Reaction poured in to the Vatican’s revised laws on sex abuse, which were immediately criticized by abuse victims’ advocates for not going far enough, and by supporters of women’s ordination for going too far. The revised norms classify attempting to ordain women as a “grave offense,” the same category as raping children. U.S. Catholic bishops defended the Vatican’s reasoning.
A former Catholic bishop in Massachussetts repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during a sex-abuse related deposition. The ex-bishop himself, Thomas Dupre, resigned in 2004 after he was indicted on an unrelated sex abuse charge.
Some interesting parties filed friend-of-the-court briefs supporting Westboro Baptist Church’s right to protest at military funerals. More than 20 media organizations, including The Associated Press and the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press have filed briefs with the Supreme Court.
The Department of Health and Human Services issued a statement saying it will work to exclude federal funding of elective abortion from new health insurance plans in Pennsylvania and New Mexico, making the U.S. Catholic Bishops happy.
An appeals court in Washington rejected a challenge to the city’s gay marriage law. Same-sex marriage opponents vowed to appeal Thursday’s decision to the Supreme Court. Sounding a lot like his predecessor, the new Anglican archbishop of Nigeria accused the “church in the West” of “using their money to spread the homosexual lifestyle in African societies and churches.”
A debate has arisen over an Internet video showing a Holocaust survivor and his family dancing at Auschwitz. A lawmaker in the Netherlands is forming an international alliance to ban Muslim immigrants from Europe. NBC and CBS have refused to air a confrontational ad that calls on Americans to oppose the building of a mosque near Ground Zero in NYC. A Swedish court convicted two brothers of trying to burn down the house of a cartoonist who drew the Prophet Muhammad as a dog.
In the latest bid to win converts for Christ, staid evangelical scholars are taking up improv comedy. The Romanian Orthodox Chucrch said a popular singer cannot receive a full burial because she committed suicide.
