I’m off to India for a family wedding — perhaps we’ll wave to Santa from the window seat! — so here’s plenty of holiday cheer to last until I get back: A flash mob for Christmas (Blogging Religiously) Colbert Takes the Christ Out of Christmas (Commonweal) My Magi: Crab, Crocodile and Sea Horse (Maureen Dowd for…

I’ll have to post an extra Fun Friday tomorrow to make up for all the grim religion news this week, but the plight of Christians in the Middle East is important, especially at this time of year (once again): No Christmas festivities for some Iraqi Christians (Reuters) Christians senselessly tormented by extremists in Muslim world (CNN)…

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix has stripped St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center of its Catholic affiliation because of the 2009 procedure that ended a woman’s life-threatening pregnancy at 11 weeks. Apparently, the hospital should have allowed her to die, rather than return to her four children at home. Or, perhaps St. Joseph’s could have transferred…

Two interesting bits of news out of the Vatican: more from Pope Benedict on the clergy sex abuse crisis, and his controversial/confusing comments about condoms. Check out these links: Pope links sex abuse to vices (Religion News Service) Vatican clarifies pope’s condom comments (AP) Pope sees clergy sex abuse as product of moral relativism (Religion…

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