Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana was named the new president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace in late October, just as his debut on the global Catholic stage as the relator, or general secretary, of the Synod for Africa ended. It was in some ways a baptism by fire for the 61-year-old Ghanian prelate, introducing him among other things to the press climate in Rome. A few fairly innocent comments from Turkson about condoms, and about the prospect of a black pope, briefly became a cause celebre in the Italian papers and prompted the Vatican to issue a swift "clarification."

Perhaps it is the snow. Yes, here in the Imperial City of Washington, we have been buried under consecutive snow storms that have disrupted life. To cite a small example, this morning, the last three days' issues of the Post were delivered and we have not gotten mail since Monday morning. So, it is easy to get a little stir crazy. But, Deal Hudson, editor of InsideCatholic.com, and former Catholic liaison for George W. Bush, has put the "crazy" back into "stir crazy." He published an article yesterday suggesting that we need a Tea Party movement for the Catholic Church. He got this idea, he says, after someone suggested that Catholics start throwing tea bags at the headquarters of the USCCB and after watching the emergence of the Tea Party movement over the course of the year.

Last month, a week before the Senate seat of the liberal icon Edward M. Kennedy fell into Republican hands, his legacy suffered another blow that was perhaps just as damaging, if less noticed. It happened during what has become an annual spectacle in the culture wars. Over two days, more than a hundred people -- Christians, Jews, housewives, naval officers, professors; people outfitted in everything from business suits to military fatigues to turbans to baseball caps -- streamed through the halls of the William B. Travis Building in Austin, Tex., waiting for a chance to stand before the semicircle of 15 high-backed chairs whose occupants made up the Texas State Board of Education. Each petitioner had three minutes to say his or her piece.

A year ago, President Obama thrilled many religious Americans and worried some secular supporters by announcing that he would not only keep the faith-based infrastructure President Bush had constructed across the government but would expand it, adding a marquee council of faith leaders to advise him.But as the council prepares to end its first term and issue its report, some faith leaders across the ideological spectrum -- including some Obama allies -- say the operation may be more about window dressing than results.

President Obama's speech to the Muslim world has been ranked by the nation's religion journalists as the top religion story of the year. The June speech in Cairo, in which the president quoted from the Quran and said America will "never" be at war with Islam, was ranked as the No. 1 religion story by members of the Religion Newswriters Association. Evangelical leader Rick Warren, whose invocation at Obama's inauguration was greeted by protests from gay-rights groups, was named the 2009 Religion Newsmaker of the Year.

Americans view the Democrats as less religion friendly now than they did a year ago, while President Obama's administration is seen to be warmer toward religious faith than its party is, according to a new survey from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Twenty nine percent of Americans say Democrats are friendly toward religion, compared to 38 percent who said that last year, according to the survey. Thirty seven percent say the Obama administration is friendly toward religion, though it's unclear how that compares to previous views because Pew didn't ask the question last year. Twenty two percent see the Dems as unfriendly toward religion, up from 15 percent last year, while a 39 percent plurality say the party is neutral toward religion. Just 12 percent of Americans say Obama is unfriendly toward religion, the same proportion that say the Republican Party is unfriendly toward religion.

In an unusually overt step into politics by a religious leader, the Roman Catholic bishop of Brooklyn is urging voters, via robocalls, to support Vito J. Lopez, an assemblyman and the Brooklyn Democratic boss, whose hand-picked candidate is in a tough race for a City Council seat. The bishop, Nicholas A. DiMarzio, in a recorded phone call sent to every registered voter in City Council District 34, praised Mr. Lopez's legislative service to the Catholic Church this summer. Mr. Lopez played a key role in defeating a bill that would have let adults file suit over childhood sexual abuse that may have occurred long ago.

During the early months of the Obama administration in Washington, there were persistent rumors of a ceasefire in the nation's notorious culture wars. One writer hailed "the coming end" of these furious battles over abortion, gay marriage and the like, a demise that would be ushered in soon by greater attention to such bread-and-butter concerns as work and wages and by President Obama's agreeable style. The rumors were circulated mostly, and wishfully perhaps, by liberals who hoped to take the steam out of conservative social crusades. It seems that word never reached the people who fly the flag of traditional moral and family values.

In response to the Sept. 11 attacks, the football cheerleaders at a public high school here wanted to make the Bible a bigger part of Friday night games. So, to the delight of fans, they painted messages like "Commit to the Lord" on giant paper banners that the players charged through onto the field. That eight-year-old tradition ended last month after a parent expressed concern that it could prompt a First Amendment lawsuit. Church and state were not sufficiently separate, the school district agreed, and the banners came down.

Just in time for Halloween, Bill Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights is once again spooked about all those "radical secularists" lurking ominously behind ever corner. In case you didn't notice, these godless heathens are "waging war" against American culture and plotting to "smash the last vestiges of Christianity in America." So argues the irrepressible cultural warrior in a recent On Faith commentary and in his new book, "Secular Sabatoge: How Liberals Are Destroying Religion and Culture in America."