Associated Press correspondent Victor L. Simpson reports:

A visit to Rome's main synagogue. Diplomatic relations with Israel. A handwritten plea asking forgiveness for Christian persecution left at Judaism's holiest site in Jerusalem.

With his landmark actions, Pope John Paul II strove throughout his 27-year papacy to overcome the tortured two-millennia history of Catholic-Jewish relations.

In a sign of appreciation for those efforts, some in the crowd at his beatification Sunday in St. Peters's Square will be Jews, including an Israeli Cabinet minister who lost most of his family in the Holocaust but was hidden by a Belgium family who raised him as a Christian.

"We have a high respect, a unique respect for John Paul," Yossi Peled, a retired Israeli general, said Friday. "He is not just another pope for us."

The preparations for the beatification — the last formal step before possible sainthood — got under way in an official capacity Friday morning when John Paul's tomb was opened and his sealed casket removed for public viewing starting Sunday in St. Peter's Basilica.

The simple white marble tombstone that had marked John Paul's resting place in the grottoes underneath the basilica will be sent to a new church dedicated to him in Krakow, the Vatican said.

Eighty-seven official delegations have confirmed their presence at the ceremony, including 16 heads of state, six heads of government and members of five royal houses, Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said.

Peled, a minister in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, said the participation of an Israeli Cabinet member at what is a religious event — the U.S. delegation is limited to its ambassador to the Holy See and two former envoys — is a sign of the importance given to John Paul's accomplishments.

After decades of reluctance by the Vatican to recognize the Jewish state, the Polish-born John Paul forged formal relations in 1993, following it up with an official visit to Israel in 2000 that included stops at the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem and at the Western Wall, where he left his note.

Earlier, John Paul, a Pole who survived the Nazi invasion of his country, became the first pope to visit a synagogue, where he referred to Jews as "our older brothers in faith."

Peled described the tragedy of his family, which had fled from Poland to Belgium to escape the Nazis, during a meeting with a small group of correspondents at the Israeli Embassy on Friday. Shortly before the family was seized, when he was 6 months old, his father entrusted him to a Belgian Catholic family.

"I grew up as a happy Christian boy," he said.

His mother was the only member of his family to survive Auschwitz and reclaimed him when he was 8.

In honor of John Paul's beatification and legacy, the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance is installing a permanent exhibit about John Paul, the center's founder and dean, Rabbi Marvin Hier, told The Associated Press in Rome.

John Paul "chartered a new course in the relations between the Catholic church and the Jewish people," Hier said in a phone interview. "No other pope did what he did to repair those relations."

The exhibit, which includes a film about the late pope, is being installed "in a very prime location" in the Los Angeles museum, the rabbi said, noting it will be located just across from the exhibit featuring the desk of the renowned late Nazi-hunter and Holocaust survivor, Simon Wiesenthal.

The German-born Pope Benedict XVI has kept up John Paul's momentum, touring the Holy Land in 2009 and visiting synagogues in Cologne, Germany, New York and Rome. He also won praise from Jewish leaders with a sweeping exoneration of the Jewish people for the death of Jesus Christ in a recently released book. Interpretations to the contrary have been used for centuries to justify the persecution of Jews.

Still in debate is the possible beatification of World War II Pope Pius XII, accused by some of failing to speak out forcefully against Hitler's Final Solution. Both John Paul and Benedict have called Pius a great pope.

"Holocaust survivors are deeply moved by the beatification of Pope John Paul," Elan Steinberg, vice-president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, said in a statement. Still "we feel compelled, however, on this occasion to renew our plea that steps toward the sainthood of Pius XII be frozen" until relevant documents in the Vatican archives are opened and examined, he said.

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Associated Press writer William C. Mann reports:

A government agency's annual report on violations of religious rights added Egypt on Thursday to the list of the world's 14 worst violators.

The situation there for religious minorities, especially Coptic Christians, has deteriorated markedly, even since former President Hosni Mubarak resigned in February, the report said.

China also is on the list of worst violators, compiled by the Commission on International Religious Freedom, and in his opening remarks as he released the report, commission Chairman Leonard Leo accused China of trying to hack into the commission's emails.

"They're trying awfully hard to read our private emails," Leo said. "So let me, if I may, take a brief moment to address these esteemed authorities publicly: For your reading enjoyment, you can go to our website and see all of our reports on your government.

"It's http://www.uscirf.gov ... and I'm sure you will find what you need."

The others on the list of "countries of particular concern" are repeats from last year: Myanmar, also known as Burma, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

The Egypt report said the commission was "acutely aware that the success of Egypt's current political transition depends on its full respect for the rule of law, including respect for fundamental human rights, of which religious freedom is critical."

The report said the government "engaged in and tolerated religious freedom violations" before and after Mubarak's departure.

"In his waning months, religious freedom conditions were rapidly deteriorating, and since his departure, we've seen nothing to indicate that these conditions have improved," the report said.

Because of the new designation, the report recommended that the U.S. take money from aid to Egypt earmarked for military use and use it "to enhance physical protection for Copts and other religious minorities.

The report also includes annually a watch list of countries the commission considers to require close monitoring because of violations committed or tolerated by their governments. This year's list was the same as last year's except for the movement of Egypt onto the "countries of particular concern" list. Those still on the watch list are Afghanistan, Belarus, Cuba, India, Indonesia, Laos, Russia, Somalia, Tajikistan, Turkey and Venezuela.

Congress established the commission in 1998 to compile the reports for use by the president, the secretary of state, and the House and Senate.

As it has in previous years, the commission complained that the Obama administration, as the Bush administration before it, ignores its advice.

State Department spokeswoman Heidi Bronke Fulton denied that.

