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VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican has asked U.S. Catholic bishops to fund a $1.1 million investigation of American nuns ordered by church authorities in Rome. “We have a projected budget of $1,100,000 for the three years which the total work of the apostolic visitations will require,” Cardinal Franc Rode, head of the Vatican’s Congregation for…

WASHINGTON (RNS) As thousands of gays and lesbians prepare to march on the nation’s capital to push for equal rights, leaders from a range of faiths say it’s time to stop using religion as a weapon to oppose same-sex marriage. What’s more, advocates for gay rights say their faith and a sacred belief in justice…

(RNS) Catholic, Lutheran and United Methodist leaders will gather in Chicago on Thursday (Oct. 1) to commemorate the 10th anniversary of a milestone agreement on the long, slow and often painful road to Christian unity. The celebration, held at Old St. Patrick’s Church in Chicago, will pay tribute to the signing of the Joint Declaration…

(RNS) Does an offended observer who drives by a cross-shaped war memorial in the middle of the desert have a right to call for its removal? And can that 7-foot cross stand without violating the constitution’s prohibition of government establishment of religion? The Supreme Court will consider those questions in the case of a cross-shaped…

NEW YORK, Sep 29, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) — Bernard Madoff, architect of the largest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history, had the opportunity to ask for forgiveness on Yom Kippur. Officials at the U.S. Bureau of Prisons would not comment on whether Madoff took advantage of the day, the most sacred in the Jewish Calendar,…

NEW YORK – Organized religion was already in trouble before the fall of 2008. Denominations were stagnating or shrinking, and congregations across faith groups were fretting about their finances. The Great Recession made things worse. It’s further drained the financial resources of many congregations, seminaries and religious day schools. Some congregations have disappeared and schools…

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Visiting the Czech Republic 20 years after a Velvet Revolution overthrew the nation’s communist regime, Pope Benedict XVI called on one of the world’s most secular societies to reclaim its Christian heritage as the basis for “true freedom.” “True freedom presupposes the search for truth — for the true good– and hence…

(RNS) In the beginning was the Dude. And the Dude was with God, and the Dude himself was kind of godly, if you’re into that sort of thing. In his right hand the Dude carried a cocktail, and in his left, a bowling ball, and all of his ways were righteous and mellow altogether. And…

(UNDATED) Rabbi Peter Berg plans on reminding his congregants this month that the first question God asks when they reach heaven’s gates is whether they have dealt honestly in business. “The rabbis of the Talmud have always believed there is no question that’s more important,” said Berg, the senior rabbi at The Temple in Atlanta,…

(RNS) Members of Westboro Baptist Church, the anti-gay church that protests military funerals, won a court victory Thursday (Sept. 24) when a federal appeals court overturned a $5 million judgment against them. The father of a Marine who was killed in Iraq in 2006 sued Westboro pastor Fred Phelps and members of his Topeka, Kan.,…

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