Aboard the papal plane en route to Scotland, Pope Benedict XVI made his strongest criticism to date of his church’s handling of clergy sexual abuse, saying it had not been “sufficiently vigilant” or “swift and decisive” in protecting children.

It’s the first state visit to Britain by a pope, and, fittingly, Benedict’s first meeting on Thursday was with Queen Elizabeth II at Holyroodhouse, her Scottish residence. You can find the full text of the pope’s address here.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, a top ecumenical advisor to Benedict, has withdrawn from the trip after comparing England to a “third world country” and criticizing its “aggressive atheism.”

The highlight of the trip is expected to be the beatification Mass for Cardinal John Henry Newman, who cause for sainthood was aided by the reportedly miraculous healing of a Massachusetts man.

Playing nice for the pope, England’s advertising watchdog has censured an Italian ice cream ad that depicts a pregnant nun (see censored pic at top left). A handful of Catholic convents in the U.S. are halting the decades-long slide in women religious by drawing new members, the AP reports, in a story that has been reported at least five times in the last few years.

A quarter of Americans say local communities should be able to ban the construction of mosques, according to a Pew poll. The imam behind the Islamic community center planned near Ground Zero must prove that he’s fixing fire code violations at two New Jersey apartment buildings he owns, a judge says. The protester who burned a Quran outside the proposed Islamic center last Saturday has been fired from his NJTransit job. Officials in East Lansing, Mich., are offering a $10,000 reward for information about who burned a Quran outside an Islamic center last week.

Texas’ Board of Education is considering a resolution that would warn textbook publishers not to be “pro-Islamic” and “anti-Christian.” At the urging of the FBI, the Seattle-based cartoonist behind “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” has been forced to change her name and abandon her former life. The Family Research Council is holding its “Values Voter Summit” during Yom Kippur this year.

The Catholic Diocese of Spokane (Wash.) has to raise $800,000 to pay sex abuse settlements or sell off parishes. A Catholic diocese in the Netherlands says its former bishop has been accused of molesting boys in the 1950s.

A gay couple in Wyoming has dropped their challenge to the state’s gay marriage ban. A Baptist congregation in Texas has split with the state’s largest Baptist group over the congregation’s embrace of gays and lesbians.

The Utah Highway Patrol is asking a federal appeals court to rehear its case for planting memorial crosses on highways. The International House of Pancakes is suing the International House of Prayer over its acronym. The Jewish sheriff in California who was subjected to Mel Gibson’s anti-Semitic tirade is suing his bosses, saying they falsely accuse him of leaking the police report, an accusation motivated by religious discrimination, he says.