The new U.S. ambassador to the Vatican met with Pope Benedict XVI, who said President Obama’s election “recaptured the imagination of the world,” 64 percent of Jews like how Obama is doing his job, the highest approval rating among religious groups, and Obama praised Gandhi on the 140th anniversary of his birth, saying “the America of today has its roots in the India of Mahatma Gandhi and the nonviolent social action movement for Indian independence which he led.”

The U.S. Catholic Bishops may revise their ethical directives on end-of-life care, the president of Catholic University is retiring, and a New Hampshire federal court rejected a challenge to the Pledge of Allegiance. The D.C. federal district court said anti-abortion protestors don’t have the right to draw in chalk outside the White House and influential church groups are asking Ohio’ governor to shut down slot machines.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod say they’ll still cooperate in ministries, even though they disagree strongly about homosexuality, and the head of a church-state watchdog groups thanked conservative from praying for him, but warned “I like to stay up late, and I’m not doing any chores.”

A Missouri university is apologizing to a Catholic university for suggesting it trains doctors to perform abortion, a California city decided to keep praying before meetings, but before the opening gavel, and hundreds have left a prominent megachurch in Florida run by Billy Graham’s grandson.

Pastors in Detriot pack heat in the pulpit, Somoans in California are praying for family members killed or injured in the tsunami, and a Texas judge ruled that two men can get divorced. Elizabeth Smart said her abductor was “not religious, not close to God.”

Honk Kong’s Catholic cardinal says China should mark the 60th anniversary of the Peoples’ Republic by releasing Christian prisoners, Indian Christians say churches should admit that vestiges of the caste system remain, and the Dalai Lama called the Afghan war “a failure.”

The European Court of Human Rights said Russia violated Scientologists’ human rights, the Russian Orthodox Church is slamming plans to put verses praising Stalin in a Moscow train station, and Israeli officials say Jewish prisoners can sleep in sukkah. The Anne Frank Museum has a YouTube channel.