Neil Armstrong will be remembered at Washington National Cathedral today. It’s a good moment to look at one eccentric Apollo story: the tale of Aldrin’s hushed-up communion on the moon.

Before Armstrong and Aldrin stepped out of the lunar module on July 20, 1969, Aldrin Unstowed a small plastic container of wine and some bread. He had brought them to the moon from Webster Presbyterian church near Houston, where he was an elder. Aldrin had received permission from the Presbyterian church’s general assembly to administer it to himself. In his book Magnificent Desolation he shares the message he then radioed to Nasa: “I would like to request a few moments of silence … and to invite each person listening in, wherever and whomever they may be, to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours, and to give thanks in his or her own way.”

He then ate and drank the elements. The surreal ceremony is described in an article by Aldrin in a 1970 copy of Guideposts magazine: “I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon the wine curled slowly and gracefully up the side of the cup. It was interesting to think that the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the first food eaten there, were communion elements.”

He also read a section of the gospel of John. During it all, Armstrong, reportedly a deist, is said to have watched respectfully but without making any comment.

The story of the secret communion service only emerged after the mission. Aldrin had originally planned to share the event with the world over the radio. However, at the time Nasa was still reeling from a lawsuit filed by the firebrand atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair, resulting in the ceremony never being broadcast. The founder of American Atheists and self-titled “most hated woman in America” had taken on Nasa, as well as many other public organisation. Most famously, she successfully fought mandatory school prayer and bible recitation in US public schools.

Seventy activists were arrest-ed in Washington, D.C., on July 18 while protesting the government’s treatment of undocumented immigrant children, organizers confirmed to Huff Post.

The group of Catholic sisters, priests, brothers and lay Catholic advocates recited the rosary as they gathered inside the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill for what organizers dubbed the “Catholic Day of Action for Immigrant Children.” Some of the participants held photos of children who have died in federal custody since 2018, while others lay on the floor of the building’s rotunda, forming the shape of a cross with their bodies.

The 70 individuals were arrested for unlawfully demonstrating, and were charged with obstructing a public place, U.S. Capitol Police spokeswoman Eva Malecki confirmed to HuffPost.

One of the activists arrested was 90-year-old Patricia M.Murphy, a Chicago-based religious sister who has spent years fighting for the rights of undocumented and detained migrants.

Family and friends gathered on July 10 morning to pay tribute to famed auto executive Lee Iacocca.

Iacocca died recently at his home in Bel Air, California. He was 94.

The funeral mass, which took place at  St Hugo of the Hills Church in Bloomfield Hills, was celebrated by Monsignor Anthony Tocco.

Among the readings during the funeral service was “The souls of the just are in the hands of God” from the Book of Wisdom and “if I have all the eloquence of men or of angels but speak without love I am simply a gong booming or a cymbal clashing” from the First Letter of St Paul to the Corinthians.

The eulogy was delivered by Monsignor Howard Lincoln of Sacred Heart Church in Palm Desert, California, where Iacocca was a member of the parish.

“For decades, Lee’s feet and hands moved mountains,” Lincoln told those at the service. “Lee always seemed to me to never really be down,” he continued. “Somehow, even at the darkest hours, I think he knew somehow even Chrysler would work out.”

Lincoln continued, “Lee knew that this life was his once in a lifetime opportunity and he wanted his life to matter… He was an elevating influence for our parish. I think he saw the importance of being kind and courteous to everybody… ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘I’ve had a wonderful and successful career but next to my family, it doesn’t matter at all.’”

After remarks by family members recalling Iacocca’s love of Christmas and family gatherings, the service concluded with the hymn “How Great Thou Art” with its refrain “Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee, how great Thou art! How great Thou art!”

During the height of his    career in the 1980s, Iacocca was arguably the most popular business figure in the world. Pictures of him, often with his trademark cigar, were on magazine covers and TV screens.

During his career, he was credited both with creating the iconic Ford Mustang and, later, for persuading Congress to bail out a bankruptcy Chrysler in the late 1970s.

In an unprecedented move, Eritrean bishops in the Orthodox Church have expelled their former patriarch, Abune Antonios. Antonios, who was the head of the church until 2006, was accused of heresy in a statement signed by a group of top bishops.

He has for a long time been a critic of the government and was deposed and put under house arrest 13 years ago. His followers accuse the government of interfering in church affairs.

He was deposed in 2006 after he refused to excommunicate 3,000 members of a Sunday school movement.