Religion

The Jewish News reports: Ahead of the Nov. 3 presidential election, some 75 percent of U.S. Jews would vote for Democratic nominee Joe Biden, while 22 percent would vote to re-elect U.S. President Donald Trump, according to a poll released on Monday by the American Jewish Committee. In 2016, 71 percent of American Jews voted for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary …

NBC New York reports: Health officials in New York delivered a ban days before a scheduled wedding after receiving reports that “upwards of 10,000 individuals” were scheduled to attend the ceremony in Brooklyn, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. At his briefing Saturday, the governor explained that state officials received word of a the wedding after the Rockland County Sheriff’s Office issued …

The Associated Press reports: The Vatican says someone who lives in the same Vatican hotel as Pope Francis has tested positive for coronavirus, adding to the 11 cases of COVID-19 among the Swiss Guards who protect him. The Vatican said Saturday that the resident of the Domus Sanctae Marthae has moved out temporarily and is in isolation, as are all …

ABC News reports: For the first time, a clergy sex abuse trial opened Wednesday in the Vatican’s criminal tribunal, with one priest accused of molesting an altar boy in the Vatican’s youth seminary and another priest accused of covering it up. The case concerns the closed world of the St. Pius X youth seminary, a palazzo inside the Vatican walls …

Gothamist reports: A prominent Hasidic rabbi who tested positive for COVID-19 last week continued leading large indoor prayer services in Borough Park this weekend — even after the New York City Sheriff’s Office issued the synagogue a fine for violating the governor’s hot spot restrictions. The Bobov-45 shul was one of five religious congregations in Borough Park that received a …

ABC News reports: Six in 10 registered voters say the U.S. Supreme Court should uphold Roe v. Wade as the basis of abortion law in the United States, and a majority in an ABC News/Washington Post poll — albeit now a narrow one — says the Senate should delay filling the court’s current vacancy. Sixty-two percent in the national survey …

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports: Reacting to the latest scandal in the local Catholic Church, an outraged New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond said Friday that he had burned the altar where a Pearl River priest was accused of taping himself engaged in group sex with two dominatrices. In a video message posted on the archdiocese’s website, Aymond called the Rev. …

Forbes reports: Orthodox Jewish groups in New York City filed a federal lawsuit Thursday in an attempt to block New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s recent restrictions on the number of people allowed in a house of worship amid a sharp spike in coronavirus infections – the suit comes after two nights of chaotic demonstrations against the crackdown. Cuomo announced heavy …

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports: The lights inside Saints Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church in Pearl River were on later than usual on Sept. 30, so a passerby stopped to take a closer look. Peering inside, the onlooker saw the small parish’s pastor half-naked having sex with two women on the altar, according to court documents. The women were …

NBC New York reports: Members of the ultra-Orthodox community in New York City gathered on the streets late Tuesday to protest the new restrictions imposed on neighborhoods with alarming numbers of new COVID-19 cases. Some protesters attempted to block the camera when NBC New York’s crew arrived at the scene in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn, but video shows …

Gothamist reports: Mayor Bill de Blasio on Sunday announced that he would seek to close non-essential businesses and all schools, both public and private, in nine ZIP codes in South Brooklyn and Central Queens where coronavirus cases have surged for weeks, as health officials scramble to avert a broader outbreak. “In Brooklyn and Queens we are having an extraordinary problem, …

CNN reports: The Trump administration is considering putting up billboards of immigration violators, an unprecedented move in lockstep with the President’s law-and-order message ahead of the election, according to two sources familiar with the proposal. President Donald Trump has repeatedly gone after so-called “sanctuary cities” — cities that limit cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities — arguing …

The Associated Press reports: A Roman Catholic diocese in New York City’s suburbs has become the largest in the U.S. to declare bankruptcy to protect itself from a wave of lawsuits filed over past sexual abuse by clergy members. The Diocese of Rockville Centre filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday. It is the eighth largest diocese or archdiocese …

The New York Post reports: The outer-borough COVID spike is growing. City Hall revealed late Wednesday that the major southern Brooklyn coronavirus outbreak cluster now spans from Brighton Beach all the way to eastern Crown Heights. Central Queens and Far Rockaway also recorded coronavirus- infection rates of between 3 percent and almost 7 percent based on a two week rolling …

The Associated Press reports: A tiny religious organization tied to Amy Coney Barrett, Donald Trump’s supreme court nominee, sought to erase all mentions and photos of her from its website before she meets with lawmakers and faces questions at her Senate confirmation hearings. Barrett, a federal appeals judge, has declined to publicly discuss her decades-long affiliation with People of Praise, …

Reuters reports: The Vatican said on Wednesday it had denied a request from Mike Pompeo for an audience with Pope Francis, and accused the Secretary of State of trying to drag the Catholic Church into the U.S. presidential election by denouncing its relations with China. The extraordinary remarks from the two top diplomatic officials at the Vatican came after Pompeo …

The New York Times reports: Facing a worrying spike in coronavirus cases in Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods, New York City health officials began carrying out emergency inspections at private religious schools on Friday and threatened to impose an extraordinary lockdown in those communities that would be the first major retreat by the city on reopening since the pandemic began. Mayor Bill …

The Christian Post reports: Although 61% of American millennials consider themselves to be Christian, just 2% of them were found to hold a biblical worldview, according to a recent study released by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University. A biblical worldview, as previously defined by Barna, includes believing that absolute moral truths exist, and that such truth is …

The Jesuit magazine America reports: Pope Francis told a group of parents of L.G.B.T. children yesterday that “God loves your children as they are” and “the church loves your children as they are because they are children of God.” He did so in a brief encounter with some 40 Italian parents (both mothers and fathers) of L.G.B.T. children after the …

The Associated Press reports: Pope Francis is giving his blessing to a new Vatican think tank that is seeking to prevent the Mafia and organized crime groups from exploiting the image of the Virgin Mary for their own illicit ends. The Vatican’s Pontifical Marian Academy launched the think tank Friday at a conference titled “Liberating Mary from the Mafia.” It …