Flu-Fearing Churches Ban Peace Handshakes

Four-day visit is first state visit to his homeland

(NEWSER) - Pope Benedict XVI is back home for his first state visit to Germany. Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Christian Wulff, and Cabinet members met the pontiff upon his arrival at a Berlin airport today, the first of his four-day visit, as howitzers fired and fighter jets flew overhead. He is also expected to be met by large Catholic crowds, the AP reports, but a less-welcome sight will be the also-large crowds expected to protest. More»

St. Luke's Parish-Anglican will get new name, but keep married pastor

(NEWSER) - Parishioners of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Maryland arrived at services Sunday and got an unexpected sermon: Rev. Mark Lewis informed the congregation that he and other church leaders wanted the entire parish to convert to Catholicism. “We didn’t know for sure how people would react,” says one person who took part in the two-year planning process. But in the end, only one family out of the church's 100 members wasn't sure about the move. St. Luke's will be the first church to take advantage of new Vatican rules looking to recruit dissatisfied Protestants, the Washington Post reports. More»

Synagogues, churches, mosques get ready for H1N1

(NEWSER) - Places of worship across the country are adjusting holy rituals to head off swine flu, CBS News reports. On the Jewish New Year, one Massachusetts synagogue is skipping handshakes and promoting the use of hand sanitizer—and, in a substantial break from tradition, allowing worshipers to not kiss the Torah. “I said, well if you have a problem with it, you can wave at the Torah, I think the Torah will understand," the rabbi says. More»

(NEWSER) - The National Institutes of Health will supervise a nationwide test of a swine flu vaccine in eight cities starting in August, the Seattle Times reports. Test subjects will be drawn from Seattle, Baltimore, Iowa City, St. Louis, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Houston, and Nashville. Thousands will receive “a vaccine you can't otherwise get,” one official says. President Obama has spoken of a national rollout in October. More»

In bid to rid them of homosexuality, newspaper claims

(NEWSER) - The Dutch Roman Catholic Church castrated at least 10 boys under age 21 "to get rid of homosexuality" in the 1950s, according to a report from Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad. The paper identified one victim, named Henk Heithuis, who in 1956 claimed to have been sexually abused by priests. Two clergymen were eventually convicted, yet police sent Heithuis to a Catholic psychiatric hospital. While under church care, court papers say he was castrated "at his own request," but there's no written consent form. More»