The Obama administration has sided with the Vatican in a lawsuit over abuse claims, saying that the law that protects foreign governments from liability lawsuits trumps abuse claims. The head of the Italian bishops conference is asking Catholic families to “trust” the church to do the right thing in handling the abuse scandal. Victims’ advocates don’t like that a former Massachusetts bishop has moved from a treatment center for troubled priests into a retirement facility in Washington. Catholic officials in Vermont will sell church headquarters and 32 lakefront acres in Burlington to help funds a massive sex abuse settlement.
The Vatican wrapped up talks with a Michigan-based order of progressive nuns as part of its wide-ranging probe of American religious communities. Harlem churches are struggling to hold on to their congregations as the historically black neighborhood gentrifies, but the new residents aren’t finding spots in the pews. “Kosher Sex” Rabbi Shmuley Boteach takes a dim view of President Obama’s newly revived Jewish outreach over Israel, saying “charm offensives can never take the place of moral policy.”
A Nebraska man will spend a year in the federal slammer after he was convicted of hacking the Church of Scientology‘s website. An Indiana high school will not review graduation speeches by four students — including if they pray — after a federal judge ruled that a student vote to decide whether or not to have prayers is unconstitutional. A New York student is at odds with his high school over whether he can wear rosary beads to school; school officials say the beads are often a gang symbol.
Albert Snyder, the Pennsylvania man who’s going to the U.S. Supreme Court to argue that “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” pastor Fred Phelps shouldn’t be able to demonstrate outside military funerals (like the one for Snyder’s son) has filed his arguments with the high court. SCOTUS agreed to hear a case involving an Arizona law that provides dollar-for-dollar tax breaks for donations to school tuition, including religious schools.
Kenya‘s highest court has said a proposed new constitution that includes the creation of Shariah courts that will incorporate Islamic law is unconstitutional because it favors one religion (Islam) over others. Tensions remain high between India and Pakistan after Pakistan’s top court prevented the arrest of a hard-line Muslim cleric suspected of orchestrating the devastating terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
Czech government and church officials have signed an agreement that ends an 18-year dispute over who actually owns Prague’s St. Vitus Cathedral; the two sides with share management duties. And speaking of long-running disputes, Polish church officials finally gave Copernicus a proper burial, 500 years after he was buried in an unmarked grave as a heretic.
