Your Credit's Good With God

(NEWSER) - The hallelujahs are strained in US churches these days as donations plunge at the same time demand for aid is skyrocketing, reports the Wall Street Journal. Congregations across the nation are slashing budgets and even laying off staff, including pastors. Churches and synagogues usually weather downturns well, but not this time. "There has been significant tightening of budgets," said Rabbi Elliott Kleinman, spokesman for the Union for Reform Judaism, which represents some 900 congregations. "People have less money to give." More»

Records expected to reveal how much Catholic chiefs knew about abuse

(NEWSER) - A California court has ruled that the psychiatric and personnel files of six Franciscan friars accused of sexual abuse must be made public. The documents are expected to reveal how much the Catholic Franciscan administration knew about their employees' behavior and when they knew it. The decision could lead to the release of confidential files on dozens of priests and other religious figures accused of sexual abuse, AP reports. More»

Belgian police action 'unprecedented'

(NEWSER) - Raids by Belgian police investigating priest sex abuse are "deplorable," an angry Pope Benedict lashed out yesterday, adding to the chorus of Vatican criticism of the Belgian government. Police last week searched several Catholic Church buildings and seized nearly 500 files and a computer in Leuven, Belgium. Belgium denies Catholic Church allegations that bishops were denied food and water during the raid. Vatican officials compared the raids with the treatment of churches under communism, the BBC reports. More»

Italy's first, church says it 'trivializes sexuality'

(NEWSER) - Just a few miles from the Vatican, Italian teens can now buy condoms from vending machines in the bathrooms of their high school—and the Catholic Church is none too happy. In a rebuke to the church's position on birth control, the school yesterday became the first in all of Italy to distribute condoms, a move that has safe sex advocates praising the school's "great courage" while the Vatican voices "deep concern." More»

Wig-wearing activists storm out of Dutch church

(NEWSER) - Hundreds of Dutch gay rights activists dressed in pink wigs stormed out of Mass yesterday in protest of a local Catholic priest's refusal to give communion to a gay man. The dispute began last month when the man, crowned Carnival prince in a nearby town, was denied communion because he is openly gay. The man protested that he wants equal treatment: If he's refused communion because the church sees homosexuality as a sin, it should deny communion to all sinners. More»