Amid discussion that the Supreme Court will be bereft of a Protestant when John Paul Stevens steps down, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said religion should not be a factor in selecting his replacement.

The AP says Pope Benedict XVI’s ivory tower background may explain his “troubled” handling of the sex abuse crisis, including a six-year delay in defrocking a California priest despite pleas from the Oakland bishop to act swiftly.

The pope on Sunday offered condolences to Poles mourning the loss of their president and other high-ranking government officials, and did not mention sex abuse. Questions are now being raised about former Pope John Paul II’s role in covering up for pedophile priests. Connecticut’s Catholic bishops are urging parishioners to oppose a bill that would lift the statute of limitations on child sex abuse cases.

U.S. Catholics are baffled at the Vatican’s media strategy — or lack thereof. A Massachusetts priest has called on Benedict to resign. The Archbishop of Oregon cancelled his subscription to The Oregonian newspaper and encouraged his priests to follow suit. A former Norwegian bishop who admitted molesting an altar boy is hiding out in a convent in Rome.

Catholics are flocking to the Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Western Massachusetts for Divine Mercy Sunday. Other pilgrims are headed to Italy to see the Shroud of Turin.

West Virginia churches held memorial services for the 29 miners killed in last week’s blast (photo at top left). The ELCA adopted “historic and sweeping” revisions to its ministry policies allowing noncelibate gays and lesbians to serve as clergy. A gay priest is a finalist to be elected Episcopal bishop of Utah.

An Alabama minister was convicted of killing his wife and sexually abusing his step-daughter.

Israel marks the Holocaust and its 6 million Jewish victims today. Catholics and Protestants in Ireland are condemning a bombing by IRA dissidents.