Happy Monday, everyone.
The number of new reports of child sex abuse by U.S. Catholic clergy rose in 2010, though fewer reported abuses occurred last year than in previous years, according to the church’s annual survey. Many of the allegations were made by adults who said they were abused decades ago.
Separately, auditors found evidence that not all dioceses are strictly following the bishops’ child protection policies, the AP reports.
Police stepped up patrols at synagogues and other houses of worship in Los Angeles and are searching for the man suspected in the blast outside an LA synagogue.
Secretary of State Clinton released the State Department’s 2010 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, which mentions religious freedom abuses in China, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. On cue, Chinese police detained more than 100 Christians who tried to hold an outdoor prayer service on a bridge in Beijing, and a Christian was arrested for allegedly breaking Pakistan’s draconian anti-blasphemy law.
In Paris on Saturday, French police arrested 59 people who protested the country’s new ban on Muslim women wearing full-face veils in public.
An anti-terrorism hearing convened by New York’s state senate descended into a tense debate over Shariah law and whether Muslims are predisposed to terrorism, according to the NYT.
The Catholic Theological Society of America defended a feminist theologian whose book was sharply criticized by the U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference, saying the bishops misread her work and, in general, should not cramp theologians’ style.
The Diocese of Scranton and Marywood University refused to host a conservative Catholic activist because “his extreme positions on other faiths are not appropriate.”
The Donald, who is apparently serious, or as serious as the Donald ever is, about running for president, went on Christian teevee to testify about his conversion. To anti-abortion beliefs, that is.
Just in time for Passover, a new translation of the Haggadah updates fusty language and removes the text’s gender bias, according to the NYT. This guy makes biblical art out of soap.
