Arbol Looking Horse (right), spiritual leader of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Oyate tribes of South Dakota, concludes a naming ceremony for a white buffalo calf Wednesday at Buffalo Field Campaign headquarters in West Yellowstone, Montana. The reported birth of a sacred calf in Yellowstone National Park is the fulfillment of a Lakota prophecy that heralds better times. Associated Press
Country
Oklahoma
Refusal to fund religious charters
OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma Supreme Court has ruled that the chartering of the nation’s first state-run Catholic charter school is unconstitutional.
The court ruled Tuesday that the contract between the state and St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual Charter School must be set aside.
Philadelphia pastor leads black church in New York
The historic Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York has selected a new senior pastor, potentially bringing to an end a nationwide search to replace the late Rev. Calvin O. Butts, who served the church for half a century until his death in 2022.
The Abyssinian Church said in a statement that the Rev. Kevin R. Johnson, founder of the independent Dare to Imagine Church in Philadelphia, was elected Sunday and will assume his new role in mid-July. Johnson had served as trainee and assistant pastor under Butts, who had begun a search for a successor before his death.
District of Columbia
Court rejects challenge to vaccination law
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to a 2021 Connecticut law that eliminated the state’s long-held religious exemptions from childhood vaccination requirements in schools, colleges and child care facilities.
The justices did not comment Monday on letting stand a federal appeals court ruling that upheld the controversial law. Lower court judges had dismissed lawsuits challenging the law. Connecticut requires students to get certain vaccinations before enrolling and allows some medical exemptions.
world
France
Jewish candidates face and fight hatred
IVRY-SUR-SEINE — Anti-Semitism has emerged as a key issue in France’s key legislative election campaign, with Jewish candidates feeling the heat of hatred in one Paris suburb.
Shannon Severn, campaigning for President Emmanuel Macron, is accompanied by bodyguards and members of her party who fear for her safety as she campaigns to warn of the dangers of racial and religious hatred and division.
Nepal
‘Buddha Boy’ convicted of sexual assault
KATHMANDU — A court in southern Nepal has found a controversial spiritual leader known as “Buddha Boy” guilty of sexually assaulting a minor.
Ram Bahadur Bhanjan, believed by some to be the reincarnation of Buddhism’s founder, was arrested by police in January on suspicion of sexual assault and involvement in the disappearance of at least four devotees from the camp. A judge found him guilty on Monday of sexually assaulting an underage girl. The sentence is due to be handed down on July 1.
Germany
Benedict XVI’s secretary appointed special envoy
BERLIN — Pope Francis has appointed the late Pope Benedict XVI’s longtime secretary as the Vatican’s diplomatic representative to the Baltic states. The Vatican announced in its daily bulletin on Monday that it has appointed Archbishop Georg Gänswein as papal envoy for Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.
