1991 | Religion
Religion
The encyclical Centesimus Annus issued May 1 by Pope John Paul II to mark the centennial of the encyclical Rerum novarum notes that knowledge, science, know-how, and discovery are the chief sources of the wealth of nations.
The Episcopal bishop of Washington, D.C., ordains Elizabeth L. Carl, 44, as a priest of the church June 5, acknowledging that she "has for a number of years openly lived in a loving and intimate relationship with another woman" to whom she has made a lifelong and monogamous commitment, and while that troubles him he points to the "strength, leadership, spirituality, intellect, moral understanding, and commitment to Christ" that she has displayed.
Brooklyn's Crown Heights section has a race riot following the August 19 vehicular homicide of Gavin Cato, 7. A car driven by an Hasidic Jew of the Lubavitcher sect hit the boy near the corner of Utica Avenue and President Street. The car was part of a motorcade for the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem M. Schneerson. Australian Hasidic scholar Yankel Rosenbaum, 29, is stabbed 3 hours later by one or more of 10 to 15 black youths who have acted in apparent retaliation for Cato's death, Rosenbaum dies August 20 from a wound undetected in the emergency room, violence continues to August 22, and efforts to convict Rosenbaum's assailant or assailants will go on for years as relations between the Lubavitchers and their black neighbors (most are Caribbean immigrants) deteriorate.