Not such a good Friday for Caroline Kennedy, daughter of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy.

Just last week, her name emerged as a possible ambassador to the Vatican. News outlets reported that Senator John Kerry (the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee) recommended her for the role, lobbying U.S. President Barack Obama, who makes the appointments, on her behalf. 

The rumor sparked outrage among Catholic groups, because Kennedy, who is Catholic, supports abortion rights, which the church vehemently opposes. One called it an "insult," saying, "It's inappropriate to appoint someone who pretends to be a Catholic but rejects the fundamental teachings of the church."

It seems that the Vatican has crossed names off of Obama's list. "At least three names...have been 'burned' even before the proposal of nomination could be made formally, because they were unwelcome to the church," one Italian journalist wrote, as translated by the Washington Times. (The Vatican denies the allegation.)

The United States has never appointed a pro-choice ambassador to the Holy See. 

Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Atlantic blogger and soon-to-be New York Times columnist Ross Douthat was not happy at all that my colleague David Rothkopf put Pope Benedict on his list of the world's biggest losers because of his comments on AIDS and condoms:

There are many other NGOs working in Africa that proceed from different premises, and take a different attitude toward matters sexual as a result, and if David Rothkopf prefers their approach that's perfectly understandable. But unless he's willing to tell the Catholic Church that it should fold up its charitable operations in the developing world and go home, I'd prefer to be spared the lectures on how the Pope is responsible for "massive death and suffering" among populations for whom Catholic institutions have provided lifelines beyond counting over the years, just because he isn't willing to to use his pulpit to preach the importance of playing it as safe as possible, health-wise, while you're committing what the Church considers mortal sin.

Rothkopf is more than able to defend his own posts, but I think that Douthat is missing the real reason why the Pope's comments upset so many people. As Bill Easterly pointed out, the first part of the Pope's statement, that AIDS is "a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms," is a perfectly legitimate statement. Condoms alone won't solve anything. It's his next clause, that the distribution of condoms "even aggravates the problem" which is more problematic.

Here's more Easterly:

From the standpoint of the individual, this is obvious nonsense, you are much less likely to get AIDS if you use a condom. The reason that mass condom distribution has not worked is that far too many people don’t use the condoms. One among the many possible reasons that people don’t use condoms is that religious leaders like the Pope tell them not to, or they believe unscientific statements like the Pope’s that “condoms aggravate the problem.” So it is tragically circular for the Pope to condemn the condom campaigns for not working, when one reason they don’t work is that the Pope has previously condemned condoms.

So in response to Douthat, the Pope was not "proceeding from a different premise" than those who promote condom use, he was making a statement that could at the very least be interpreted as arguing against the fact that condoms use can prevent the transmission of AIDS. Until condom proponents start telling people that they're obligated to have sex, the Pope's defenders are on shaky ground when they say he's just offering another approach.

But don't take my word for it. Roseli Tardelli, a Brazilian AIDS activist who's been educating people on these issues for over a decade, has a new piece on The Argument blog, about how the Pope's words have set her work back years.

BORIS HORVAT/AFP/Getty Images

This is disturbing to say the least:

Canada's science minister, the man at the centre of the controversy over federal funding cuts to researchers, won't say if he believes in evolution.

“I'm not going to answer that question. I am a Christian, and I don't think anybody asking a question about my religion is appropriate,” Gary Goodyear, the federal Minister of State for Science and Technology, said in an interview with The Globe and Mail.

A funding crunch, exacerbated by cuts in the January budget, has left many senior researchers across the county scrambling to find the money to continue their experiments.

Some have expressed concern that Mr. Goodyear, a chiropractor from Cambridge, Ont., is suspicious of science, perhaps because he is a creationist.

When asked about those rumours, Mr. Goodyear said such conversations are not worth having.

George W. Bush caught a lot of (understandable) flack from scientists for his partial embrace of "intelligent design" education, but even he chose a science advisor who stated clearly that "evolution is the cornerstone of modern biology."

(Hat tip: Boing Boing)

Malaysian Christians have long referred to Jesus as the "son of Allah." Their government, it seems, has a problem with that:

Malaysian Muslim activists and officials and they see using the word Allah in Christian publications including bibles as attempts to proselytize.

Those concerns led to the ban on the Catholic Herald newspaper's use of "Allah" to denote God. The Herald is now suing the government to overturn the ruling, made after it appeared the paper would be allowed to use "Allah" provided it stamped "For Christians" on the front page of the paper.

