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VATICAN CITY – The Vatican said Friday that the apology issued by an ultraconservative bishop who denied the Holocaust was not good enough to admit him into the Catholic Church as a clergyman. Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said Bishop Richard Williamson’s statement “doesn’t appear to respect the conditions” the Vatican set out for him.…

DENVER – Conservative evangelical leader James Dobson has resigned as chairman of Focus on the Family but will continue to play a prominent role at the organization he founded more than three decades ago. Dobson notified the board of his decision Wednesday, and the 950 employees of the Colorado Springs, Colo.-based ministry were informed Friday…

Atlanta – As authorities try to determine how many deaths nationwide may be linked to an alleged assisted suicide ring, members of the group known as the Final Exit Network are defending a mission they call “self-deliverance.” The network’s president, its medical director and two other members were charged Wednesday in the death of John…

Rome – A British bishop whose denial of the Holocaust embroiled Pope Benedict XVI in controversy has apologized for his remarks, a Catholic news agency said Thursday. Bishop Richard Williamson, with the conservative Society of St. Pius X, had faced worldwide criticism over a television interview in which he said no Jews were gassed during…

More than 180 House members sent a letter to House Democratic leaders on Wednesday (Feb. 25), calling for upcoming spending bills to maintain longstanding anti-abortion provisions. “These measures … reflect the moral concerns of many Americans who do not wish to see their tax dollars used for any organization that provides abortion services,” said the…

Jews are less likely than Catholics or Protestants to change faiths, though religious switching nationwide has increased since 1965, according to a study released this week by the American Jewish Committee. Most who leave Judaism become unaffiliated, rather than converting to another religion; Many continue to identify as Jewish in an ethnic or cultural sense,…

Beijing – Trading fireworks for somber prayer, Tibetans marked Wednesday’s arrival of their new year with mourning as Chinese authorities sealed off Tibet and Tibetan regions in western China to foreigners. An unofficial Tibetan boycott of festivities was in memory of last year’s victims of a harsh Chinese crackdown on anti-government protests. The Dalai Lama,…

Washington – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday (Feb. 25) that a city park in Utah does not have to include a monument of a small religious sect even though it already features a Ten Commandments monument. Summum, a Salt Lake City-based group, had argued that officials in Pleasant Grove City, Utah, violated its free…

Xiahe, China – Only a handful of pilgrims gathered here last weekend at the historic Labrang monastery, normally bustling before the Tibetan New Year. “There was a war in Lhasa this year. Lots of Tibetans were killed,” one resident murmured, referring to protests last March against Chinese rule that broke out in the Tibetan capital…

New York – Publicly funded family planning prevents nearly 2 million unintended pregnancies and more than 800,000 abortions in the United States each year, saving billions of dollars, according to new research intended to counter conservative objections to expanding the program. The data is in a report being released Tuesday by the Guttmacher Institute, a…
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