Yahoo! News: Religion News

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• Top Catholic bishop presses House on immigration
• JFK's call for religious freedom can transform places like Pakistan
• Pope meeting Putin, could help mend Catholic-Orthodox relations
• Analysis: At Supreme Court hearing, passions over religion and its rules
• Pope to meet Russian President Putin Nov 25, Vatican says
• Pope to receive Putin on November 25

Top Catholic bishop presses House on immigration Posted: 07 Nov 2013 03:31 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is pressuring the House to act on immigration legislation before the end of the year, calling the issue "a matter of great moral urgency" that cannot wait.

JFK's call for religious freedom can transform places like Pakistan Posted: 07 Nov 2013 08:57 AM PST As the nation marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, much can be said about his focus on freedom. In speeches both before and after he became president, Kennedy championed human rights around the world and called out the Soviets and their satellite states for violating these liberties. One aspect of his views bears particular mention: the roles of religion and religious freedom as engines and emblems of progress, roles that have particular resonance across the globe today. In an Independence Day speech in Boston in 1946, Kennedy cited the 19th-century French nobleman and author of "Democracy in America," Alexis de Tocqueville, who wrote that "unless religion is the first link, all is vain." On the presidential campaign trail in September 1960, speaking at the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Kennedy lamented that "we have become missionaries abroad of a wide range of doctrines – free enterprise, anti-Communism and pro-Americanism – but rarely ... religious liberty."

Pope meeting Putin, could help mend Catholic-Orthodox relations Posted: 07 Nov 2013 07:06 AM PST By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis will receive Russian President Vladimir Putin on November 25, an encounter that could help mend strained relations between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church. Russian-Vatican relations have been fraught since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union, with Moscow accusing the Roman Catholic Church of trying to poach believers from the Russian Orthodox Church, a charge the Vatican denies. But Putin is the first Kremlin leader since the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution to publicly profess religious faith - to the Orthodox church - and has several times advocated ending the long feud between the two major Christian churches. Putin, who also met his two immediate predecessors, could invite the pope to visit Russia, diplomats said.

Analysis: At Supreme Court hearing, passions over religion and its rules Posted: 07 Nov 2013 04:25 AM PST By Joan Biskupic WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When the U.S. Supreme Court talks about religion, all hell breaks loose. A dispute over an upstate New York town's prayer before council meetings produced an unusually testy oral-argument session on Wednesday that recalled the decades of difficulty Supreme Court justices have had drawing the line between church and state. In the case brought by two Greece residents who objected to the overwhelmingly Christian prayers at meetings, the justices appeared likely to allow legislative prayer to continue but not ready to offer new guidance for when government might have gone too far in favoring, for example, Christianity over other faiths. At one point during the hour-long session, Justice Stephen Breyer referred to the challenge of setting constitutional rules so people of different religions live "harmoniously together." Not soon after, Justice Elena Kagan asserted that, "Every time the court gets involved in things like this, it seems to make the problem worse rather than better." Overall, the justices' remarks were more pessimistic than positive regarding a possible consensus.

Pope to meet Russian President Putin Nov 25, Vatican says Posted: 07 Nov 2013 04:06 AM PST VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on November 25 in their first encounter since the pontiff was elected, the Vatican said on Thursday. Relations between Russia and the Vatican have been strained since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. Russia accuses the Catholic Church of trying to poach believers from the Russian Orthodox Church, a charge the Vatican denies. ...

Pope to receive Putin on November 25 Posted: 06 Nov 2013 04:44 PM PST Pope Francis will receive Russian President Vladimir Putin on November 25, the Vatican said on Thursday, as the Roman Catholic Church seeks to improve ties with the Russian Orthodox Church. Putin has previously met the pope's predecessor Benedict XVI as well as late pope John Paul II and there are hopes for what would be an historic meeting between a pope and a Russian patriarch. Putin's predecessor Dmitry Medvedev, who is now the prime minister, met with Benedict XVI in 2011.

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