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The Vermont state Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill Monday (March 23) to allow same-sex marriage, putting the state one step closer to becoming the first to approve same-sex marriage by legislative means. The Democratic-dominated state Senate voted 26 to 4 in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage. House Speaker Shap Smith, a Democrat, predicted to USA…

New York — In the wake of an embarrassing Vatican response to a Holocaust-denying bishop, French Catholic cardinals on Monday (March 23) publicly and unambiguously expressed their opposition to Holocaust denial. “Let this be another opportunity to recall — whether the time is right or not — that being a Catholic is radically incompatible with…

Virginia Beach, Va. — It’s not as daring as, say, Pat Robertson’s Republican run for the White House in 1988. But there’s no denying that starting a Democratic student group at Robertson’s Regent University seems a bit audacious. “Here, it is definitely a startling idea,” said Kalila Hines, a government major and one of the…

PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS) A church in Ashland, Ore., can import and brew a hallucinogenic tea for its religious services, under a federal court ruling issued March 19. Judge Owen M. Panner issued a permanent injunction that bars the federal government from penalizing or prohibiting the Church of the Holy Light of the Queen from sacramental…

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa barred the Dalai Lama from a peace conference in Johannesburg this week, hoping to keep good relations with trading partner China but instead generating a storm of criticism. Friday’s peace conference was organized by South African soccer officials to highlight the first World Cup to be held in Africa, which South…

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Closing a week-long visit to Africa on Monday (Mar. 23), Pope Benedict XVI urged citizens of war-ravaged Angola to work for “national reconciliation,” and reminded the country’s longstanding president of government’s duty to serve the “common good.” “Never tire of promoting peace, making gestures of forgiveness and working for national reconciliation, so…

TEHRAN, Iran – The Iranian government brushed aside a Persian New Year’s message Friday from President Barack Obama offering to resolve years of hostility, saying it wants concrete change from Washington before it’s ready to enter a dialogue. Obama released the video to coincide with the major Iranian festival of Nowruz, a 12-day holiday that…

LUANDA, Angola – Pope Benedict XVI, welcomed to this sweltering capital Friday by the biggest crowds of his African pilgrimage, condemned sexual violence against women in Africa and chided those countries on the continent that have approved abortion. Benedict arrived in Luanda on the second leg of his African tour, with tens of thousands pouring…

WASHINGTON – A former Nazi concentration-camp guard was deported from Wisconsin to Austria on Thursday, despite objections from his lawyer that the guard was simply present at the camp but committed no acts of persecution. Prosecutors said 83-year-old Josias Kumpf (yoh-SEE’-uhs KOOMF) served as a guard at the Sachsenhausen (ZAHK’-zen-how-zen) concentration camp in Germany, the…

Indiana officials have dropped a provision that bans references to religions or deities on personalized license plates after a woman sued when her “BE GODS” personalized license plate was not renewed. “Christians shouldn’t be discriminated against for expressing their beliefs,” said Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), in a release.…
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