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1. Supreme Court rulings on faith-based funds and student free speech cases
The Supreme Court handed down several rulings Monday, the second-to-last day of the term. The"Bong Hits" case, which raised concerns about schools' ability to regulate what students say on and off-campus, was decided on very narrow terms. Chief Justice Roberts said:

Student speech celebrating illegal drug use at a school event, in the presence of school administrators and teachers … poses a particular challenge for school officials working to protect those entrusted to their care from the dangers of drug abuse. The First Amendment does not require schools to tolerate at school events student expression that contributes to those dangers.

The religious element of the student's message was not addressed by the decision.

The court also voted 5-4 against taxpayers' standing to sue the White House for funding faith-based organizations' conferences and programs.

2. More Jewelry Wars in UK
Another row in Britain over jewelry that is more than jewelry. The daughter of U.K. Silver Ring Thing volunteers is suing her school under British human rights laws to let her wear a "chastity ring." The school says it violates their no-jewelry policy. Lydia Playfoot, the plaintiff, says the dress code is "loosely adhered to" and hasn't stopped other girls from wearing piercings and other jewelry. A major point of argument here, as in the British Airlines cross necklace kerfuffle, is that British Muslims are permitted to wear headscarves and Sikhs are permitted to wear bangles. While the ring may be more symbolically parallel to a hijab than to a cross necklace, the headmaster argues that a chastity ring "is not a Christian symbol, and is not required to be worn by any branch within Christianity."

3. Canadian Anglicans vote against same-sex blessings
It's hard to get the full sense of this story without reading the Vancouver Sun's report, which describes all the delegates as sweating profusely after eight hours in a muggy hotel. It also got rather cranky quotes ("The decision raises serious doubts about leadership -- when the whole church is held back by two bishops") about the bishops' 41-39 vote, which overrode lay and clerical approval of same-sex blessings.

4. Benedict XVI starts to assume John Paul II's diplomacy, revokes his rules (and hosts Tony Blair)
Benedict XVI has made a few administrative changes to adjust his interreligious diplomacy credentials, including appointing a lifelong diplomat, Jean-Louis Tauran, as his new point man for relations with the Muslim world. "When he speaks, the Pope uses diplomatic concepts for Muslims, not theological ones," wrote La Croix, of the pope's post-Regensburg tack.

The pope also reversed John Paul II's changes to the process by which popes are elected. Benedict reinstituted the requirement of a two-thirds majority to elect the next pope.

Benedict also received a visit from Tony Blair who, as of today, has left the office of Prime Minister. According to LeFigaro (in French) the pope spoke with Blair "after having implicitly confirmed his imminent conversion to Catholicism." The French newspaper also reports that Blair gave Benedict photographs of John Henry Newman, a Church of England cleric who famously converted to Catholicism in the nineteenth century.

5) Kidnapped Italian priest still not located
Little has cleared up in the search for Giancarlo Bossi, who was kidnapped June 10 in the Philippines. The groups searching for him, including the Moro Islamic Liberation Front separatist group, "have made no contact whatsoever and the reasons for the abduction remain completely unknown." They're also not sure who the abductors are.

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June (Web-only) 2007, Vol. 51