Rosie Scammell / RNS

As the Vatican continues to work on policies to combat clergy sex abuse, a leading pontifical university in Rome hosted a conference this week on how the Catholic Church can better address the current crisis and released details of a new diploma program on protecting children.

A series of measures pushed through in recent months by Pope Francis has given Vatican officials new tools for dealing with child molesters within the church, but critics argue that the Holy See has been too slow to act on scandals globally.

the Web Editors 6-25-2015
Brandon Bourdages / Shutterstock.com

The Supreme Court upheld the insurance subsidies under President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul in a 6-3 ruling on June 25.

The ruling leaves the Affordable Care Act unchanged, and protects the subsidies that 8.7 million people receive to make insurance affordable.

the Web Editors 6-24-2015
The Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III. Screenshot from YouTube video, via Trinity United Church.

On Father's Day — just four days after the shooting at Emanuel A.M.E Church in Charleston, S.C., left nine dead — the Rev. Dr. Otis Moss, Jr., pastor emeritus at Cleveland's Olivet Institutional Baptist Church, and his son, the Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III, Senior Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, teamed up to preach a remarkable sermon on prophetic grief.

"A few days ago a young man, drunk on the wine of confederate supremacy, high on the ideological opium of racialized thinking, attempted to start a race war," says Otis Moss III in this powerful video.

"This domestic terrorist was unfortunately conceived by America's original sin, and our largest exported product — better known as racism. Many have tried to define this moment as an anomaly, but terror and terrorism come in many forms. We have met Dylann Roof before. ... We have met him before. ... We met him before."

REUTERS / Tony Gentile / RNS

Pope Francis said June 24 that there are times when it is “morally necessary” for couples to separate, as part of the pontiff’s broader reflection on how to protect children from quarreling parents.

Speaking to crowds in St. Peter’s Square, Francis said that in some cases “separation is inevitable” and “can even become morally necessary” at times.

The pontiff was clear in specifying the extreme cases in which he saw family breakdown as justifiable: “when it comes to saving the weaker spouse, or young children, from more serious injuries caused by intimidation and violence, by humiliation and exploitation, by lack of involvement and indifference.”

John Bacon 6-24-2015
REUTERS/U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston/Handout via Reuters / RNS

Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev apologized in court June 24 for “the suffering that I’ve caused” in the April 2013 attack that killed three people and wounded hundreds.

Tsarnaev said in a shaky voice that he was guilty and that he prays for the victims.

“I am sorry for the lives that I’ve taken, for the suffering that I’ve caused you, for the damage that I’ve done — irreparable damage,” he said, breaking more than two years of public silence.

“I pray for your relief, for your healing,” he added.

David Gushee 6-24-2015
REUTERS  /Carlo Allegri / RNS

I keep thinking about one stubborn fact of my own (limited) experience: I have never attended a Christian church that employed armed security, and I have never visited a Jewish synagogue that was not guarded by armed security. I first noticed it at a prosperous synagogue many years ago in northern Virginia, but since then have seen it elsewhere in the U.S. and abroad. I will never forget when my wife and I visited the historic Great Synagogue in Rome — where a 2-year-old boy had been murdered , and 34 children injured, in a horrific 1982 attack on a Shabbat service. A machine-gun-toting Italian police officer guarded that synagogue the day we were there. Armed security was certainly present in Jerusalem when I visited a synagogue in that city.

People regularly victimized by violence, including in their holy places, will seek to protect themselves. I cannot fault them for it. I fault those whose crimes have evoked this response.

Courtney Perry / RNS

The Christian conference circuit has special appeal to women.

Jews and Muslims alike have dinners and parties organized around their holiday calendar.

And Buddhists and New Agers get heady: More than half of these groups’ sponsored events are classes and seminars, and meditation retreats.

Those are just a few of the revelations culled from a study conducted by Eventbrite, a company that markets tens of thousands of live experiences annually, from small workshops to massive music festivals.

Sandra Sims 6-24-2015
Lisa Sharon Harper, Dillard University Chaplain Ernest Salsberry and a first year student. Image via Sojourners.

One interesting fact about Sojourners history: when we began publishing the magazine, it was distributed for free on several college campuses. For the past two years we’ve renewed that tradition as part of a tour of historically black colleges and universities.

In February, Lisa Sharon Harper, Sojourners’ Chief Church Engagement Officer, spoke with students at four HBCU campuses across the country

Adam Ericksen 6-24-2015
Charleston vigil

White people can no longer afford to deny the violent racism that infects our lives. Rather, we must take responsibility for it. The first thing we need to do is to name it. Yes, name it in people like the terrorist who killed the nine people at Emmanuel last Wednesday. Name it in our political, economic, and entertainment systems that propagate and benefit from racist structures. For example, did you know that currently, “the U.S. has a greater wealth gap between whites and blacks than South Africa did during apartheid?” Name it for the sinful, demonic structure that it is.

But just as important, name the racism that infects you. It’s not helpful to just name racism in others if we don’t also take responsibility for the racism within each of us. Name it in yourself so that you can repent from it. And once you repent from it, name it again and again. Racism is so embedded in our culture that its evil will surely return to our lives.

Stephen Mattson 6-24-2015

Please don’t fail to recognize this vital moment in American history: when our fellow citizens screamed for equality, marched for recognition, and pleaded for justice. Because someday the next generation will ask us: What did you do?

And so today we must ask ourselves: What are we doing? What are we seeing? What does this all mean?

Because the last few years within our country — a continuation of the past hundreds of years — have been socially jarring for a society that considers itself a modernized, technologically advanced, and morally superior nation