Religion Roundup from the Eyewitness News Newsroom

EPISCOPAL BISHOPS Episcopal church approves lesbian bishop

LOS ANGELES
The Episcopal Church has approved the election of a lesbian assistant bishop in the Diocese of Los Angeles, making her the second openly gay bishop in the global Anglican Communion.

Episcopal conservatives said the approval of the Rev. Mary Glasspool was "grieving the heart of God."

In a statement, Glasspool said she would try "to bridge those gaps, and strengthen the bonds of affection among all people, in the name of Jesus Christ."

Glasspool was elected last year, but needed the full church's approval to be consecrated in May.

The Episcopal Church, which is the Anglican body in the United States, caused an uproar in 2003 by consecrating the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

Breakaway Episcopal conservatives have formed a rival church, the Anglican Church in North America.

HEALTH OVERHAUL-CATHOLIC NUNS Catholic nuns urge passage of Obama's health bill

WASHINGTON
Catholic nuns are urging Congress to pass President Barack Obama's health care plan, in an unusual public break with bishops who say it would subsidize abortion.

Some 60 leaders of religious orders representing 59,000 Catholic nuns Wednesday sent lawmakers a letter urging them to pass the Senate health care bill. It contains restrictions on abortion funding that the bishops say don't go far enough.

The letter says, "despite false claims to the contrary, the Senate bill will not provide taxpayer funding for elective abortions." The letter adds that the legislation will help support pregnant women and says: "this is the real pro-life stance."

NIGERIA-VIOLENCE Attackers kill 12 in Nigerian Christian village

LAGOS, Nigeria
Attackers have killed at least 12 people in a Christian village in central Nigeria -- the latest violence in a region where religious fighting has killed hundreds this year.

Nigerian officials said the attackers cut out most of the victims' tongues.

Wednesday's attack mirrored the tactics used by those who carried out similar massacres in Christian villages last week when more than 200 people were slaughtered.

A witness said that under cover of darkness and a driving rain, raiders with machetes entered the village, setting fire to homes and firing gunshots into the air to drive frightened villagers into the night, where they were then killed.

YEMEN-US IMAM Yemeni-American imam calls for US Muslim revolt

CAIRO
A Yemeni-American Muslim preacher is urging American Muslims to turn against their government because he says the U.S. is "leading a war against Muslims."

Anwar Awlaki released a new audio message according to the SITE Intelligence Group on Wednesday. Parts of the English-language message were aired on CNN.

Awlaki was known to be in touch with the American Muslim Army major accused of killing 13 people in Texas as well as a Nigerian who attempted to destroy an airliner in Detroit on Christmas day.

The Muslim Public Affairs Council responded to Awlaki's message, calling it "destructive, appalling, and a violation of core Islamic teachings."

IRELAND-CATHOLIC ABUSE Irish cardinal apologizes for role in sex abuse scandal

LONDON
The leader of Ireland's Roman Catholics says he's ashamed of his part in dealing with a child sex abuse scandal 35 years ago, and is uncertain what the future holds for him.

Cardinal Sean Brady has faced calls for his resignation following revelations that he participated in interviews with two victims of a pedophile priest in 1975, but did not notify police. The priest continued to molest children for 18 more years before he was arrested.

Brady apologized in a St. Patrick's Day sermon in Northern Ireland. He referred to St. Patrick and St. Peter as "wounded healers" -- men who had sinned, but became leaders of the church.

In Rome, Pope Benedict XVI said he would soon send a pastoral letter to the Irish church and hoped it would promote "repentance, healing and renewal."

renewal" Pope Benedict XVI

LONDON
Pope Benedict XVI says his letter to Irish Catholics about the sex abuse crisis will be released soon.

PRAYER ABUSE Bill could charge faith-healing parents with child abuse

MADISON, Wis.
Wisconsin lawmakers are considering a bill that would allow prosecutors to charge parents with child abuse if they refuse medical help for their children on religious grounds.

The measure stems from the case of Dale and Leilani Neumann, who prayed while their 11-year-old daughter died of undiagnosed diabetes in their home.

Under current Wisconsin law, parents can't be found guilty of child abuse if they choose spiritual treatment rather than medicine or surgery.

The bill's author says children shouldn't have to die for their parents' beliefs.

