With the same openness with which the church is at last coming to terms with the abuse cases, it is now time to deal with one of its essential structural causes, the celibacy rule. Courageously and emphatically, the bishops should propose this to Pope Benedict XVI.

BANGALORE, India -- Churches in Pakistan have deplored the killing of six World Vision staff members as the international Christian humanitarian organization suspended its operations in the country. Agency spokesman Dean Owen said after the attack that the aid group had received "no threatening letters" before the killing.

Glimpses into Barack Obama's spiritual life have been rare since he became president. But Obama has turned to a group of fresh -- and relatively unfamiliar -- faces to manage religious issues in his administration. They are recalibrating America's engagement with Muslims, revamping the White House faith-based office and tending to the president's own soul.

VATICAN CITY -- Exceptions to celibacy for priests in the Roman Catholic Church can be puzzling. "If celibacy is so tied theologically and spiritually to priestly identity, why the exceptions for Eastern Catholics and converts from the Anglican clergy?" was a question during a theological conference on priestly celibacy at the Opus Dei-run Pontifical University of the Holy Cross March 4-5.

Dividing people into hermeneutic camps has become a favorite tactic of conservative commentators and some bishops, especially those who most want to downplay the idea that the council altered the teaching or attitude of the church in any significant way. Others, however, see the categories as artificial and overstated, attempts at marginalizing as extreme anyone convinced that Vatican II ushered in important changes.

My life has been largely spent at home, caring for my family. It is a small world, but a rich and complex one, for all its short distances from stove to bed and bathtub to couch. Perhaps that is why I am drawn to these writers -- they are women -- who observe the contours and appreciate the significance of the daily and the domestic.

The beleaguered diocese of Scranton, Pa., has a new bishop, a native son who wasted no time in his first news conference in setting a tone distinctly different from that of his predecessor. Msgr. Joseph Bambera has been handling the day-to-day running of the diocese since the abrupt and early retirement of Bishop Joseph F. Martino in August.

Mother Mary Clare Millea last month sent out the first wave of letters to U.S. women religious communities being visited this spring as part of a three-year Vatican study, officially called an Apostolic Visitation.

An earth-hugging environmentalist fad or the next industrial revolution? In 2002 Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Mich., began an undergraduate degree program in sustainable business. Duquesne University in Pittsburgh has instituted a master’s degree program in sustainable business. Dominican University of California offers a master’s degree in sustainable enterprise.

The proposition that liberal Catholicism is dying has been offered from time to time, for decades now, often in a way that reminds one of the schoolyard scuffler more interested in the fight than in any point being made.

Mission Management Sick patients want to be treated by the best-trained doctors and nurses available. But is that enough or do patients need pastoral care as an integral part of holistic health care? While most hospitals offer spiritual care to their patients, do patients really need professionally trained and board-certified Catholic chaplains? One organization thinks so.