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Pope Benedict has named Archbishop Jose Gomez, 58, of San Antonio, Texas, to the position of coadjutor for Los Angeles, which puts him next in line to become the diocese’s cardinal — becoming America’s first Latino cardinal. Gomez, who was born in Mexico, is an archbishop of Opus Dei, the conservative Catholic movement that most people…

The Catholic Church’s clergy sex abuse scandal has hit a new country: India. The Associated Press and The New York Times report that while working in a Minnesota diocese five years ago, the Rev. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul allegedly molested two teenage girls. Jeyapaul denies committing the crimes, but also refuses to return to America to face…

The clergy sex abuse scandal didn’t elicit further statements of regret from Catholic Church leaders over the weekend, but two peripheral apologies did make headlines: The Vatican’s struggle over its response to the scandal was compounded by the controversial Good Friday homily by Pope Benedict’s personal preacher, who compared the pontiff’s recent suffering to the “collective…

The First Family has decided not to join a church — President Obama says they decided their presence, and the security required, is too disruptive and distracting to the others on a weekly basis — but they did attend Easter Sunday services again, this time choosing a historically black Methodist Church in Southeast Washington, a…

Catholics today are observing Good Friday and the fifth anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul II. The Associated Press reports that in his native Poland, although the population has gotten more secular lately, he is still mourned by many. Pope John Paul was extremely well-loved around the world; his successor, Pope Benedict XVI, has…

A Christian extremist who murdered George Tiller, a doctor who had performed late-term abortions in Kansas, was sentenced to life in prison yesterday. Scott Roeder, 52, shot the 67-year-old physician during a Sunday service at Tiller’s church last year. CNN reported that before his sentencing, Roeder blasted Tiller, quoted the Bible at length and argued the…

It’s been a relatively good Friday for Ali Hussain Sibat, the Lebanese TV fortune-teller arrested by Saudi Arabia’s religious police and convicted of witchcraft last year. CNN reports that his attorney said he has not been beheaded today after all, though he remains sentenced to death. It seems the efforts by Amnesty International and other international human…

It’s going to be a sour November for Mormons, with long-awaited trial dates now set for Warren Jeffs, the former leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and Brian David Mitchell, the self-proclaimed prophet accused of abducting Elizabeth Smart seven years ago. The official Church of Latter-day Saints abandoned plural marriage more…

The lawyer for Ali Hussain Sibat, a fortune-teller on a Lebanese TV show, says Saudi Arabia plans to behead her client tomorrow. (This is not an April Fools’ Day joke.) Sibat, 49, is Lebanese citizen, but was arrested by Saudi religious police who recognized him from his show while he was on a Muslim pilgrimage to Medina two years…

John Piper, a prolific evangelical Christian author and founder of Desiring God Ministries, is taking an 8-month leave of absence from public life, including his role as pastor at Bethlethem Baptist Church in Minnesota. It’s not an April Fools’ Day joke — Piper, 64, announced his decision earlier this week, in a letter to his congregation. His…
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