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Baltimore – Prosecutors agreed to some unusual terms to win a guilty plea from a former religious cult member charged with starving her 1-year-old son to death: If the child is resurrected, her plea will be withdrawn. Ria Ramkissoon, 22, also agreed Monday to testify against four other members of the now-defunct religious group known…

Vatican City – Jewish groups are outraged again after a Catholic archbishop in Brazil downplayed Jewish suffering in the Holocaust, which he said had been exaggerated by Jewish “propaganda.” “The Jews call themselves the main victims of the Holocaust. But the main victims were Gypsies. They were exterminated,” said Archbishop Dadeus Grings of Porto Alegre,…

WASHINGTON — Imagine finally making it to the big game, then having to take half your team off the field. That’s how it feels for the Friends Committee on National Legislation, a Quaker lobby that recently laid off more than a dozen staffers, said legislative director Ruth Flower. The cuts come just as the new…

NEW YORK (RNS) Traditionalist Jews and tree-huggers alike are coming together for Birkat HaHammah, a Jewish holiday that falls only once every 28 years, marking the sun’s return to its original position at creation. This year, the celebration takes place at sunrise April 8, followed by the start of Passover at sunset. The timing is…

(RNS) American Catholics are more liberal than the general population on social issues like divorce and homosexuality, despite the Catholic Church’s longstanding conservatism on both issues, according to a new survey. Catholics are more likely than non-Catholics to say that homosexual relations, divorce, and heterosexual sex outside wedlock are morally acceptable, according to an analysis…

WASHINGTON — The American archbishop who heads the Vatican’s supreme court has apologized for the “confusion and hurt” caused by his criticism of fellow bishops who do not deny Communion to Catholic politicians who support abortion rights. Archbishop Raymond Burke, formerly of St. Louis, was interviewed earlier this month by an anti-abortion activist in Rome,…

GENEVA – The U.N.’s top human-rights body approved a proposal by Muslims nations Thursday urging passage of laws around the world to protect religion from criticism. The proposal put forward by Pakistan on behalf of Islamic countries – with the backing of Belarus and Venezuela – had drawn strong criticism from free-speech campaigners and liberal…

LONDON (RNS) Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, in one of his sharpest attacks yet on threats to the environment, has warned that God will not save mankind from his own environmental “stupidity.” The spiritual leader of the world’s 77 million-member Anglican Communion said in a lecture at England’s York Minster on Wednesday (March 25) that…

LOS ANGELES – Two Jewish groups have denounced a Pat Oliphant political cartoon on Gaza as anti-Semitic, likening its fanged Star of David to Nazi imagery before the Holocaust. The syndicated cartoon published Wednesday in newspapers across the country depicts a goose-stepping uniformed figure wheeling the Jewish symbol as it menaces a small female figure…

WASHINGTON (RNS) President Obama announced on Tuesday (March 24) his nomination of Luis C. de Baca as ambassador-at-large to monitor and combat human trafficking. “I’m grateful that this fine public servant has agreed to join my administration, and I am confident that with Secretary (of State Hillary) Clinton he will be an indispensable part of…
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