The Twitterverse is abuzz this morning with tweets that New York’s charismatic Archbishop Timothy Dolan (left) is the surprise pick as the new president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, beating out current V.P. Gerald Kicanas of Tucson, who considered a shoo-in to ascend to the big chair. Louisville Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, the bishops’ point man on all things marriage, was elected to the No. 2 spot. Kicanas, you may recall, was dogged by charges that he hid an abusive priest, and a whisper campaign that he wasn’t conservative enough.
Speaking of the Twitterverse, yesterday the bishops were told to tweet, blog and Facebook their way into the 21st century at their annual assembly in Baltimore. Kurtz, the new No. 2, said striking down California’s Prop 8 that banned same-sex marriage would be akin to Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion. Outgoing president Cardinal Francis George insisted the bishops were right to oppose health care reform. Missing from the rest of the meeting will be Washington’s Donald Wuerl, who gets elevated to the clubby College of Cardinals this weekend.
U.S. activists are lobbying against a proposed U.N. resolution against “defamation of religions” sponsored by Islamic countries. Former Bush aide Michael Gerson sees a dangerous precedent in Oklahoma‘s passage of a state constitutional amendment to ban Shariah law in state courts.
A high school teacher in Michigan was suspended for a day after he suspended a student for a day for saying he didn’t “accept gays” because it’s “against my religion.” Over in Minnesota, a Catholic school took down an editorial written by the student newspaper that criticized the Saint Paul and Minneapolis archdiocese for engaging in “nothing more than simple, emotional propaganda.”
A religion professor at Rice University wants to know why the academy won’t allow discussions of the paranormal — if they believe that a burning bush talked to Moses, why not UFOs? Speaking of the paranormal, CNN asks whether Elizabeth Smart kidnapper Brian David Mitchell can be held responsible for religious beliefs that his lawyers say are delusional.
Men’s Health magazine — did anyone realized they were in the business of doing this? — has rated America’s most religious cities, with Colorado Springs come in the No. 1 spot, followed by Greensboro, N.C.; Oklahoma City, Okla.; Wichita, Kan.; Indianapolis; Jacksonville, Fla.; Portland, Ore. (really?); Birmingham, Ala.; Charlotte, N.C. and Little Rock, Ark. There’s 100 total cities listed, and for you guys in Burlington, Vt., get your butts to church.
The Philly Inquirer probes the “Solomonic” decision over whether, and how, the city’s new National Museum of American Jewish History should be open on the Sabbath. In Dallas, they’re breaking ground on the new presidential library/museum for George W. Bush at Southern Methodist University, which was pretty unpopular with more than a few Methodists.
The pope told athletes to say nope to dope. B16’s fellow German, Chancellor Angela Merkel, says her country doesn’t suffer from “too much Islam” but rather “too little Christianity.”
Muslims in Athens who were marking the hajj pilgrimage were assaulted by far-right activists, who threw eggs at the men bowing in prayer. At the actual hajj in Mecca, pilgrims threw stones at pillars meant to represent the devil. POTUS and FLOTUS sent their best wishes to the pilgrims.
