Catholic elementary school teachers now subject to morality police

The bishop of the Cleveland diocese has issued a letter outlining the terms of the contract that all elementary teachers at more than 100 elementary schools must sign. The letter explicitly spells out its “morality clause” in detail, giving a long list of activities teachers must agree to avoid, even outside of school, or they will lose their jobs. The church is essentially telling teachers that they have jurisdiction over their entire lives.
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Challenge to ‘Under God’ in pledge loses in Massachusetts

Federal courts had already declined to rule that the inclusion of the phrase ‘under God’ in the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional largely on the basis that they had earlier ruled that no one could be forced to say the Pledge and thus saying it was voluntary. A new strategy had sought to eliminate it by appealing to state constitutions, with cases in Massachusetts and New Jersey already underway and others pending in other states.
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Satanist wants to give an opening prayer

You have got to hand it to the Satanists, they are quick on the ball. They came up promptly with their own statue to be placed on the grounds of the Oklahoma state legislature and now, following Monday’s US Supreme Court ruling allowing ceremonial opening prayers at government meetings, Chaz Stevens has written to the city of Deerfield Beach saying that he wants to offer up an prayer at their meetings
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And to no one’s surprise …

As anyone could have predicted, the decision by the US Supreme Court that ceremonial prayers at the beginning of meetings of the Greece Town Board were constitutional will not settle things. Rather than forbidding such prayers altogether (my preferred option and one that I think is not only constitutional but also practical in that it removes any ambiguity), the majority’s reasoning and verdict was based on the detailed facts of that case and only further muddied the waters. It will inevitably result in other cases with slightly different facts being the subject of future litigation.
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Hispanics are increasingly less Catholic

The Hispanic population is often perceived as overwhelmingly Catholic but a new Pew survey finds that to be an increasingly false perception, with only about 55% of them identifying themselves as such, down from 67% in 2010, a remarkable drop of 12% in just four years. “About 22% are Protestant (including 16% who describe themselves as born-again or evangelical) and 18% are religiously unaffiliated.”
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Vatican scolds US nuns again

I do not expect the Catholic church under pope Francis to change any of the major doctrines of the church such as on contraception, abortion, same-sex marriage, and celibacy. However, given his expressions of wanting to create a kinder, gentler image for the church, I did expect him to back off on some of the non-doctrinal harsh measures that his predecessors had taken.
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