Father Benedict * Atheist bans * Potus speaks: Monday’s Roundup

Retired Pope Benedict XVI says he would have liked to be known as “Father Benedict.” Atheists want to repeal state bans forbidding nonbelievers from holding office. Obama appears tonight on the Colbert Report.

Comic figure of a priest.

Good morning.  We begin this Monday with a Vatican roundup:

The Vatican’s top prosecutor has frozen 16 million euros in bank accounts owned by two former Vatican bank managers and a lawyer, Reuters reported. Financial reform has been a key priority of Pope Francis since his election twenty months ago.

Comic illustration of a priest.

Comic figure of a priest.


A German newspaper is reporting that retired Pope Benedict XVI says he would have liked to be known after his resignation as “Father Benedict” — a title that would have distinguished him more clearly from the current pontiff.

Speaking of Pope Francis, many critics of the pope have latched on to a behind-the-scenes account of the March 2013 conclave in which he was elected. The book, “The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope,” suggests the Argentine Bergoglio plotted with his supporters to get elected, a no-no.

Not all see a widening rift between conservative and liberal Catholic clergy. And Crux’s John Allen explains why the “US bishops v. the pope” riff can easily be overblown.

The niece of a woman who gave more than $60 million to  the disgraced Legion of Christ is asking the Rhode Island Supreme Court to let her sue so the money can go somewhere more deserving.

No end in sight

Faith-based nonprofit organizations that object to covering birth control in their employee health plans are in federal court today to challenge a birth-control compromise they say still compels them to violate their religious beliefs. They are already exempt from covering contraceptives, but they say the exemption doesn’t go far enough.

High time

Seven states have articles in their constitutions saying people who do not believe in God are not eligible to hold public office, writes Laurie Goodstein at The New York Times. Not that any of them are enforceable, since they go against Article 6 of the U.S. Constitution. Still, a bunch of atheist groups says it’s high time to repeal them.

More atheism news

Columnist Thomas Friedman writes that the Islamic State’s insistence on Shariah law is forcing some Muslims to become atheists. He writes:

“There is a significant group of Muslims who feel that their government-backed preachers and religious hierarchies have handed them a brand of Islam that does not speak to them.”

Atheists like Christmas, too:

https://twitter.com/kjwinston11/status/541731106668548096/

Muslim hate crime?

An SUV driver accused of deliberately running down a Muslim teenager in Kansas City was charged Friday with first-degree murder in a case that’s being investigated by federal authorities as a possible hate crime. The driver had been seen in the area with a message that compared the Quran to the Ebola virus.


From the RNS stable:

  • Angelina Jolie’s film “Unbroken” features the true story of an Olympian and World War II veteran who was only able to extend forgiveness to his captors after he embraced Christianity. But the faith central to Louis Zamperini’s life is almost entirely absent from the film, which opens Christmas, writes Sarah Pulliam Bailey.
  • A highway widening project may cut off legendary church from drive-by worshippers who park their cars on the berm of the Pennsylvania Turnpike to catch Mass on Sundays (or to view the church’s famous Tiffany stained-glass windows).

Quaint

A mother writes about forcing her kids to go to church on Sunday. Christine Organ says “without something external putting spirituality in front of us weekly, I worry that my intention of sharing my spirituality with my children may go unfulfilled.”

Changing marriage narrative

Divorce may be on the decline, but conservative Protestants are the religious demographic most likely to divorce, writes Sarah Jones. Turns out, the least religious generation in American history may also have the country’s most stable marriages in over two decades.

Heads up: POTUS speaks:

President Obama appears today on “The Colbert Report” (11:30 p.m. Eastern, Comedy Central).

Federal employees: Obama just handed you a present in the form of a day off after Christmas. Merry Christmas.

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