In 2004, Gene Robinson became the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, and a firestorm of controversy broke out in parts of the worldwide Anglican Communion. A little more than six years later, in late 2010, he announced that he’d be retiring.

On Sunday, Australia will have its own saint when Mary MacKillop, an Australian nun who died in 1909, is sanctified by the Vatican. We speak with former Newsweek religion editor Kenneth Woodward about Catholic hagiography, the process of becoming a saint, and why it took over 100 years for MacKillop. Woodward is the author of "Making Saints: How The Catholic Church Determines Who Becomes A Saint, Who Doesn't, And Why."

Today, the Obama administration unveils a new plan to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic in this country. Currently, more than 1.1 million Americans are infected with the virus, and infection rates are highest in the African-American community. African-Americans make up 12 percent of the US population, but make up more than half of new HIV/AIDS cases. It seems conventional methods of education on prevention and access to medicine are not effectively reaching this high-risk community. Many people pay attention to words from the pulpit: In some communities, the church might be the place where HIV prevention can best be taught.

A rabbi, a priest and a pastor are all looking for a job … It sounds like the set-up to a joke we’ve all heard before. But due to shifts in our culture and economy, it turns out that this set-up has no punchline. The unemployment rate among clergy has doubled from ten years ago. And institutions ranging from churches to College chaplains have enacted hiring freezes and clergy lay-offs.

A local Minneapolis magazine is getting backlash from readers for its decision to run a story about an anti-gay pastor who attended a support group for men grappling with same-sex attraction. Lavender Magazine reported that Rev. Tom Brock, of the Hope Lutheran Church, who publicly criticized the Evangelical Lutheran Church for liberalizing its gay clergy policies, attended Faith in Action, the Minnesota affiliate of the Catholic Church's Courage program. The program, according to its website, claims people can "move beyond the confines of the homosexual identity" by developing an interior life of chastity.

We take a look at what's ahead this week, with Marcus Mabry, associate national editor of The New York Times, and Derrick Ashong, host of "The Derrick Ashong Experience" on Sirius XM's Oprah Radio.

The appointment of Jose Gomez to lead the Los Angeles Archdiocese signals the Church's acknowledgement of the growing number of Latino followers and the importance to include the Latino population for the Church to thrive in America. Archbishop Gomez was born in Mexico and received his doctorate in theology in Spain, where he also was ordained as a priest of Opus Dei.  

The Catholic Church has been at the center of a sexual abuse scandal for weeks, but now a lawsuit in Oregon is turning the spotlight on Boy Scouts of America.

The youth organization is being sued by a 37-year-old man who says he was molested several times by his scoutmaster back in the 1980s. This is not the first lawsuit against Boy Scouts of America, but this case brings new evidence that the scouting organization knew about hundreds of molesters within its ranks and failed to take action.

Father Peter Hullerman, a German Catholic priest, was suspended Tuesday. He had been allowed to stay in a rectory to receive "therapy," after being accused of abusing an 11-year-old boy in 1980. The decision to finally suspend him came days after he returned from a camping trip with children.