FaithWorld

(Any opinions expressed here are those of the author. They are not necessarily those of Thomson Reuters)

Nov. 2 was Karva chauth. I wouldn't have known it if it weren't for the special discounts at stores, the diamond and sari advertisements, and articles wondering whether newlywed actress Kareena Kapoor would fast.

I wouldn't know about the festival were it not for films like Dilwale Dulhaniya le Jayenge or other Yash Chopra and Karan Johar productions.

Karva chauth, a primarily northern Indian festival in which women fast for the men they love, looks like a glamorous affair and the ultimate selfless, romantic gesture. There is little space for discourse on how it perpetuates the notion that women should be dependent on men.

In India, there is nothing that a good old fast cannot cure. But this one is particularly interesting. Women fast the whole day, without a drop of water, until the moon appears. Though the idea of men fasting for their sweethearts is not unheard of, they are not expected to do it.

(People take part in the annual Gay Pride march in Paris, June 30, 2012. The sign in the foreground reads “Equality, Democracy, Progress”. The sign at center reads “Marriage for All”. REUTERS/Mal Langsdon)

France’s leading Roman Catholic prelate said on Saturday a government plan to legalize same-sex marriage would profoundly affect the equilibrium of French society, calling it a reform for the few not the many.

Speaking in the pilgrimage town of Lourdes, Paris Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois urged Catholics to show their opposition to a planned marriage reform by writing and speaking to their elected officials and through other “democratic means of expression”.

(People take part in the annual Gay Pride march in Paris, June 30, 2012. The sign at rear reads “Marriage for All”. REUTERS/Mal Langsdon )

Roman Catholic bishops and conservative politicians are stepping their campaign against French President Francois Hollande’s plan to legalize gay marriage days before his government presents its draft law in cabinet.

Paris Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois is expected to call for a broad mobilization against the law when Catholic bishops meet in the southwestern pilgrimage town of Lourdes for their annual plenary on Saturday.

(Soldiers search a car for suspected explosives along a road in Nigeria’s northern city of Kano January 22, 2012. REUTERS/Stringer)

Human rights abuses committed by Nigeria’s security forces in their fight against Islamist sect Boko Haram are fuelling the very insurgency they are meant to quell, Amnesty International said on Thursday.

Boko Haram says it wants to create an Islamic state in Nigeria and its fighters have killed hundreds in bomb and gun attacks targeting security forces, politicians and civilians since launching an uprising in 2009. The sect has become the No. 1 security threat to Africa’s top energy producer.

(A Mormon holds a copy of The Book of Mormon during an interview with Reuters at the missionary training center of the Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints at the Aragon neighbourhood in Mexico City February 23, 2012. REUTERS/Tomas Bravo )

The Mormon Church’s decision to lower its age requirements for missionaries, who travel the world in pairs trying to convert people to their religion, has prompted a sharp spike in the number of young people clamoring to serve the faith.

Mormonism has been gaining broad public attention recently from its association with Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate, who served as a missionary in France and has talked about his work as a pastor in the Mormon Church.

(Worshippers hold candles as they take part in the Christian Orthodox Holy Fire ceremony at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old city April 14, 2012. REUTERS/Nir Elias)

Jesus may have walked on water and turned it into wine but the hefty water bill for one of the holiest sites of Christendom is proving a headache for the church.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, said to be the site of Jesus’ crucifixion and burial, is struggling with a 9 million shekel ($2.3 million) unpaid bill owed to the Jerusalem water company.

(Indian artists paint leaves along the state highway during a campaign to protect the environment at the Madhubani district of the eastern Indian state of Bihar September 28, 2012. REUTERS/Stringer)

Dozens of artists in the eastern Indian state of Bihar are painting roadside trees and their leaves with colorful stories from Hindu epics, hoping to save the region’s already critically sparse greenery.

The unusual campaign, using coats of paint and brushes, has been launched in Madhubani, a northern Bihar district known for its religious and cultural awareness, resulting in hundreds of otherwise untended roadside trees covered in elaborate artwork.

(Pope Benedict XVI leads a special meeting with artists in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican November 21, 2009. REUTERS/Osservatore Romano )

Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling frescoes turned 500 on Wednesday with the Vatican warning it may eventually limit visitors to protect one of the wonders of Western civilisation.

On October 31, 1512, only 20 years after the discovery of America, Pope Julius II said an evening vespers service to inaugurate the room where Michelangelo toiled for four years, much of it on his back, to finish his ceiling frescoes.

Martin Luther, painted by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1529

It’s rare to be invited to an event five years off and even rarer to bicker about its details, but Germany’s Catholic Church finds itself in that delicate situation thanks to an overture from its Protestant neighbors.

German Protestants are planning jubilee celebrations in 2017 to mark the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s launching of the Reformation, a major event in the history of Christianity, of Europe and of the German nation, language and culture.

The Protestants have invited the Catholics to join in, a gesture in harmony with the good relations the two halves of German Christianity enjoy and the closeness many believers feel across the denominational divide.

(Candidates for leading the Coptic Church Father Bakhomius of Virgin Mary in Wadi Natroun (L), Father Seraphim of Virgin Mary (R) and Father Rafael from St Marina Monastery (C) talk during the mass held at the Klod Bek Coptic Church in Cairo October 22, 2012. The mass was held to introduce the five bishops nominated to succeed the late Pope Shenouda III who died on March 17, 2012 at the age of 88. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany)

Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox church has moved a step closer to picking a new pope when the shortlist was whittled down to three in a process the Christian minority hopes will deliver a leader to guide them safely through the upheaval of the Arab Spring.

The previous incumbent, Pope Shenouda III, led the church for four decades until his death in March at the age of 88. His successor will assume the post in a fast-changing Egypt where long oppressed Islamists are now in power – a major shift that is a source of alarm for the minority Christian community.