal space in our communities? . . . Often they wish to encounter a church that offers them a welcoming home.

Our woman in Rome, Josephine McKenna, has the details.

More in marriage news: Mormon couple Mitt and Ann Romney are not getting divorced despite a Washington Post headline that made my eyes go wide for a sec. “Ann Romney: ‘Mitt and I are . . .  done. Done. Done.’ Then I read the story. She meant that they’re not running for president again.

Church of the nurse with Ebola

Nina Pham, the Dallas nurse who caught Ebola from its first American victim, Eric Duncan, knows her church is praying for her, said Rev. Jim Khoi of Our Lady of Fatima Church in East Fort Worth. The church held a special Mass for her Monday. Pham, who is Skypeing with her family from her hospital room, remains in good spirits, said Khoi. Her chances for survival may have improved with a recent blood donation from Dr. Kent Brantly, the first American survivor of the current Ebola outbreak.

Methodists fight Ebola with animation

Sending the message that Ebola is not a curse, but a virus, the United Methodist Church has teamed up with a group of animators to create a video for West Africans struggling with Ebola.

In Ferguson, clergy ask police to repent

A clergy-heavy crowd of protesters confronted about 40 police officers in riot gear Monday, with several clergy members asking individual officers to “repent” for Brown’s killing and other acts of violence. Some officers ignored the request, but others engaged with the protesters, reported the AP. Ferguson officer Ray Nabzdyk told a clergy member:

My heart feels that this has been going on too long . . . We all stand in fault because we didn’t address this.

Survey says . . . very few nuns

The numbers say it all. In 1966 there were 181,421 Catholic sisters in this country. Today? Less than 50,000. That’s a nearly 73 percent decline. The stats and the math, courtesy of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, also debunks the common claim that more traditional orders — those more likely to wear the full habit — are drawing more members than the more liberal, socially active orders. David Gibson has the story.

Not your usual clergy abuse settlement

Out of Minnesota, a settlement signed Monday is believed to be the first to emerge from a claim at trial that the church created a “public nuisance” by failing to warn parishioners about a problematic priest. The settlement of a case against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona, contains “17 protocols” to better protect Roman Catholics and the greater community, including a prohibition on recommending a priest for active ministry or work with minors after credible accusations of sexual abuse.

Dog’s tail gets stepped on . . . so does God exist?

Pultizer Prize winner Gene Weingarten wrote one of my favorite pieces of journalism. And now he has written “Me & Dog,” a children’s tale about a dog and a boy that takes religious fundamentalism to task — if not religion, period. RNS blogger Chris Stedman interviews the atheist author, who said one of the reasons he wrote this new book is that “‘Heaven Is For Real’ is a bestseller, and that revolts me.”

Hong Kong’s Christian protesters

My cousin in Hong Kong, who is mad as heck that some of the pro-democracy protesters seem more interested in blocking traffic than free elections, is going to hate this next item. But many of the protesters say they draw their will to defy China from their Christian faith, though some Protestant churches there are downright opposed to the protests. And protesters in one neighborhood have built a decidedly non-Christian shrine to the Chinese General Guan Gong. NPR finds the faith angles on Hong Kong’s unrest in the streets.

A Christian mission fighting TB in North Korea

North Korea is still hostile to religion and holding an American captive for leaving a Bible in a hotel room. But somehow, the country opens its tightly-controlled borders to the Eugene Bell Foundation, an American Christian charity founded by the son of Presbyterian missionaries. The Foundation, which does not proselytize and fights drug-resistant tuberculosis — is getting ready for its next trip to the isolated state.

Sarah Silverman’s niece is on a bus ad in Jerusalem

It has nothing to do with the fact that Aunt Sarah is a famous comedian and everything to do with the fact that the Sarah’s sister as well-known Israeli rabbi who wants girls to have just as much right as boys to read Torah at the Western Wall. 

Bonus Tracks

Some Baptists welcome same-sex marriage in North Carolina.

Christians to look at Jewish texts through Jewish eyes.

Nigeria’s opaque and powerful megachurches.

– Lauren Markoe

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