Millions of Muslims celebrated the end of Ramadan over the weekend, and some were joined in fasts this year by Christians. Swine flu is prompting Italian Catholics to take precautions before kissing reliquaries, the U.S. ambassador to Malta teasingly tells President Obama he should convert to Catholicism, and the Vatican has called bishops to Rome for a meeting on the Middle East. Obama will meet with Netanyahu and Abbas this week at the UN.

Conservative Christians meeting in Washington elected Huckabee for a non-existing office and condemned Obama, two pro-gay churches in San Francisco are weighing a return to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and Catholic bishops in New Jersey are campaigning against gay marriage. The grandson of Billy Graham will remain head of a Fort Lauderdale megachurch and a former top official with the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles testified that Cardinal Roger Mahony told underlings to delay reporting clergy abuse claims to the police until the priest in question could be defrocked, according to court papers.

A United Church of Christ pastor from Illinois swam across the English channel to raise money for a school in Africa and the church where William Shakespeare was baptized and buried badly needs repair. Breathe life into those stones, brothers.