(CNA/EWTN News).- The U.S. Supreme Court on May 5 upheld the practice of voluntary prayer before public meetings by a 5-4 ruling, drawing praise from those who said such prayers are a long American tradition that avoids censoring religion.
“Opening public meetings with prayer is a cherished freedom that the authors of the Constitution themselves practiced,” Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel David Cortman said May 5. “Speech censors should have no power to silence volunteers who pray for their communities just as the Founders did.”
Cortman said the Supreme Court “affirmed that Americans are free to pray.”
“In America, we tolerate a diversity of opinions and beliefs; we don’t silence people or try to separate what they say from what they believe,” he said.
The lawsuit, filed in 2007, was brought by Americans United for Separation of Church and State on behalf of Susan Galloway and Linda Stephens. The plaintiffs claimed that the Rochester-area town of Greece, N.Y., violated the constitution in its practice of opening town meetings with prayer.
The majority of prayers offered before the small town's local legislative sessions have been delivered by Christian ministers, although the invocation is open to representatives of any belief who wish to offer prayer, and other groups including Wiccans have also done so in recent years.
Monday’s Supreme Court decision in “Town of Greece v. Galloway” overturned a 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that had sided with the plaintiffs.
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(Vatican Insider; Andrew Tornelli) The Church’s assets need to be managed showing a special concern for the poor and the Holy See administration needs to adopt “a new mentality” of evangelical service. These were Francis’ key messages in the brief speech he gave at this morning’s meeting with the Council for the Economy, coordinated by the Cardinal of Munich, Reinhard Marx and made up of a group of cardinals and lay people. The body has the task of steering the Vatican’s administrative and financial policies.
The Pope recalled that the Council for the Economy, the Secretariat for the Economy and the general Reviser office were established last February and given a “very important mission”: “the Church’s awareness of the responsibility it has to protect and carefully manage its assets according to the mission of evangelization, showing special care for the poor.” Francis stressed that “We must not stray from this path, transparency, efficiency … That’s what all this is aimed at.”
“The Holy See is called to carry out this mission, bearing in mind especially its responsibility towards the universal Church. Furthermore, these changes will reflect the wish to implement a much-needed Curia reform, in order to better serve the Church and Peter’s mission. This is a big challenge which requires faith and prudence.”