As Congress meets to try to hammer out a health-care bill, a conservative Christian law firm is threatening to file suit challenging the constitutionality of mandated health insurance. Meanwhile, anti-torture religious leaders are planning a White House protest on Jan. 11, the eighth anniversary of the Gitmo prison.

Twenty-four Catholic bishops – including two cardinals – turn 75 this year, meaning they will have to submit their resignations, which the Vatican decides whether to accept. Cardinal Rigali of Philadelphia, who heads the USCCB’s pro-life office, and Cardinal Bernard Law, who was removed from his post in Boston amid the sex abuse scandal, will both turn 75 in 2010.

Rhode Island lawmakers overrode the governor’s veto and voted to allow same-sex couples the right to plan their partner’s funerals; NJ state senators will vote on gay marriage on Thursday, before a new Republican governor take office on Jan. 19. Catholics in Iowa are pushing for new restrictions on payday loans.

An Arizona federal district court dismissed lawsuits challenging a warden who played holiday tunes all day long at county jails. The ACLU announced a settlement with a Tennessee school in which the school agreed not to hand out Bibles on school grounds during school hours. A Quaker high school teacher is claiming that he was forced to resign because of his Quaker ways, including his black clothing. Ronald Wray claims the principal told him “not to come to school with a Blues Brothers or Johnny Cash look.” A Massachusetts pharmacy college has banned clothing that obscures the face, including veils and burqas weeks after a Muslim alumnus who is also the son of a professor was charged with plotting to kill people.

An Iowa company is selling potatoes that bear cross-like images for $1,000 (see picture of the little spudniks at top left). Religion is the hottest topic for U.S. historians, overtaking the previous favorite, cultural studies.

Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass to mark the Epiphany amid beefed up security after he was tackled on Christmas Eve by a mentally disturbed woman. The dwindling Christian flock in France is struggling to pay for costly upkeep of historic churches, and a Viennese cardinal’s visit to Medjugorje has angered Catholics who believe the claims that the Virgin Mary appears there are a hoax.