For your perusal, ten news stories from yesterday and today:

(1) The Catholics and Orthodox won’t soon be unified:

Moscow, June 9, Interfax - A complete holy communion between Orthodox believers and Catholics is very unlikely, Russian Orthodox Church Representative to European International Organizations, Archbishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria, said in an interview with the newspaper Soyuznoye Veche of the Russia-Belarus Union Parliamentary Assembly…..

(2) Great Britain’s ranking prelate Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor has decided to challenge the new UK regulations allowing adoptable children to be placed with same-sex couples.

(3) Pope Benedict XVI has said that inter-religious dialogue is inspired by Christ’s command of for love of neighbors.

(4) In Jordan, archaeologists have uncovered the oldest known Christian church:

“We have uncovered what we believe to be the first church in the world, dating from 33 AD to 70 AD,” the head of Jordan’s Rihab Centre for Archaeological Studies, Abdul Qader al-Husan, said.

He said it was uncovered under Saint Georgeous Church, which itself dates back to 230 AD, in Rihab in northern Jordan near the Syrian border.

“We have evidence to believe this church sheltered the early Christians — the 70 disciples of Jesus Christ,” Husan said.

These Christians, who are described in a mosaic as “the 70 beloved by God and Divine,” are said to have fled persecution in Jerusalem and founded churches in northern Jordan, Husan added…..

(5) Sex in the City: The New York City Health Department has found that more than 1/4 of the city’s adults are infected with the genital herpes virus. Reporters have suggested that now might be the time for New Yorkers to take advantage of the city’s free condom campaign. We suggest New Yorkers take a look at what has happened recently in South Africa:

(6) Our Cape Town, South Africa colleague Norman Servais tells of a recent poster “put up at the Maternity ward at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town (where Prof Chris Barnard performed first heart transplant in 1967)”:

If the lot number at the back of your CONDOM is 4308/ZLX, please return it to the health facility or workplace coordinator.

As a precautionary measure to ensure maximum safety of the public, the Department of Health is recalling all condoms supplied by Zalatex and produced by Latex Surgical Products (LSP) for the government condom distribution programme.

Norman continues, “You may recall that the story broke last year as 20 million condoms were recalled in South Africa because a person at the South African Bureau of Standards was bribed by the manufacturers to pass faulty condoms. This just after government had managed to convince a large number of people to use condoms.

For a selection of reactions to last year’s recall of South Africa’s defective condoms, see the South African Black Academics website.

The problem of defective condoms isn’t limited to South Africa. Remember during President Clinton’s administration, Surgeon General-designate Joycelyn Elders being criticized for suppressing information about defective condoms distributed while she was Arkansas Health Director?

(7) Here’s a WSJ review of Natan Sharansky’s new book “Defending Identity”.

(8) And while we’re talking about the Wall Street Journal and books, take a look at this: The would-be guardians of culture are too often its destroyers — a review of “Nobility of Spirit” by Rob Riemen.

(9) A new Australian study has found that 70% of women seeking abortions report having used contraception the month they became pregnant.

(10) And finally, William McGurn’s take on the difference between Presidential candidate Obama and President Kennedy when it comes to religion in the public square.