The Christian Century

c. 2012 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican announced on Tuesday (May 15) it had settled a lawsuit against Italian clothing group Benetton for using an image of Pope Benedict XVI in one of its advertisement campaigns.

The image had been modified to show Benedict kissing Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed El-Tayeb, imam of Cairo's renowned al-Azhar Mosque.

Hani Sarhan is a Christian who says none of his relatives works for Bashar Assad’s regime or has anything to do with it. “But what we heard from [the protesters] at the beginning of this revolution—‘Christians to Beirut, Alawites to the coffin’—started us thinking about the real aim of this revolution,” he said.

President Obama’s reelection campaign has tapped a 24-year-old executive assistant in the White House faith-based office to head up its outreach to religious communities.

Michael R. Wear, who has worked in the White House for the past three and a half years, will move to Chicago to become the campaign’s Faith Vote director in late May, White House officials confirmed.

President Obama’s recent endorsement of same-sex marriage opened a torrent of speculation on what his newly enunciated position will mean politically, but the latest polls indicate that the public largely backs his views and that his stance may not hurt him at the ballot box.

c. 2012 Religion News Service (RNS) Here are two things that don't typically go together: Pope Benedict XVI and feminist culture.

Yet they both share a veneration for Hildegard von Bingen, a 12th-century German nun who was the first woman to be officially recognized as a "prophetess" by the Roman Catholic Church.

c. 2012 Religion News Service (RNS) The nation's Roman Catholic bishops are reviewing the church's long-standing ties to the Girl Scouts of the USA after complaints that some of that venerable organization's programs might contradict church teachings on contraception and abortion.