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CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio — The stuff Harold Males is saying around his synagogue here might have shocked people’s sensibilities a few years ago. Like his contention that evangelical Christians make good friends. “They’re not dangerous people, not to me,” he insists. Or that Gov. Sarah Palin boasts some impressive credentials. “Dressing a caribou is no…

(RNS) Catholic legal scholar Nicholas Cafardi, who recently endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for president, has resigned as a trustee of Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio, an outpost of conservative Catholicism. Cafardi, an expert in civil and canon law, said he quit the school’s board voluntarily. “When it became apparent to me that some Catholics…

Zen Buddhist meditation may help treat depression, attention deficit disorder and anxiety, among other maladies, according to a recent study by Emory University neuroscientists. Mental illness such as obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression are characterized in part by “excessive rumination” or runaway thoughts, said Giuseppe Pagnoni, a neuroscientist at Emory in Atlanta. Zen meditators show an…

Vatican City – On Thursday, Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate a special Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Pope Pius XII. The fact that Oct. 9 this year coincides with Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, is ironic, since debate over Pius’ record is one of…

Nashville – The U.S. conservative evangelical Christian vote is still the Republican Party’s to lose, but the poor economy may be peeling some of them off, analysts say. Voters who value moral issues such as opposition to abortion and gay marriage still tend to favor Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain of Arizona over Democratic…

WASHINGTON (RNS) A Wisconsin-based group of atheists and agnostics has filed suit against President Bush over the federal law designating a National Day of Prayer. The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which urges a strict separation of church and state, also names White House Press Secretary Dana Perino, Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, and National Day of…

(RNS) The Diocese of Pittsburgh voted Saturday (Oct. 4) to split from the Episcopal Church, becoming the second diocese to leave the national church over differences on homosexuality and the Bible. A wide majority of clergy and lay people — 240 voted for succession, 102 against — favored aligning the diocese with the Argentina-based Anglican…

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider a murder case in which a jury foreman read passages of the Bible to hold-out jurors who subsequently voted to impose the death penalty. Without comment, the justices declined to consider whether the jury foreman’s conduct violated the rights of Jimmie Lucero, an Amarillo, Texas,…

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican said Friday that no bishops from mainland China will be attending a worldwide meeting of prelates in Rome next week – a clear sign there has been no breakthrough in the Vatican’s efforts to improve relations with Beijing. Officials say 253 bishops will attend the meeting that will discuss the…

PHILADELPHIA – An Episcopal bishop has been defrocked after a church panel found him guilty of covering up his brother’s sexual assaults of a teenage girl in the 1970s. Charles E. Bennison Jr., 64, deserved to be ousted from the clergy because of his “very significant failures to fulfill his responsibilities” and “a fundamental lack…
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