Friday is here. In case you’ve only followed Ebola-related news, here’s what else happened this week.
First, the Vatican surprised everyone with a report detailing an unusual shift in tone toward gays and unmarried couples (and then reminded everyone that it’s just a draft). Bishops will discuss and modify the report over the next week and worldwide over the next year.
German Catholics have launched a campaign to reinstate references to God in the newly-drafted constitution of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. The state parliament voted last week to exclude any mention of God from the new constitution, becoming the seventh of 16 German states to do so.
Over the next several days, Jesuit institutions will recognize journalist James Foley’s Oct. 18 birthday. Foley, who was publicly executed by ISIS in August, graduated from Marquette University in 1996 and discussed his faith in his 2011 essay, “A Phone Call Home.”
In Maryland, a one-day “Spread Hummus, Not Hate” bus tour traveled around Tuesday in response to some anti-Islam ads many Jews and Muslims found offensive.
A new report published by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate indicates a dramatic decline in the number of U.S. nuns. The report says membership in women’s religious orders grew in the first half of the 20th century, reaching 181,421 sisters in 1966. But numbers have since steadily declined to below 50,000.
Oh, the Biebs. Because his “Sixteenth Chapel” mixup apparently wasn’t bad enough, Justin Bieber got into a bit of trouble for kicking a soccer ball around during his private tour of the Vatican last week. Why he brought a soccer ball to the Vatican is still a very good question.
And now for the papal rapid fire roundup:
This week, Pope Francis:
- Got a letter in the mail.
- Held a Mass for Canada.
- Passed some intriguing notes at the synod, prompting this: “Marco Tosatti, from the Italian daily La Stampa, said he would pay anything to know what the pope is scribbling on the many notes he passes to the synod’s secretary-general, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, throughout the synod sessions.”
And, before you go, please take our survey about whether the church needs a new theology of women.
