Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:

• Cardinal George Pell will appeal his conviction for child sex abuse to the Australian High Court, after the Victoria Court of Appeal upheld his conviction and sentence of six years’ imprisonment.
• Mothers in Philadelphia are seeking a writ of certiorari from the Supreme Court to validate a free exercise claim against the city, which stopped placing foster children in homes run by Catholic Social Services, based on the agency’s beliefs on marriage.
• Federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the anti-Semitic man accused of killing eleven worshipers in the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.
• A federal judge in Georgia denied the RFRA defense of a Catholic peace group that broke into a nuclear submarine base to protest nuclear weapons, reasoning that the government’s compelling interest in the security of nuclear weapons outweighed the group’s sincere religious faith.
• Authorities found anti-Semitic graffiti on the front and side walls of a Newtown (CT) synagogue on Saturday morning and have offered a reward of up to $2,500 for information related to the crime.
• Monsignor Antonio Yao Shun, the first Chinese Catholic bishop ever ordained, was consecrated in Jining, Mongolia, following the Vatican and Beijing’s September 22 agreement over bishop nominations.