Last week, tensions erupted in the East China Sea when China declared an air defense perimeter around a group of islands currently controlled by Japan but claimed by China, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan (BBC, November 28, 2013). China also announced that its air force was prepared “to deal with all air threats” from unidentified aircraft (ibid.).  The air defense zone amounts to a claim to all the territory and resources within the contested perimeter.

As a result of the “deal” brokered by the U.S.

“Christianity is just a ‘generation away from extinction’ in Britain unless churches make a dramatic breakthrough in attracting young people back to the faith, the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey has warned” (Telegraph, November 18, 2013).

“POPE FRANCIS has inspired a surge in attendances and confessions in the Roman Catholic Church, reversing decades of decline... In the eight months since he was chosen, cathedrals in Britain have seen a rise of about 20% in congregations, drawing in both new and lapsed members… Attendances at the Pope’s weekly address [in Rome] have surged to 85,000 last month against 5,000 for his predecessor, Benedict XVI” (Sunday Times, November 17, 2013).

“Pope Francis on Sunday will preside over a Mass in St. Peter’s Square at which an urn containing the relics [supposedly the bones of Peter] will be shown for public veneration. The urn is usually kept in the Apostolic Palace for private veneration by popes, but it will be publicly displayed for the first time to mark the end of the church’s ‘Year of Faith’” (Associated Press, November 18, 2013).