Judge Duval wrote that Louisiana’s requirement that anyone who wants to sell caskets secure certain training and licenses is irrational given that the state’s residents are free to order caskets over the Internet. “Any Louisianan can purchase a casket on-line without the ‘aid’ of a funeral director,” the judge wrote.
It would have been unthinkable even perhaps back in the 1990s for a leader of Fine Gael to go as far as take on the Vatican. But this is exactly what happened this week and it marks a significant, historic milestone on Ireland’s journey away from being a mono-Catholic state into a 21st European republic.
“The ELCA’s departure from historic Christian and Confessional Lutheran standards makes it increasingly difficult, if not impossible, for the LCMS to cooperate directly with the ELCA national office in united efforts with doctrinal integrity.” – Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod report
“For some time now the diocesan pledge system hasn’t worked,” said Bishop Douglas. “The majority of our parishes don’t participate at the 12.5% level. Those that do, do so at great cost to themselves, particularly when they draw down their endowments to meet their obligation. While we are thankful for the generosity of the parishes that do support the diocesan-wide budget, the current system is unsustainable.”
Rt. Rev. Matthias Modedues-Badohu, Presiding Bishop of the Anglican Church and Bishop of Ho, said, “We speak against acts that go against the word of God. It is abnormal and not good. Our objective is to condemn it so that people will not get involved.”
A name that crops up with conspicuous frequency in the Cloyne report, when it comes to “restraint” on the part of Irish Catholic Church authorities in co-operating with State inquiries into child sex-abuse allegations, is that of Diarmuid Ó Catháin, solicitor to the diocese.
Problems of child sex abuse in the Church of England and the Irish Catholic Church
Less than a week after South Sudan celebrated its long-awaited independence, Bishop Andudu Adam Elnail of the Episcopal Diocese of Kadugli has said it is “devastating and saddening” to learn that his people of the South Kordofan region, “friends, brothers and sisters, children, my flock, have been killed mercilessly and are lying now in mass graves in Kadugli.”
BBC: After receiving his application the Austrian authorities had required him to obtain a doctor’s certificate that he was “psychologically fit” to drive. According to
Curious, I called up the Toastmasters headquarters to find out whether the United Arab Emirates was some kind of anomaly. It isn’t. The organization reports hotspots of growth throughout Asia and the Middle East. “Within India and Sri Lanka,” said Daniel Rex, the Toastmasters’ executive director, “we’re organizing about a chapter a week.”