Wednesday’s roundup

The AP is reporting that the Vatican has “revved up” into full-scale “damage control mode” ahead of the pope’s first foreign trip (to Malta) since the sex abuse scandal erupted. Here at home, the AP is reporting that church justice against suspected abusers is swift and severe. Irish Cardinal Sean Brady, under pressure to resign […]

The AP is reporting that the Vatican has “revved up” into full-scale “damage control mode” ahead of the pope’s first foreign trip (to Malta) since the sex abuse scandal erupted. Here at home, the AP is reporting that church justice against suspected abusers is swift and severe.

Irish Cardinal Sean Brady, under pressure to resign for his role in handling abuse cases, collapsed during a confirmation Mass but appears to be on the mend. A Minnesota prosecutor is seeking the Vatican’s help in forcing an accused abusive priest to return to the U.S. from India to face his accusers in court.

The Vatican meanwhile, seems to be defending its No. 2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who said the abuse scandal was basically caused by homosexuality. The Vatican says only 10 percent of cases involve classic pedophilia (children), while 90% involved ephebophilia (adolescents and teens), and more than half of them involved male priests molesting male adolescents — ergo, a gay scandal, I guess, at least in their minds.


A divorced Chicago father has won the right to take his daughter to church, against the wishes of his Jewish ex-wife.The Florida man who found missing 11-year-old Nadia Bloom in a Florida swamp says God told him where to go. An Oregon man won a $1.4 million verdict in a sexual abuse case against the Boy Scouts; the case made headlines when it was shown the Scouts keep so-called “perversion files” on people barred from volunteering, including gays, atheists and known pedophiles.

A federal judge has thrown out a challenge to a development project that involved a church, low-income housing and condos; NIMBY neighbors had claimed the Baptist church just outside Washington DC had gotten a sweetheart deal that violated the separation of church and state.

Census workers are urging U.S. Muslims to fill out and return the forms. CNN is about to launch a new Belief Blog, co-edited by our pal Dan Gilgoff. A Michigan court has ruled for a woman who claimed she was injured when she was “slain in the spirit” at a church and no one was there to catch her fall. The parents of one of the five Virginia men charged with supporting terrorism in Pakistan is searching for answers on where their son went astray.

Presidential wannabe Mike Huckabee is (again) embracing conservative social stands against gay marriage, gay civil unions and gay adoption, but is also going after the NJ student reporters who did the story, saying he hopes they “find a career other than journalism.” Not so fast, the student newspaper says.

WaPo columnist Petula Dvorak looks at the suburban pharmacy that was built on Catholic ideals, not business sense: ” The Divine Mercy Care Pharmacy in Chantilly proudly and purposefully limited what it would stock on its shelves. But it turns out that no birth control pills, no condoms, no porn, no tobacco and even no makeup added up to one thing: No customers.” Give that woman a Pulitzer for best lede I’ve seen in a long time.

The Anglican bishop of Mauritius (and head of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa) says he’ll have no contact with either the Episcopal Church or the Anglican Church of Canada over the North American churches’ tolerance for homosexuality. Christian Today says the Episcopal Church now “shows no sign of turning back.” Breakaway parishes are squaring off against the Diocese of Virginia at the Virginia Supreme Court in what could (or couldn’t) be a landmark case.


Protesters and police clashed in Indonesia at the tomb of an 18th-century Muslim cleric who helped spread Islam in the world’s most populous Muslim nation. Some 400 people are reported dead in an earthquake that struck China near Tibet. At least three Hindu pilgrims drowned in the River Ganges.

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