Allemagne

Le crucifix fixé au mur de la salle d'audience du tribunal porte-t-il le discrédit sur le procès des meurtres néonazis qui s'est ouvert à Munich ? C'est en tout cas l'avis du parlementaire turc Mahmut Tanal. Ce membre du parti d'opposition laïc turc CHP a exigé que l'objet soit retiré, et répété sa demande jeudi depuis Ankara. Pour lui, un tel signe religieux est une atteinte au principe de l'Etat de droit séculier, et une « menace » pour tous les non-chrétiens, parmi lesquelles les huit victimes turques des militants d'extrême droite — Allemagne-Turquie : un crucifix sème la discorde au procès des terroristes néonazis (Claire Gandanger, Fait Religieux)

Italie

Il 26 maggio un referendum consultivo chiederà ai bolognesi se revocare il contributo comunale alle scuole d'infanzia paritarie private. Si tratta di circa un milione di euro, lo 0,8% di quanto il Comune destina alla scuola pubblica nel suo insieme. Ne beneficiano 1.736 bambini tra i 3 e i 6 anni, di cui viene agevolato l'accesso a scuole per lo più cattoliche — A Bologna, sulla Scuola privata due Eserciti bloccati nel Fango (Marco Ventura, Corriere della Sera)

Suisse

Une adolescente chiite et ses parents, qui souhaitaient par conviction religieuse que la jeune fille soit dispensée des cours de natation à l'école, ont été déboutés par le Tribunal fédéral — Pour la justice, l'intégration passe par les cours de piscine (RTS)

Belgique

Contrairement à ce que peuvent encore penser certains contempteurs traditionnels de l’Eglise catholique, cette dernière vit aussi des heures difficiles en ces temps troublés sur le plan économique et social — L’Eglise en quête de revenus (Christian Laporte, La Libre Belgique)

USA

Link Between Islam And Violence Rejected By Many Americans After Boston Bombings: Pew Survey. The results of a new survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press show that despite heightened interest around radical Islam's connection to the Boston attacks, Americans' view of whether Islam is more likely than other religions to support violence remains close to what it has been for the past decade. The survey also found that Americans view Muslims as the group that's most discriminated against when compared to gays and lesbians, African Americans, Hispanics and women (Jaweed Kaleem, Huffington Post)

Kenya

Avec sa nouvelle campagne, l'ONG américaine Catholics for Choice prend clairement position en faveur de la contraception, dans un pays - le Kenya - où 1,6 million des 41,6 millions d'habitants vivent avec le VIH. Il n'en fallait pas plus pour déclencher l'ire de l'Église catholique kényane — La campagne pro-préservatif qui fâche l'Eglise kényane (Fait Religieux)

Vatican

Recevant pour la première fois le patriarche copte-orthodoxe d’Alexandrie vendredi 10 mai, le pape a évoqué un « œcuménisme de la souffrance » — Le pape François a reçu le patriarche copte-orthodoxe Tawadros II (F.M., La Croix)

Celestine V, 13th-Century Pope, Examined; Skeleton Rules Out Murder By Head Trauma. After living as a self-flagellating hermit in Italy, Celestine V served as pontiff for only five months before resigning at the end of the 13th century. Since his death, the so-called "Hermit Pope" has been the subject of much speculation and intrigue, with legend holding that the he was murdered by his successor, Boniface VIII. But a recent examination of the pope's skeleton suggests this murder theory might be false. Instead, Celestine may have died slowly from natural causes as he languished in Boniface's castle prison, where he was locked away soon after his resignation prompted fears that two popes could cause a schism in the Church (Meredith Bennett-Smith, Huffington Post)

Science

‘Jews A Race’ Genetic Theory Comes Under Fierce Attack By DNA Expert. For years now, the findings of Harry Ostrer, Professor of Pathology and Genetics, and several other scientists have stood virtually unchallenged on the genetics of Jews and the story they tell of the common Middle East origins shared by many Jewish populations worldwide. By using sophisticated molecular tools, Feldman, Ostrer and most other scientists in the field have found that Jews are genetically homogeneous. No matter where they live, these scientists say, Jews are genetically more similar to each other than to their non-Jewish neighbors, and they have a shared Middle Eastern ancestry. But now, Eran Elhaik, an Israeli molecular geneticist, has published research that he says debunks this claim. And that has set off a predictable clash (Rita Rubin,  Jewish Daily Forward, Huffington Post)

Livres

Grace Davie, professeur émérite à l’université d’Exeter (Grande-Bretagne), publie la seconde édition (la première date de 2007) de The Sociology of Religion — Grace Davie, The sociology of religion. A critical agenda, London, Sage, 2013.