RELIGION HEADLINES WEDNESDAY 4-16-25

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(SRN NEWS) – Tens of thousands of people gathered at Judaism’s holiest site in Jerusalem on Tuesday for the traditional priestly blessing prayer.  It is a ritual dating back over 2,500 years to when King Solomon’s Temple stood on the same site.  The blessing is performed by male Jews who can trace their lineage back to the priestly caste and takes place three times a year during Judaism’s major holidays.  Jews are currently observing the week-long holiday of Passover.  After the traditional blessing, the rabbis recited a prayer for the 59 hostages still held in captivity in Gaza. 

A new study has found that fewer women crossed state lines for abortions in 2024 than the previous year. One reason is likely the increasing use of abortion pills.  The Guttmacher Institute has found that the number of abortions in states where they’re legal increased by less than one percent last year and the number of women crossing state lines to get them dropped by about nine percent.  State-level numbers changed far more dramatically in places where bans took effect or were lifted.  The survey doesn’t count abortions using pills mailed to states where they’re banned. 

Republican lawmakers in five states have recently introduced symbolic bills calling on the Supreme Court to overturn its ruling that legalized gay marriage nationwide.  Meanwhile, GOP legislators in Missouri and Tennessee are proposing measures that create a new category of marriage, called “covenant marriage,” that would be reserved for one man and one woman only.  Covenant marriage would require that a couple undergo counseling prior to getting married and the option of getting divorced would be limited, except under very specific circumstances, such as spousal abuse. 

Turkey has begun a new phase in sweeping restorations of one of the oldest churches on earth.  The work on the nearly 1,500-year-old Hagia Sophia (HIGH-uh  soh-FEE-uh) in Istanbul focuses on preserving the monument’s historic domes from the threat of earthquakes.  Officials say the project will include reinforcing the church’s main dome and half domes, replacing the worn lead coverings and upgrading the steel framework.  Hagia Sophia was turned into a mosque in 1453 after the Ottoman Empire overran Constantinople.