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Washington – Last November, the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops overwhelmingly approved a set of guidelines for Catholics to consider before they went to the voting booth. Only four bishops voted against the 36-page document, called “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.” Then came the 2008 election. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Joe Biden both openly…

After months of balancing their support for the presidential candidate with concerns that their allegiance could do more harm than good, millions of relieved American Muslims cheered the election of the son of a Muslim immigrant whose middle name is Hussein. Record numbers of U.S. Muslims had cast their votes, boosted by registration drives held…

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Barack Obama may not have been the Catholic hierarchy’s favored candidate in the U.S. presidential race because of his support for abortion rights, but the Vatican on Wednesday (Nov. 5) hailed his election as a “choice that unites.” “America…is truly the country where everything can happen,” said a front-page editorial in the…

BANNING, California – Marilyn Ferguson, whose best-selling book “The Aquarian Conspiracy” helped establish the New Age movement by tying together its disparate threads, has died. She was 70. Ferguson died Oct. 19 at her home in western Riverside County. She is believed to have died of a heart attack, her son, Eric, told the Los…

LOS ANGELES – Voters put a stop to same-sex marriage in California, dealing a crushing defeat to gay-rights activists in a state they hoped would be a vanguard, and putting in doubt as many as 18,000 same-sex marriages conducted since a court ruling made them legal this year. The gay-rights movement had a rough election…

In life, the approximately 900 people who followed the Rev. Jim Jones to build a utopian commune in the South American jungle in 1977 were relatively anonymous. But in death, the Jonestown pilgrims became front-page news when they died a year later after following Jones’ order to drink punch laced with poison. On Nov. 18,…

The Dalai Lama said Monday that his approach to Tibet’s greater autonomy has so far failed, and that Tibetans should decide for themselves the future direction the region should take. “My trust in the Chinese government has become thinner, thinner, thinner,” he said. Speaking to a packed room at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan…

Vatican City – The Vatican is hosting a three-day Catholic-Muslim forum meant to improve relations strained by a speech made two years ago by Pope Benedict XVI that angered many in the Islamic world. The meetings will culminate in a papal audience and is intended to help the two faiths find common ground. The closed-door…

California voters remain hotly divided over a proposed constitutional amendment that would require minors to notify their parents before getting an abortion. A recent Public Policy Institute poll found supporters of Proposition 4 — Sarah’s Law — slightly in the lead, with 46 percent of likely voters approving the amendment and 44 percent opposing it.…

ORANGE, Calif. – A Southern California county will allow jailed Muslim women to wear headscarves after settling a lawsuit with a woman who claims that deputies violated her religious freedom by making her remove her hijab. The settlement agreement signed by the county last week and released Monday specifies that Muslim women must be provided…
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