Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori; Pentagon: Homosexuality a Mental Disorder; Venice in WWII

Katharine Jefferets Schori has been elected the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church United States of America.

Interviewed on CNN, Bishop Jefferts Schori was asked if it was a sin to be homosexual.

"I don't believe so. I believe that God creates us with different gifts. Each one of us comes into this world with a different collection of things that challenge us and things that give us joy and allow us to bless the world around us," she said.

"Some people come into this world with affections ordered toward other people of the same gender and some people come into this world with affections directed at people of the other gender."

As a lapsed Episcopalian, lapsed because of the church's failure to address the differences that gayness generates, this is an extraordinary statement.

As I read the various articles, I was quickly reminded of the fact that many dioceses in the US still refuse to recognize the ordination of women as priests.

AP announced yesterday that a document had been found from the Pentagon that " lists being gay alongside retardation and other mental problems."

I recently bought Joseph Kanon's newest book "Alibi." After the end of WWII, An American soldier from Frankfurt joins his society-matron mother in Venice, where she had lived before the war, and who, more or less regards the war as an "inconvenience." Her primary intention is to re-start the previous social scene. She had met a doctor of whom she is very fond. The soldier has also met an amorous partner.

Finally, partner and doctor meet at a party. The partner immediately screams at the doctor, "Assassino!" She reveals that during the war, the doctor revealed her father as being Jewish to the SS. Later the father is sent to Auschwitz.

As I started the novel, it struck me how incredibly little I knew about Italy and WWII. And for some reason, I'd just never imagined Venice as being a part in any of this. (For some background, try Italy During World War II - Italiansrus.com.)

PAX!