- Pope Benedict XVI to resign citing poor health
- Vatican plans big send off for pope, consultations begin—They're considering holding the conclave earlier. Who are possibly in the running to succeed Pope Benedict?
- Catholics everywhere have something to say Salon
- Pope Benedict XVI resigns: What you need to know
- Church in Crisis: Pope Benedict Polarized More Than Unified
- Benedict's Radical End
- Book Talk: Papal resignation a PR coup for Vatican journalist
- Ex-Pope Benedict will have security and immunity by remaining in the Vatican—Most probably because when he was still a cardinal and overseeing the sex-abuse cases, "Ratzinger ordered bishops to keep allegations secret."
- Nostra Maxima Culpa
- Proud Of His Humility—Oh the magnanimity of Cardinal allegeded-child-rape-cover-upper Mahoney
- LA Catholics may hold "massive" fundraiser for child-rape settlements
- What went wrong in the Catholic Church?—"Why have its leaders been unable to deal with the priest sex abuse scandal in an honest and convincing way?"
- 15 Scientology Revelations from Lawrence Wright's 'Going Clear'
- Scientology, Hollywood, & The Prison of Belief: How Scientology Lured Tom Cruise
- How Scientology ensnares celebrities—Jenna Miscavige Hill on Tom Cruise: "Either he does know what's going on and he's not talking about it, or he is willfully ignorant." Salon
- The Last Supper: Germany's Great Church Sell-Off—"Dwindling church attendance and dire financial straits are forcing the Catholic and Protestant Churches in Germany to sell off church buildings en masse. Some are demolished, while others are turned into restaurants or indoor rock climbing centers."
- Secular Britain is ruled by religious bureaucrats—"Why is the church still such a force in our society when most of us disregard its clerics' teachings?"
- Modesty in Ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn Is Enforced by Secret Squads—"Shadowy committees have threatened shop owners over mannequins they don’t like, and reportedly have invaded homes to seize computer equipment." NYT
- Grieving Family Shocked To Learn Of 2nd Service For Uncle
- Applebee's Server Gets Stiffed By Pastor Who Gave Her Tip To God, Promptly Gets Fired By Applebee's
- Tennessee Christian quits job, refuses to file taxes over '666' on W-2 form
- Two of Phelps' granddaughters leave Westboro Baptist Church
- Inside the Vatican: The $8 billion global institution where nuns answer the phones
- Moon Man: What Galileo saw—"The new (and, unsurprisingly, Church-endorsed) view is that Galileo made needless trouble for himself by being impolitic, and that, in the circumstances of the time, it would have been hard for the Church to act otherwise. The Church wanted, as today's intelligent designers now say, to be allowed to 'teach the controversy.' All Galileo had to do was give the Church a break and say that you could see it that way if you wanted to. He wouldn't give it a break."
- Dead Sea Scrolls online library launched by Google and Israel
- Islam and science: The road to renewal—"After centuries of stagnation science is making a comeback in the Islamic world."
- Decoding facial hair in the Arab world