"Allowing Christians to use the word is dangerous because it's attacking the sole religion of the Malays," said Yusri Mohamad, president of the influential Muslim Youth Movement.

"We have to question Christians' motive for wanting to use this obviously Muslim word. It appears to be for conversions. All Muslim Malays in Malaysia are against this."

That Bishop Richard Williamson, as a representative of the Vatican, openly and ardently denied the Holocaust's occurrence was a problem. A big problem. As a religious leader it was a position that shouldn't be tolerated. His dismissal from the Church was warranted.

Today however, Argentina's interior ministry announced that the bishop had ten days to leave the country or he would face expulsion, saying that Williamson "has concealed the true motive for his stay in the country." He had said he was an employee of a non-governmental group rather than declaring 'his true activity' as the director of a seminary, the ministry stated."

Wait a minute. Has Williamson broken any laws? No charges have been filed against him. However ignorant, however reprehensible his beliefs, he's entitled to them. This latest action against the bishop seems like blatant persecution and it's a horrendous precedent to set that will no doubt arm more dangerous Holocaust deniers with anti-Semitic rhetoric.  

It's certainly not hard to understand the desire to just get rid of Williamson as quickly as possible, but Argentina just gave him a whole new subject to talk about.

In an interview with Der Spiegel over the weekend, embattled (and now unemployed) Bishop Richard Williamson declined to recant his denial of the Holocaust, as the Vatican has demanded, but did say he would read some more about it:

Williamson: Throughout my life, I have always sought the truth. That is why I converted to Catholicism and became a priest. And now I can only say something, the truth of which I am convinced. Because I realize that there are many honest and intelligent people who think differently, I must now review the historical evidence once again. I said the same thing in my interview with Swedish television: Historical evidence is at issue, not emotions. And if I find this evidence, I will correct myself. But that will take time. [...]

SPIEGEL: You could travel to Auschwitz yourself.

Williamson: No, I will not travel to Auschwitz. I've ordered the book by Jean-Claude Pressac. It's called "Auschwitz: Technique and Operation of the Gas Chambers." A printout is now being sent to me, and I will read it and study it.

How nice that Williamson has suddenly realized that "many honest and intelligent people" disagree with him about this. I can imagine him anxiously checking his mailbox for that Amazon package so he can decide for himself whether one of the most well-documented and historically significant events of the twentieth century actually happened. The Holocaust occured over 60 years ago. Williamson made his controversial comments in the 1980s. He's almost 70 years old. He really hasn't had time to look into this until now?

I feel like if I suddenly decided that, say, the Great Depression or the moon landing had never actually happened, I'd probably want to at least do some follow-up Googling at some point just to be sure.

Never mind his anti-Semitism and conspiracy theories. Does the Vatican really want to put someone this stupid back in a position of authority?

JUAN MABROMATA/AFP/Getty Images

As Bishop Gene Robinson is added to the roster for Obama's inaugural events, it seems pretty obvious why he and Rick Warren, set to give the invocation, don't exactly get along. Bluntly, Warren is an influential Conservative Evangelical who actively campaigns against gay marriage, and V. Gene Robinson is the first openly gay Bishop in the Episcopal Church.

The gaping divide between the two religious men actually goes even deeper -- all the way to Nigeria, where the powerful Episcopal Archbishop Peter Akinola presides. The famously anti-gay Akinola has led a global movement of Episcopalians against Robinson's consecration. The church in fact split over the issue, twice -- a wide global spectrum of parishes turning to Akinola for leadership.

And when Time named Bishop Akinola as one of the world's most influential people in 2006, guess who they got to write him up? Rick Warren. Just today, Warren was rumored to be willing to help disgruntled Episcopalians get as far away from Robinson as possible. No surprise that when Warren was chosen for the inaugural invocation, Robinson told The New York Times, "it was like a slap in the face."

They've both also said quite nice words about one another, by the way. But still. Yikes. If Obama is trying to "bring people together," that's quite a daring pairing. What must Akinola be thinking about all this?

Photo: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

The Anglican Church in North America announced its plans yesterday to create a breakaway church to protest the ordination of an openly gay bishop five years ago. Up to this point, Anglicans in the United States and Canada who objected to homosexuality had allied themselves with churches abroad -- namely, the Anglican Church of Nigeria.

As FP's recent list of the world's top religious powerbrokers explained, Nigerian Bishop Peter Akinola has profited greatly from his status as the world's anti-gay Anglican leader. So today's announcement might sound like bad news to Akinola, who could easily be described as violently anti-gay.

