Monday’s roundup

Today is the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, and the fifth anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI’s papacy. The pontiff, back from a short trip to Malta, is celebrating by hosting a small lunch with cardinals. A tearful Benedict met with eight abuse victims in Malta, telling them the church will do everything possible […]

Today is the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, and the fifth anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI’s papacy. The pontiff, back from a short trip to Malta, is celebrating by hosting a small lunch with cardinals.

A tearful Benedict met with eight abuse victims in Malta, telling them the church will do everything possible to protect children and bring abusers to justice. “Everybody was crying,” one of the victims, Joseph Magro, 38, told Associated Press Television News after the meeting. “I told him my name was Joseph, and he had tears in his eyes.” A U.S.-based victims group disputes Benedict’s assertion that he is doing everything he can to protect children.

Apparently exhausted from a busy day, the 83-year-old pope briefly nodded off during Mass in Malta on Sunday. The powerful cardinal who praised a French bishop for shielding a pedophile priest from the police says former Pope John Paul II saw the letter and authorized him to send it to bishops worldwide. The AP profiles the pope’s unlikely American lawyer, and WaPo looks at his opposing counsel.


Speaking of lawyers, the Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments today in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, which pits a Christian campus group against the University of California in a potentially landmark decision between religious freedom and sexual-identity discrimination. WaPo looks at the role abortion may play in President Obama’s nomination to succeed Justice Stevens.

The NYT says the White House is “quietly courting” U.S. Muslims. Obama’s former Harvard mentor says Rev. Al Sharpton is Obama’s link to the streets. A provocative essay pronouncing the death of the black church has a lot of people talking.

Haiti’s top prosecutor denies that charges have been dropped against the American missionaries accused of child trafficking. Tibetan Buddhists are reluctant to take Beijing’s help after last week’s earthquake, which killed 1,400 in a remote province.

Tony Alamo wants a new trial because the judge said the convicted minister “one day … will face a higher and a greater judge than me.” A top officer of a nonprofit Christian missionary group has been arrested on charges of embezzling more than $700,000 from the Virginia group and using it to support a “lavish lifestyle.” They’re teaching Zen meditation to inmates in Los Angeles (pic at top left).

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