* Failure and success for the Pope *
Pope Benedict XVI (whose former name, Joseph Ratzinger, causes some to call him "Papa Ratzi") has met both failure and success this week.
Bad news from China (Wahington Post 29.11.06): The government-loyal Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association will install yet another bishop without the consent of the Vatican.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/28/AR2006112800842.html
The Pope's visit to Turkey, however, seems to have been a greater success than expected (Beliefnet 30.11.06). Before the visit, angry demonstrators denounced the Pope for his anti-islamic statements earlier this year, but during the visit pope Benedict prayed in a mosque together with a leading moslem cleric. This was seen as a sign of reconciliation.
When meeting with the orthodox leader, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, Benedict called the division between Christians a scandal.
Of Turkey's 70 million people, some 65,000 are Armenian Orthodox Christians, 20,000 are Roman Catholic and 3,500 are Protestant, mostly converts from Islam. Another 23,000 are Jewish.
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/205/story_20503_1.html
* South Africa Gay Marriage Bill Becomes Law *
South Africa on Thursday officially became the fifth country to legalize same-sex marriage, following the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, and Canada. In the United States, gay marriage is legal only in the state of Massachusetts.
The South African legislation was signed by Deputy President Phumzile-Mlambo Ngcuka while President Thabo Mbeki attends a summit conference of African leaders in Nigeria and came just 24 hours before a court imposed deadline to have the law in place.
The legislation received final approval Tuesday in the upper house. It was approved by the lower house of Parliament earlier in the month.
The government had originally proposed allowing only civil unions for same-sex couples - something that LGBT rights groups and constitutional law experts said created a "separate but equal" status that would be challenged in the Constitutional Court.
A provision in the new law that allows both civil registrants and churches to refuse to perform same-sex marriage continues to rankle gay groups but overall reaction has been favorable.
365gay 30.11.06: http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/11/113006safmar.htm
* "Christian Coalition" has Leadership Problems *
For the second time in little more than a year, the Christian Coalition of America named a new leader and then removed him before he ever fully took the reins of the conservative political advocacy group.
The Rev. Joel Hunter, pastor of a nondenominational megachurch in Longwood, Florida, said he resigned as the coalition's incoming president because its board of directors disagreed with his plan to broaden the organization's agenda. In addition to opposing abortion and same-sex marriage, Hunter, 58, wanted to take on such issues as poverty, global warming and HIV/AIDS.
Founded in 1989 by the Rev. Pat Robertson, the Christian Coalition was once a powerhouse in domestic politics with a budget that reached $25 million a year in the mid-1990s. But since Ralph Reed left as its president in 1997, it has fallen on hard times, running up more than $2 million in debt, according to tax filings.
Washington Post 29.11.06: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/28/AR2006112800602.html