A group of American Catholic leaders visiting Cuba are calling for an end to what they call an economic policy that punishes ordinary Cubans. They are urging the Obama administration to lift the 47-year-old economic embargo against Cuba’s communist government. The Miami Herald reports:
Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando said the U.S. church welcomed a recent move by Washington [...]

The Archdiocese of Miami announced Sunday that it will close 13 churches in Miami-Dade and Broward counties over the next six weeks. The Miami Herald reports  this is an effort “to slash costs in a recession that has caused the institution to lose tens of millions in investments while subsidizing operations at struggling parishes.”
Seven Catholic [...]

USA Today is not exactly being transparent when it reports churches are pushing for a hike to the federal minimum wage. Though its headline blares “Churches push for $10 minimum wage by 2010,” a simple check of the website of the group advocating a $10 federal minimum wage — the Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign [...]

Swine flu fears have spurred the Church of England to revive a rule drawn up during the bubonic plague more than 450 years ago, says the Financial Times. Amid rising concern about the spread of swine flu, some Anglican churches are allowing “intinction” or dipping bread in communion wine rather than sharing the chalice, while others [...]

Pope Benedict offers a 79-point list of problems and recommendations on the economic crisis, drawing from previous popes and the Bible.  Philly Inquirer seeks financial book author comments.

Graduating divinity students are feeling trepidation as the contracting economy has led congregations across the religious spectrum to cut or downsize clergy positions, according to The New York Times.
The anecdotal evidence collected by the Association of Theological Schools, which covers 250 graduate institutions in the United States and Canada, has found job listings for ministerial positions down by about one-third [...]

The Associated Press reports:
Churches stood empty Sunday in heavily Roman Catholic Mexico City after services were canceled, and health workers screened airports and bus stations for people sickened by a new strain of swine flu that experts fear could become a global epidemic.

Reuters reports lawmakers killed bill 1098 that would have taken financial oversight of Connecticut’s Catholic churches away from priests and bishops, handing that power to lay officials. Thousands of Catholics demonstrated on Wednesday against the proposal, opposing what they called a threat to the separation of church and state.
“Religious freedom holds a privileged place in American society,” said the [...]

Survey finds more Americans have no religion.
Fifteen percent of respondents said they had no religion, an increase from 14.2 percent in 2001 and 8.2 percent in 1990, according to the American Religious Identification Survey.

Zenit reports Pope Benedict XVI in a Feb. 26 meeting with parish priests of Rome, urged them to speak out “against avarice on a large scale, and forming justice in the hearts of all people.”
He addressed a pastor’s question about how to help people deal with the present economic crisis. On the level of macroeconomics, [...]