All the headlines from our Church Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Mar 11 2009 // Getting into a bar in Utah is about to become a lot easier.Legislative leaders and Gov. Jon Huntsman agreed to eliminate the state’s much-criticized private club system. Utah is the only state in the country that...
Mar 9 2009 // Before the 21st century reaches the half-way mark, more than 50 percent of the population of the United States will be represented by a vast cultural mix of people considered to be “minorities,” according to...
Mar 6 2009 // The Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, has reached another settlement involving sexual abuse claims against a priest who died in 1999, including one case of alleged abuse by two other now-dead priests.Most of the...
Mar 5 2009 // A bill making it clear that churches can house the homeless inside or outside passed the Washington House and was sent to the Senate. Rep. Brendan Williams of Olympia, Wash., sponsored the bill to counter a homeless...
Feb 22 2009 // Before the 21st century reaches the half-way mark, more than 50 percent of the population of the United States will be represented by a vast cultural mix of people considered to be “minorities,” according to...
Feb 13 2009 // A former Barrow County pastor and his son have been charged with arson for setting fire to a church three years ago.Barrow County sheriff’s deputies arrested 49-year-old Quincy Arnold of Lawrenceville Tuesday....
Feb 13 2009 // The Arkansas House of Representatives has approved a bill allowing concealed handguns in churches, despite hearing arguments that lawmakers should put their faith in God, not guns.The bill, which passed on a 57-42 vote and...
Jan 28 2009 // A state agency is reviewing the way it tracks how employees use the Internet after a report concluded that a worker remained undetected for years as he alternately viewed pornographic Web sites and did work for his...
Jan 23 2009 // A clergy abuse scandal has cost the Archdiocese of Cincinnati more than $11 million in the past six years, church officials announced.In 2008, the archdiocese spent nearly $1.2 million on costs related to clergy abuse, or...
Jan 16 2009 // The Jesuit order has been sued by 43 Alaska Natives who say they were sexually abused as children, and mounting evidence shows that known pedophile priests were sent to the Fairbanks, Alaska, Diocese for decades, a lawyer...
Jan 5 2009 // A Connecticut woman has filed a racketeering lawsuit accusing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Norwich of conspiring to cover up sexual abuse of children by priests.The woman is known only as Jane Doe in the lawsuit pending...
Dec 19 2008 // A Vermont jury has awarded a former altar boy nearly $3.6 million because the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington didn’t protect him from an abusive priest in the 1970s.The Chittenden County Superior Court jury...
Dec 17 2008 // A tip to the South Carolina Arson Hotline helped solve a Greenwood home arson case and led to a reward for the tipster, according to officials.Lt. Bobby Shealy of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division said the fire...
Dec 4 2008 // A Catholic diocese in Massachusetts has paid $4.5 million to nearly 60 people who say they were sexually abused by priests as far back as 1948. The agreements announced Tuesday were part of a voluntary arbitration process...
Nov 26 2008 // The state of Georgia is offering a $10,000 reward for information that will lead to an arrest and conviction in an arson case in Clarkston where a baptist church was heavily damaged last Sunday night. The blaze gutted the...
Nov 26 2008 // A lawsuit against the Vatican alleging top church officials should have warned the public or authorities of known or suspected sexual abuse of children by priests here can go ahead, a federal appeals court in Kentucky...
Nov 17 2008 // A Presbyterian minister accused of having sex with a woman when she was a teenager kept working as a pastor and college administrator after the church’s insurance company paid the accuser $150,000.Rev. Ronald...
Sep 18 2008 // Maine’s supreme court is being asked to overturn the concept of charitable immunity in a church abuse lawsuit.A lawyer told the Maine Supreme Judicial Court that the Roman Catholic bishop knew the Rev. Raymond...
Aug 28 2008 // A jury awarded $5 million to James Wisniewski, a former altar boy on Wednesday, August 27, in a widely watched sexual abuse trial. Rev. Raymond Kownacki was convicted of sexually abusing Wisniewski and other youths and top...
Aug 21 2008 // $8.5 MillionAmount of settlement reached with five insurers for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, Mass. to pay claims filed by people who were sexually abused by priests. About $3.5 million will be used to pay...