After my time in Nigeria, however, I suspect the opposite. Akinola made waves when he created his own breakaway church in protest against homosexuality; the fact that others are following simply means his movement is catching on. The man behind the split will still retain strong influence among Anglicans.

And perhaps more importantly for Akinola, he is still strong -- and getting stronger -- at home. Akinola's views on homosexuality are wildly popular in Nigeria, where conservative Christian values are in a neck-in-neck competition with convertive Islamic ones for converts. Religious violence flared up last week at the flashpoint of north and south Nigeria (where Islam meets Christianity, to a large extent). Akinola criticized the government for inaction.

Akinola can make a strong case as the founder of the breakaway movements within the Anglican Church. And he can take credit for lashing out against homosexuality in the church. Whatever your view of the matter, that kind of symbolic power doesn't fade fast.

Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Cairo's zabaleen form the backbone of the city's garbage disposal system. They collect about a third of Cairo's trash and traditionally haul it by donkey cart, as seen in this Oct. 20 photo. Largely scorned by Egyptian society, the trash scavengers recently lost one woman who had worked tirelessly for their well-being -- Sister Emmanuelle, a Belgium-born French nun who died Oct. 20 at age 99.

See more photos of zabaleen at work and read more about them in this week's photo essay, "Cairo's Trash Collectors Down in the Dumps."

Photo: KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images

In Iran, health experts have issued warnings on TV and radio discouraging people from overeating during the holy month of Ramadan.

They are right to worry. Some Iranians actually gain weight during this time because they overindulge at iftar, the evening feast when Muslims break their daily fasts, National Geographic News reports:

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Comedian Mike Myers's latest movie, The Love Guru, hits the big screen in the United States today. In the film, Myers plays Guru Pitka, a character who is raised at an ashram in India and then moves to the United States to serve as a New Age-ish life coach for a Canadian ice hockey player experiencing marital problems.

Some Hindus in the United States have complained that, based on what they've seen in the trailer, the movie lampoons their faith and reinforces misconceptions about their religion. The movie never mentions Hinduism, and Guru Pitka is supposed to be of a fictional faith. Critics, however, contend that considering he's coming from an ashram in India, wears Hindu saffron robes, and uses the term "guru," what other religion would viewers logically link him to?

It's true that in the United States, Hinduism -- one of the world's fastest growing religions and practiced by nearly 1 billion people -- has been largely and inaccurately portrayed as a bizarre, New Age-like religion. And The Love Guru will probably reinforce that image. As one Hindu leader told the Associated Press, "People are not very well-versed in Hinduism, so this might be their only exposure. They will have an image in their minds of stereotypes. They will think most of us are like that."

Upset Hindus should take solace, however, in the fact that this movie is a flop, mainly due to Myers's tired jokes and lame toilet humor. Reviews have been scathing, and the film received a pathetically low 15 percent on the tomatometer. Looks like The Love Guru generated some bad karma for itself.

iStockPhoto.com

Even so, [Noah's ark] would struggle to comply with modern marine transport guidelines, even with a few thousand creatures.

That's from a very weird Reuters story that uses the upcoming U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity as a peg to discuss whether or not the Noah's ark story really happened. Biologists, environmentalists, creationists, shipbuilders, and "livestock shipping experts" all weigh in.

By the way, if you're ever in the greater Cincinnati area, I highly recommend a visit to Answers in Genesis' infamous Creation Museum. In addition to learning just how all those animals did fit on the ark, you can also see some pretty scary animatronic dinosaurs in the full-scale Garden of Eden replica.

Uganda is being held in suspense right now as Lord's Resistance Army commander Joseph Kony continues to delay signing a peace agreement that would bring an end to one of the world's longest-running conflicts.

Current TV just put up an amazing short documentary on the conflict that includes an interview with a former top LRA commander who says he has no regrets about his actions:

It's probably safe to say that if Kony operated in the Northern Hemisphere, he'd be considered the world's most dangerous terrorist. Throughout the LRA's 22-year rebellion, it has killed more people than al Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah combined, and abducted thousands of children to serve as child soldiers or "wives" for top commanders.

Kony ran the LRA like a religious cult, aimed to create a government based on the 10 commandments and consulted regularly with a "spirit council" that included a dead Chinese general. He's also just one of the zealots and hate-mongers profiled in this week's FP list, "The World's Worst Religious Leaders."

Here's hoping this dark chapter in African history is finally coming to an end.

Worshipers re-enact the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday in the French Quarter, March 21, 2008 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)