Pope Benedict XVI has chatted with astronauts floating high above Earth as the Vatican linked up with the International Space Station for the first-ever papal video call to space.

The crews of the ISS and the linked US space shuttle Endeavour excitedly waved to the pope, who smiled and waved back.

"Welcome aboard the Space Station your Holiness," said Dmitry Kondratyev, Russian commander of the 26th long-duration mission to the International Space Station.

Speaking from his armchair in the Vatican library, Pope Benedict said he admired the astronauts' courage and commitment and described their mission as "an adventure to discover the origins of humanity".

"Humanity is experiencing a period of extremely rapid progress in the fields of scientific knowledge and technical applications. In a sense, you are our representatives," he said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/05/22/3223396.htm?section=justin

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Faith is a huge force in American life, and it’s common to hear the Bible cited to bolster political and moral positions, especially against same-sex marriage and abortion. So here’s my 2011 religion quiz. Choose the best responses (some questions may have more than one correct answer):

1. The Bible’s position on abortion is:

a. Never mentioned.

b. To forbid it along with all forms of artificial birth control.

c. Condemnatory, except to save the life of the mother.

2. The Bible suggests “marriage” is:

a. The lifelong union of one man and one woman.

b. The union of one man and up to 700 wives.

c. Often undesirable, because it distracts from service to the Lord.

3. The Bible says of homosexuality:

a. Leviticus describes male sexual pairing as an abomination.

b. A lesbian should be stoned at her father’s doorstep.

c. There’s plenty of ambiguity and no indication of physical intimacy, but some readers point to Ruth and Naomi’s love as suspiciously close, or to King David declaring to Jonathan: “Your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.” (II Samuel 1:23-26)

4. In the Bible, erotic writing is:

a. Forbidden by Deuteronomy as “adultery of the heart.”

b. Exemplified by “Song of Songs,” which celebrates sex for its own sake.

c. Unmentioned.

5. Jesus says that divorce is permitted:

a. Only after counseling and trial separation.

b. Never.

c. Only to men whose wives have been unfaithful.

6. Among sexual behavior that is forbidden is:

a. Adultery.

b. Incest.

c. Sex with angels.

7. The people of Sodom were condemned principally for:

a. Homosexuality.

b. Blasphemy.

c. Lack of compassion for the poor and needy.

answers at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/opinion/22kristof.html?src=ISMR_HP_LO_MST_FB&pagewanted=print

By Scott Stephens

And so it appears that a meticulous, restrained and even-handed study - which brings a much needed sophistication, even nuance, to the description and analysis of this whole sordid affair - is far less newsworthy than Kung's familiar rants against the evils of celibacy, or Geoffrey Robertson QC's delusional fantasy about Pope Benedict XVI at the helm of the Vatican's "command and control centre" or as the head of a "global paedophile trafficking ring," or Christopher Hitchens's grubby slur about the Church's "no child's behind left" policy, or Richard Dawkins's execrable, fact-defying description of the pope as a "leering old villain ... whose first instinct when his priests are caught with their pants down is to cover up the scandal and damn the young victims to silence."

Does this not confirm Hilaire Belloc's extraordinarily prescient description in 1929 of what he termed the "Modern Mind" - that cultural conceit that has been formed through the intermingling of arrogance, ignorance and sloth - and the "instrument" which feeds and deepens its malaise? "The popular Press," writes Belloc, tends to present

"as objects for admiration a bundle of things incongruous: a few of some moment, the great part trivial. Above all it grossly distorts ... Thus the 'Modern Mind' dislikes thinking: the popular Press increases that sloth by providing sensational substitutes. Disliking thought, the 'Modern Mind' dislikes close attention, and indeed any sustained effort; the popular Press increases the debility by an orgy of pictures and headlines. The 'Modern Mind' ascribes a false authority to reiteration; the popular Press serves it with ceaseless iteration ... In all these ways and twenty others the popular Press as we have it today thrusts the 'Modern Mind' lower than it would otherwise have fallen, swells its imbecility and confirms it in its incapacity for civilization and therefore for Faith."

It is precisely this form of sneering, stultifying pseudo-morality so often adopted by the modern media - whose self-promotion to the status of judge and arbiter of what warrants public attention, coupled with its fickle affections and compulsive dalliance with social media - that represents the realisation not just of Belloc's predictions, but of Kafka's nightmares.

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Gus: as if civilization and faith (in god) were necessary to each other... Faith actually reinforces the sloth attitude of one not caring for oneself — philosophically. The modern inquisitive mind is that of a Richard Dawkins, that of a Stephen Hawking and I will place my own mind in that lot, because I can...

In the past, the pulpit was the major source of information for the masses and I can say from my own experience that a lot of it was codswallop and the rest did not make any sense... The modern press is no more than the old gossip from time past. Nothing much of enlightened value comes through.