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LISBON, Portugal – Pope Benedict XVI will speak about the economic crisis during his four-day trip to Portugal this week, telling Europeans to seek solace in their faith, a senior church official said Monday. The pontiff intends to deliver a message that “the joy of faith and hope” is a remedy for the gloom of…

(RNS) As Solicitor General Elena Kagan prepares for confirmation hearings to make her the newest member of the U.S. Supreme Court, her nomination changes the religious makeup of the nation’s highest court. But does it matter that the bench would include six Catholics and, with her confirmation, three Jews and no Protestants? Observers say it’s…

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Monday nominated Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, declaring she would demonstrate the same independence, integrity and passion for the law exhibited by retiring Justice John Paul Stevens. If confirmed by the Senate, Kagan would become the third woman on the high court. At 50, she is…

DHARMSALA, India – Years of negotiations with Beijing have achieved little for the Tibetan people, the Dalai Lama said Friday, though he insisted that talks still needed to press ahead and that the Chinese leadership could – eventually – soften its stand on Tibet. In an hour-long interview with The Associated Press, the Buddhist leader…

WASHINGTON – Atheists who oppose prayer and other religious elements in presidential inaugurations have lost a case in a federal appeals court. A three-judge panel on Friday upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit that sought to stop Barack Obama from using the words “so help me God” when he took the oath of office last…

(RNS) Somewhere in the Vatican, there is a thick file with the Rev. James Selvaraj’s name on it. It’s been there since 2006. A native of southern India, Selvaraj was a guest priest in the Diocese of Trenton, N.J., when he was accused of endangering the welfare of a child in late 2005. Shortly thereafter,…

JERUSALEM – Moshe Hirsch, an anti-Zionist rabbi and close associate of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, has died in Jerusalem, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish group said Monday. He was 86. Hirsch was a leading figure in Neturei Karta, a tiny ultra-Orthodox sect that opposes Israel’s existence as a Jewish state and has embraced its enemies.…

HAVANA – The Vatican’s foreign minister is coming to Cuba next month to lead discussions on the island’s economic challenges and the effects of emigration and the families torn apart by it. Roman Catholic Archbishop Dominique Mamberti will mark Catholic Social Week June 12-20 by leading discussions among church leaders from around the island, as…

(RNS) For years, the annual National Day of Prayer observances on Capitol Hill had become almost routine affairs as mostly conservative Christian groups bowed with legislators to pray for the soul of America. But this year, after a federal judge ruled the law creating the day is unconstitutional, Thursday’s (May 6) events took on an…

(RNS) Following recent face-to-face meetings with Israeli officials in New York, leaders of North America’s non-Orthodox Jewish movements said a bill aimed at easing Israeli conversion laws would marginalize non-Orthodox Jews who struggle for equality. Representatives of the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements said the bill will strengthen the ultra-Orthodox establishment’s authority over Jewish matters…
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