The Yemeni cleric with ties to alleged Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Hassan says he counseled the Army psychiatrist but never urged him to seek violence against fellow soldiers. In Mexico, researchers are probing the origins of religion as an evolution of human development. WaPo profiles a Muslim girl’s first year at school wearing a hijab, or headscarf, and a gay Mormon filmmaker is probing the LDS Church’s role in fighting against gay rights.
As U.S. Catholic bishops gather for their annual confab in Baltimore, proponents of married priests hope the pope’s recent outreach to Anglican married priests will extend to his own employees. Speaking of Anglicans, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said the future of the Anglican Communion is “chaotic and uncertain,” while one bishop compares the pope’s offer to disaffected Anglicans to putting “the cat among the pigeons.” Meanwhile, NPR profiles the U.S. bishops’ successful lobbying efforts surrounding abortion in the health care bill on Capitol Hill.
The pope has appointed a new archbishop for Milwaukee — watch this spot; the job has often been a springboard to higher-profile posts (Timothy Dolan is now archbishop of New York), and Jerome Listecki is an up-and-comer in the U.S. hierarchy. And, in a lesser-known but nonetheless important post, the pope has named a new bishop for South Bend, Ind., where Notre Dame has long been a thorn in the side of the local bishop.
In New York (this is actually a 10-year-old story), an entire 750-member congregation is made up of young people, from toddlers to collegians, and in nearby Brooklyn, Lubavitcher rabbis held their first big gathering since Lubavitcher emmisaries were killed in a terrorist attack on Mumbai a year ago. Speaking of Brookyn rabbis, an aspiring rabbi took home a surprising win at the World Boxing Association’s middleweight championship in Las Vegas.
