Some interesting law and religion news stories from around the web this week:
- In his historic address to Congress, Pope Francis spoke primarily on economic injustice, caring for the environment, and immigration.
- Pope Francis made an unscheduled visit to the Little Sisters of the Poor, the religious order of Catholic sisters that is suing the Obama administration over the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate.
- As the Cuban people listened to Pope Francis’s message of family, faith, and reconciliation, they wondered what concessions the government might make to the Church as a result of the Holy Father’s visit.
- NYC public schools close for a Muslim holiday for the first time in history.
- Over 700 pilgrims from around the world were killed on Thursday in a stampede outside the Muslim holy city of Mecca in the worst disaster to strike the annual haj pilgrimage for 25 years.
- Buddhists in Myanmar have launched nationwide rallies to celebrate a set of controversial laws on race and religion, while leaders from minority faiths say the laws are an example of how religion is being used to sow conflict in a divided country.
- The Kentucky clerk who went to prison for refusing to issue marriage licenses after the Supreme Court’s decision on gay marriage may be headed back to court for altering and potentially invalidating new marriage licenses.
- Advocates for the Yazidi people of northern Iraq, who have been targeted by ISIS because they are not Muslims, urged the International Criminal Court to investigate their persecution as a potential case of genocide.
- Israel approved harsher measures to combat the practice of stone-throwing in response to a recent surge in Palestinian violence, widening the rules of engagement for police and vowing to raise minimum penalties for offenders.
- A deputy head of the Chinese government department that oversees religious groups is being investigated for corruption.