Happy Friday! As always, your weekly roundup:
Pope Francis this week approved the first-ever system for judging, and possibly deposing, bishops who fail to protect children from abusive clerics, a major step in responding to Catholics who have been furious that guilty priests have been defrocked while bishops have largely escaped punishment.
Pope Francis on Wednesday met with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in the papal library. The two spoke privately for 50 minutes, nearly twice as long as the pope usually spends with visiting heads of state.
The 2010 Affordable Care Act is now “woven into the fabric of America” and only the most “cynical” would turn back the clock on health reform, President Barack Obama told the Catholic Health Association on Tuesday.
Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich and St. Petersburg Bishop Robert Lynch, whose diocese includes Tampa Bay, bet on the Stanley Cup this week.
Most Americans—including people from every major religious group—predict gay marriage will be legalized nationwide when the hotly anticipated Supreme Court ruling is announced later this month.
The Vatican will soon rule on the validity of a series of alleged apparitions of the Virgin Mary in the Bosnian town of Medjugorje. The site has become a booming tourist destination for the more than 1 million pilgrims who visit the town each year with the hopes of receiving a message from the blessed figure.
Presidential hopeful Jeb Bush made news this week when the Huffington Post brought to national attention that in 2001, while Jeb Bush was governor of Florida, the state passed a Scarlet Letter-like law that forced single mothers to publish their sexual histories in the newspaper before they could give up their children for adoption.
The American Medical Association, the country’s largest association of physicians, is weighing in on the vaccination debate by supporting the end of personal vaccination exemptions on both the state and federal levels.
And now for the papal rapid fire roundup
This week, Pope Francis:
- Asked for good vibrations.
- Returned from Bosnia.
- Told us to break up with our computers.
- Is flat.
