Less than a week after Pope Benedict sent an apologetic letter to Catholics reeling from a clergy sex abuse scandal in Ireland that spanned decades, Irish Bishop John Magee’s resignation has been accepted. According to the Associated Press, Magee apologized to victims of pedophile priests kept in parish posts since he took charge of the southwest Irish…

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to take up a case charging that a superintendent in Everett (near Seattle, my neck of the woods) should not have banned an instrumental performance of “Ave Maria” at a 2006 high school graduation ceremony. According to the Christian Science Monitor: The high court rejected the appeal over the dissent of…

(Updated at 6:30 p.m. EST to clarify my last question.) Amnesty International has issued an “urgent appeal” calling on Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah to stop the execution of a Lebanese TV personality sentenced to death for “sorcery.” Ali Hussain Sibat, a 46-year-old Lebanese father of five, is facing execution in Medina on a so-called “sorcery”…

The Associated Press reports that Capt. Tejdeep Singh Rattan has become the first Sikh in 25 years to join the U.S. Army, thanks to an exception that allows the Indian American to retain his religiously-mandated turban and beard. About 300,000 Sikhs live in America; until 1984, a uniform policy exception had allowed them to serve in the military without sacrificing their…

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