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TORONTO (RNS) The Canadian province of Quebec has introduced unprecedented legislation that would effectively bar Muslim women from receiving or delivering public services while wearing a niqab, or face-covering veil. “Two words: Uncovered face,” Quebec Premier Jean Charest told reporters during a press conference in Quebec City on Wednesday (March 24). “The principle is clear.”…

VATICAN CITY – Two Wisconsin bishops urged the Vatican office led by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – now Pope Benedict XVI – to let them conduct a church trial against a priest accused of molesting some 200 deaf boys, but the Vatican ordered the process halted, church and Vatican documents show. Despite the grave allegations, Ratzinger’s…

WASHINGTON (RNS) In this city, the Rev. Mary Kay Totty can now marry same-sex couples. But in the United Methodist Church, the denomination that ordained Totty two decades ago, that act could get her defrocked. Totty, 46, said she’s willing to take the risk. “The institutional church has for so many years oppressed and excluded…

WASHINGTON (RNS) A new survey detected broad support among religious groups for comprehensive immigration reform, rebutting a December survey showing most religious communities want to send illegal immigrants home. According to the new study, released Tuesday (March 23) by the Public Religion Research Institute, 86 percent of U.S. voters support a provision for an earned…

(RNS) Religious leaders from around the world pledged at a meeting in The Netherlands to work to eliminate the stigma and discrimination of those living with HIV/AIDS. “Religious leaders can play a vital role in the AIDS response,” said Michael Sidibe, executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS in his opening address…

DUBLIN – Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation Wednesday of Bishop John Magee, a former papal aide who stands accused of endangering children by failing to follow the Irish church’s own rules on reporting suspected pedophile priests to police. Magee apologized to victims of any pedophile priests who were kept in parish posts since he…

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – Religious groups from around the globe pledged Tuesday to prevent the stigmatization of people living with HIV and AIDS, in a joint statement welcomed by a senior U.N. official as a sea change in attitudes. Representatives of some 40 religions and faith groups including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism ended…

(RNS) Preparing for Passover? There’s an app for that. Several, actually. Jewish technophiles have created a host of online and iPhone applications that put a modern spin on the traditional Seder meals, storytelling and singing associated with the weeklong celebration of the biblical exodus from Egypt. To help Jews stock their pantries with kosher for…

VATICAN CITY (RNS) In an open letter on the clergy sex abuse crisis roiling the Catholic Church in Ireland, Pope Benedict XVI cited the chronic failure of church leaders to enforce the church’s own law as a principal cause. Irish bishops, Benedict wrote on Saturday (March 20), had “failed, at times grievously, to apply the…

WASHINGTON (RNS) On the heels of a rally on the National Mall by immigration reform advocates, religious leaders met at the White House on Monday (March 22) to plot strategy despite a packed election-year political calendar. The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, said Latino Christians are frustrated with the…
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