But Joe Farkas, legislative liaison for Christian Science churches in Wisconsin, says the bill is vague and raises questions about whether parents can teach their children religious values.

TEN COMMANDMENTS-OKLAHOMA Ten Commandments monument moved from courthouse

STIGLER, Okla.
A Ten Commandments monument has been moved from its location outside the Haskell County Courthouse in Stigler, Okla.

Muskogee Marble and Granite transferred the monument Wednesday morning to property in front of the American Legion building about 80 feet away. Janice Williams of the Stigler Chamber of Commerce says the granite structure was moved without incident and with little fanfare.

The monument was placed at the courthouse in 2004, but a federal appeals court ruled it was an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently refused to hear an appeal of that decision.

CHURCH PERMIT City says home Bible group must get permit

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif.
A California city has ordered Christian worshippers who meet inside homes to get a permit or shut down.

Officials in Rancho Cucamonga are trying to halt Friday night meetings at a home after a neighbor complained that 40 to 60 people were gathering weekly.

Officials said the homeowner needs a conditional use permit by Good Friday, April 2, to operate a church in a residential area.

Pacific Justice Institute, a nonprofit legal defense group that specializes in conservative Christian issues, said the meetings are actually a Bible study group that usually draws about 15 people.

An institute attorney says the city doesn't require permits for similar-sized gatherings like parties.

SOUTHERN BAPTISTS-PRESIDENT Georgia pastor in running for president of Southern Baptist Convention

NASHVILLE, Tenn.
A Georgia pastor will be nominated as the next president of the Southern Baptist Convention, according to Baptist news reports.

The Rev. Bryant Wright, senior pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta, will be nominated to succeed Johnny Hunt, who is completing his second one-year term. The election will be held during the denomination's annual meeting, June 15-16, in Orlando, Fla. No other nominees for Southern Baptist leadership have been announced to date, according to Baptist Press.

The 16.3 million-member Southern Baptist Convention is the largest Protestant group in the country, but has struggled in recent years with small numbers of baptisms and stagnating membership rolls.

CATHOLIC CHURCH-TOLTON SAINTHOOD Sainthood sought for 19th century black priest

CHICAGO
Cardinal Francis George says the man who's believed to have been America's first black Roman Catholic priest should be considered for sainthood.

George announced Wednesday that his Chicago archdiocese will appoint a commission to assemble facts about the Rev. Augustus Tolton's "heroic virtues," which are required for sainthood.

Born into slavery in 1854, Tolton's family escaped from Missouri as the Civil War began, settled in southern Illinois, and became members of the Catholic Church.

According to the archdiocese, Tolton studied for the priesthood in Rome because no American seminary would accept him. After being ordained in Quincy, Ill., he moved to Chicago to start a parish for black Catholics. He died at age 43, which the church attributes to his visiting the sick.

VATICAN-SHRINE Vatican studies visions of Virgin at Medjugorje

VATICAN CITY
The Vatican has begun formally investigating reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary at the Medjugorje shrine in southern Bosnia.

An international commission of inquiry headed by Italian Cardinal Camillo Ruini -- a top adviser to the late Pope John Paul II -- has been formed to study the case. In 1981, six youths said they had regularly seen visions of the Virgin there. But unlike Fatima in Portugal or Lourdes in France, the Vatican has been cautious about calling the sightings authentic, and neither Rome nor the local diocese has approved Medjugorje as an official shrine.

The lack of official recognition hasn't stopped the remote village southwest of Sarajevo from thriving. More than 30 million faithful have visited the area since 1981.

ISRAEL-ANCIENT RUINS Wrong religion: Israeli ruins re-identified

JERUSALEM
Israeli archaeologists have announced that ruins long thought to be of an ancient synagogue are actually the remains of a palace used by Muslim caliphs 1,300 years ago.

The site on the banks of the Sea of Galilee was identified as a synagogue in the 1950s because archaeologists found a carving of a menorah, a seven-armed candelabra, that is a Jewish symbol. But scholars say in a new report that the identification was an error.

The site is now believed to have been a winter palace used by the caliphs of the Umayyad dynasty, the same rulers who built Jerusalem's gold-capped Dome of the Rock.

Early Arab historians had described the palace, calling it al-Sinnabra, but its location was previously unknown.