After more than two months underground, about a dozen of the 33 miners rescued in Chile last week returned Sunday to the mouth of the mine to offer thanks during a private Mass.

The Vatican released a letter from Pope Benedict XVI to seminarians worldwide in which the pontiff expresses “profound regret and shame” over the clergy sex abuse crisis, but said the mission of good priests remains “great and pure.” On Sunday, B16 canonized five Catholics, including Australia’s first native saint, a nun who blew the whistle on a priest who abused children. A Catholic bishop in Belgium said AIDS is “immanent justice” for the sexual revolution.

As many as 18,000 Finns have left the Finnish-Evangelical Church after a top churchman reiterated opposition to gay marriage and adoption.

More than 100 Chinese Christians seeking to attend the Lausanne Conference, an international evangelical gathering in South Africa, have been barred from leaving the country because their churches are not sanctioned by the state, according to the NYT.

The Obama administration is answering criticism that it has politicized the White House faith-based office. Joshua DuBois, the faith-based director, delivered the keynote address at the Vatican’s conference on interfaith action last week.

Hundreds of Muslims turned out Friday for the second annual Islam on Capitol Hill, with Muslim children tour of Congress, hours of prayers and speeches on the Capitol lawn, according to CNN. Looks like turnout was light for a second straight year.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the moment of prayer or silent reflection in Illinois schools, saying that mandating a period of silence to “calm” students does not constitute a government establishment of religion.

The Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs is not objecting to public schools’ policy of not allowing students to wear rosary beads outside their shirts; the ACLU is, however.

The Dalai Lama and other religious eminences, including Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, are at Emory University in Georgia discussing science, ethics, and happiness.

A Church of England assistant bishop will convert to Roman Catholicism under the new structure set up by B16. Archbishop George Lucas (no, not that one) of Omaha, Neb., has cut ties with a Catholic association of hermits after lay directors refused to reform practices, including the use of “intimidation tactics” against members. The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis plans to shutter 21 parishes.

The National Museum of American Jewish History, which opens next month in Philadelphia, has hammered out an almost Talmudic compromise on whether to open on the Sabbath. A stampede at a temple in India killed 10 and wounded 15 others.

A chain-smoking NYC man says he’s celebrating 49 years of sainthood. A new book suggests abolitionist hero William Wilberforce tolerated slavery in Sierra Leone. The Vatican’s newspaper says neighbor-hating, son-choking, beer-swilling, lazy bones Homer Simpson is Catholic.