Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:
- Pope Francis formally approved a revision to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which would make the death penalty “inadmissible” in all circumstances rather than an extremely rare exception to the general prohibition on killing.
- Members of the Druze religious community organized a rally in Tel Aviv this weekend in which tens of thousands of people gathered to protest Israel’s new law declaring itself the nation-state of the Jewish people.
- The British High Court held that Islamic marriages as per sharia law are now valid and recognized under British matrimonial law.
- An Illinois County Circuit Judge dismissed a lawsuit over an internal church dispute brought by a former deacon under the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine.
- A woman in Denmark was fined for wearing a niqab—a type of Islamic veil—making her the first person to violate the country’s new law prohibiting garments that cover the face in public.
- Two Christians filed a lawsuit against the City of Toledo and several police officers seeking declaratory and injunctive relief after they were arrested for protesting outside an abortion clinic.