Two big decisions from the Supreme Court came down yesterday. In the first, SCOTUS ruled 5-4 that a law school can deny recognition to a Christian student group that won’t let gays join.
In the second, SCOTUS refused to hear an appeal from the Holy See (the U.S. government had signed on as amici) dismissing a lawsuit that blames the Vatican for transferring a sexually abusive priest. The Vatican’s lawyer noted that the ruling did not comment on the merits of the case.
Senate Republicans blasted SCOTUS nominee Elena Kagan for restricting military recruiters at Harvard Law School, where she was dean. Kagan had objected to the military’s Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell policy, calling it “a moral injustice of the first order.” Kagan pledged to be a model of impartiality on the bench. Speaking of DADT, a San Diego judge has agreed to hear a case challenging the policy.
Belgium insisted that secular officials, not the Vatican, will investigate clergy sexual abuse, after Roman Catholic officials lambasted a police raid on Thursday that even opened a prelate’s crypt to search for documents. The NYT says the unusually aggressive raid was launched because a whistleblower said the church was hiding information. A top canon lawyer for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee says the sex abuse audits conducted annually by U.S. diocese are insufficient.
The Vatican issued an unprecedented rebuke of a former pupil of Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn of Vienna, who had accused a former Secretary of State of blocking sex abuse investigations. Abuse victims said the Vatican should be praising Schoenborn, who has criticized church cover ups, not humiliating him. Benedict is also creating a new office to fight secularization in the West. The Vatican received its first Russian ambassador.
Southern Baptist pastor (and ardent attention seeker) Wiley Drake says he prayed the “sinner’s prayer” with deceased Sen. Robert Byrd four months ago in Washington and is now “firmly convinced” that Byrd “accepted the Lord and is in heaven now.”
The son of one of Hamas’ founders says he was an Israeli spy for decades and is applying for asylum in San Diego.
Vandals defaced an atheist billboard on Billy Graham Parkway in N.C., adding the words “under God,” to the words “One Nation Indivisible.” The billboard intended to show that the words “under God” were not part of the original Pledge of Allegiance. (Photo at top left courtesy of the Charlotte Observer.) Australia’s new Prime Minister is an atheist and says she won’t pretend she’s not for political expediency.
The Presiding Bishop of Tanzania’s Evangelical Lutheran Church appears to have changed his mind about accepting money from the ELCA, which approved gay clergy last summer. The United Methodist Church will continue to fund Claremont School of Theology after assurances that it won’t train rabbis or imams. The ELCA filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit against it, saying it has nothing to do with the liquidation of pension plans by its publishing arm.
