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Today is Cinco de Mayo, the commemoration of Mexico’s May 5, 1862 victory over France, but more commonly celebrated in America as a kind of Mexican St. Patrick’s Day — instead of honorary Irish partying with green beer and parading to bagpipes, honorary Mexicans drink tequila and dance to mariachi music. (Plus, neither group knows much about why they are celebrating……

As a somber reminder that the global Catholic Church has more to worry about than just its clergy abuse scandal and divisive social issues, Pope Benedict has just sent a telegram (I find it unintentionally hilarious that the Vatican still uses these) to Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa of Mosul in Iraq, expressing condolences over the four Christians…

Although U.S.officials have stood by their dismissal of the Pakistani Taliban’s efforts to claim credit for the Times Square bomb scare over the weekend, it appears that a Muslim man from Pakistan is the prime suspect. The New York Times reports that Faisal Shahzad, 30, a naturalized American citizen who lives in Connecticut, was taken into…

Yoda fans around the world are observing today, May 4, as “Star Wars Day,” in a punny take on the Jedi Knight motto: “May the Force Be With You.” (May the Force, May the 4th… get it? Geddit?!) To learn more about how the Star Wars universe borrowed themes from religious beliefs, including Christianity, Islam, and Taoism,…

While the jury is still out on the recent Noah’s Ark discovery on Mount Ararat in Turkey, Pope Benedict has just returned from his pilgrimage to the mother of disputed religious artifacts: the Shroud of Turin. The Associated Press reports that the pontiff “all but gave an outright endorsement” of the relic, which some believe to be the burial…

Pakistan’s branch of the Taliban is trying to claim credit for the bomb scare that shut down Times Square on Saturday night, but U.S. officials and other experts say it’s highly unlikely the group had the ability to pull something like this off (even unsuccessfully). The Christian Science Monitor story notes that the Taliban falsely…

May is Jewish American Heritage Month, now in its fifth year. President Obama issued the proclamation Friday, noting that just as America has served as a haven for Jewish immigrants, their experience as “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” (famous words written for the Statue of Liberty by, appropriately enough, Jewish American poet Emma Lazarus) reminds us “of our…

Here’s a bonus Pope Watch, updating yesterday’s post: The Vatican has just announced that Pope Benedict will appoint a new leader and oversee restructuring of the Legionaries of Christ, the conservative Catholic order investigated recently due to revelations that its founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel, had fathered children and abused seminarians. Links to some of the…

Pope Benedict made an appearance at today’s Vatican meeting to discuss the investigation of the Legionaries of Christ, a conservative Catholic order founded by the Rev. Marcial Maciel, who turns out to have fathered several children and abused seminarians. As expected, the Vatican did not announce a decision about the order after the meeting, though some kind…

The most entertaining religion news story this week was unquestionably “Boobquake,” a Facebook-fueled joke calling on ladies to respond, um, appropriately to an Iranian Muslim cleric’s recent statement that womens’ immodest attire has been causing the earth’s violent tremors. Purdue University student/Boobquake mastermind (and atheist) Jennifer McCreight explained the April 26 phenomenon for ABC News. Apparently, we all survived… except that…
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