Seems to be a lot of stories out there this morning on crime and punishment …
On the topic of punishment, the stepfather of a 2-year-old Brazilian boy found with 42 needles in his body (X-ray at left) has confessed to jabbing them into the toddler as part of a religious ritual, Brazilian police said Thursday. An Alabama woman has been charged with attempted murder after allegedly stabbing her common-law husband in a church parking lot; apparently they got into a fight over her sharing his bottle of bourbon with others.
A 57-year-old member of a polygamist group raided by Texas authorities last year has been sentenced to 33 years in prison for the sexual assault of a child. In North Carolina, meanwhile, a judge says a ban on convicted sex offenders attending church (with an attached day care facility) is too vague. A Detroit judge says he’ll probably allow a prison inmate to receive literature from a group that’s an offshoot of the Nation of Islam that’s been declared a security threat by the state Corrections Department.
Italian and Catholic media are abuzz with rumors that Pope John Paul II will be declared “venerable” (essentially, more deserving of sainthood than others) on Saturday. Christianity Today interviews an Anglican bishop in Uganda, who tells Western critics of his country’s proposed harsh anti-gay law to keep their filthy values to themselves. Newsweek’s Lisa Miller, meanwhile, praises Rick Warren for finally speaking out against the bill.
In Washington, Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson continues to leave coal in Harry Reid’s stocking, saying the latest version of compromise language to keep abortion out of health care reform is unacceptable. D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty will sign the city’s historic gay-marriage law inside a church today (it’s Unitarian, not Catholic, for curious minds that want to know).
In northern California, a Native American group is at loggerheads (sorry, couldn’t resist) with a logging crew after learning the U.S. Forest Service had not imposed safeguards to protect a tribal religious site.
Foreign adoptions by American parents hit a 13-year low: State Dept. figures showed 12,753 adoptions from abroad in 2009, down from 17,438 in 2008 – a dip of 27 percent and nearly 45 percent lower than the all-time peak of 22,884 in 2004. Speaking of drops, an anti-death penalty group says the number of death sentences is on the decline, even as the number of actual executions rose this year.
Spain has voted to lift restrictions on early-term abortions. In neighboring France, followers of Vietnamese Buddhist sage Thich Nhat Hanh plan to seek temporary asylum in France after months of pressure from Vietnam’s communist authorities. And those are choirs of angels you hear singing — it’s the boys choir at National Cathedral.