Conservative Lutherans voted Saturday to take 12 months to decide whether to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, but one large church in Arizona is already out the door. Some victims of clergy sexual abuse are finding that settlement money is less a blessing than a bane, and a former Catholic priest in Vermont accused of molesting altar boys is apologizing. Boston Catholics are comemorating Pope John Paul II’s visit 30 years ago.

A “frail-looking” Oral Roberts installed his eponymous university’s third president, and the woman charged in the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart is “remembering her sins” in letters to her mother. The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh may merge with another in northwestern Penn. and an Episcopal Church court in Philly has refused to dismiss charges against a defrocked bishop who didn’t report that his brother was sexually abusing a minor decades ago. Unitarian minister Forrest Church died; a memorial service will be held on Saturday.

Pope Benedict XVI told Czechs that people who don’t believe in God are “sad and unfulfilled.” Followers of Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn say they’ve been forced out of their monastery in central Vietnam by the government, and Al-Qaida’s second in command called President Obama a “fraud” for failing to stop Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Israeli police clashed with Palestinian rioters at the Temple Mount/Noble Sanctuary in Jerusalem, Saudi Arabia says swine flu has kept pilgrims from Muslim holy sites, and Muslims in Malaysia have founded a “polygamy club.”