"We certainly take the USCIRF recommendations into account when we designate our own list of Countries of Particular Concern for violations of religious freedom."

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The Archdiocese of Baltimore is hosting several events this weekend to celebrate the beatification on Sunday of Pope John Paul II.

The pontiff came to the archdiocese in October 1995, visiting the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the Our Daily Bread soup kitchen and St. Mary’s Seminary & University.

The pope also visited the Baltimore Basilica in 1976, as Cardinal Karol Wojtyla. The archdiocese has commemorated his visits with the Pope John Paul II Prayer Garden at Charles and Franklin streets, dedicated in October 2008.

His beatification Sunday in Rome will move him a step away from sainthood. The Baltimore archdiocese will celebrate the event with a succession of events Sunday and Monday. They include:

Sunday, May 1
10:45 a.m. Mass at the Baltimore Basilica

11:45 a.m. Eucharistic Procession from the Basilica to the Pope John Paul II Prayer Garden
Praying of the Divine Mercy Chaplet, Prayer Garden

4:30 p.m. Mass for young adults, Basilica

5:30 p.m. Eucharistic Procession following from Basilica to Pope John Paul II Prayer Garden
Praying of the Divine Mercy Chaplet, Prayer Garden

Monday, May 2
Students in all Catholic schools will recite special beatification prayer, and learn about life of Pope John Paul II and making of saints.

From the archdiocese:

Beatification is an intermediate step toward sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church. At the May 1 Mass of Beatification in Rome, the former pontiff will become Blessed John Paul II. The miraculous recovery of Sr. Marie Simon-Pierre from Parkinson’s disease opened the way for the beatification process. In January, Pope Benedict XVI certified the findings of a panel charged with investigating the alleged miracle ascribed to his predecessor. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims are expected in Rome for the three-day program, which will be aired live on EWTN.

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The Associated Press reports:

A Roman Catholic priest in Connecticut has been sentenced to three years in prison after pleading no contest to stealing more than $1 million in church money and spending it on male escorts and a lavish lifestyle.

The Rev. Kevin Gray, former pastor at Sacred Heart/Sagrado Corazon Parish in Waterbury, was also sentenced Wednesday to three years of probation.

The Republican-American reports that a plea of no contest was entered on Gray's behalf, which means he didn't admit guilt, but a conviction for first-degree larceny was entered on his record.

Prosecutors say the 65-year-old Gray won't have to pay back the money because the Diocese of Hartford did not ask for restitution.

Gray's attorney called many of the charges against his client overblown.

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Associated Press writer Matthew Pennington reports:

The newly elected prime minister of Tibet's government-in-exile predicted Wednesday that the 75-year-old Dalai Lama will return during his lifetime to the homeland he fled five decades ago.

In Dharmsala, India, the Tibetan spiritual leader's exile headquarters, Harvard legal scholar Lobsang Sangay was declared on Wednesday the winner of a vote cast by tens of thousands of Tibetans around the world, after the Buddhist leader said he wanted to devolve political authority to an elected leader.

Sangay grew up as a refugee, and his father, a former monk, fought as a guerrilla against China's occupation of Tibet. Sangay told reporters in Washington he would seek to restore the freedom, dignity and identity of Tibetans.

He also promised to reach out to China and pursue the Dalai Lama's stated desire for greater autonomy for Tibetans within China.

"Tibet is under occupation. There is political repression, ethnic assimilation, economic marginalization and environmental destruction," said the 43-year-old Sangay, dressed in a smart business suit. He said that if China wanted to become a world superpower, it could not do so through economic or military might but would need to exercise moral authority in how it treats people.

Sangay urged Beijing to review its "hard-line" Tibet policy and take a "more moderate and liberal approach." He said the government-in-exile remained ready for negotiations. Nine previous rounds of talks have made no headway.

While the Tibetan government-in-exile has existed for decades, it has long been seen as a powerless reflection of the wishes of the Dalai Lama, who is worshipped as a near-deity by many followers. Ceding his political powers is widely seen as a way to prepare for the spiritual leader's death and to show Beijing that exile leaders will continue to wield influence.

Sangay said the Dalai Lama remains healthy and strong and maintains a punishing schedule.

"He will live very long. I believe we will see he will return to Tibet in his lifetime," Sangay said.

China occupied Tibet in 1950 and claims the region has been part of its territory for centuries. Many Tibetans, who are linguistically and ethnically distinct, say they were effectively independent. While China has made strides to develop the remote region, Tibetans fear they are being marginalized economically and that their religion is under threat from restrictions imposed by the authoritarian government in Beijing.

The Dalai Lama fled into exile in northern India in 1959. Sangay said he will join the spiritual leader in Dharmsala by mid-May. Sangay and the other members of the parliament-in-exile, whose election victories also were announced Wednesday, will be sworn in on May 30 in Dharmsala.

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Associated Press writer Amy Taxin reports:

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that a group of Muslim activists and organizations cannot review additional records of FBI inquiries into their activities but berated the government for misleading the court about the existence of the files.

U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney said six Muslim groups and five individuals who sued in 2007 to gain access to records they believed the FBI was keeping do not have a right to much of the information because of national security concerns.

The ruling came amid a nearly five-year battle by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Muslim activists to obtain files they believe would show the FBI has been unlawfully targeting Muslims in Southern California.

Carney reached his decision after privately reviewing more than 100 pages of documents to ensure the government had complied with the Freedom of Information Act in denying access to plaintiffs.

In his 18-page ruling, Carney declined to reveal the number or nature of the records the FBI kept on the plaintiffs, citing national security concerns.

He also reached the conclusion that federal government attorneys misled the court about the existence of the documents.

"The government's representations were then, and remain today, blatantly false," Carney wrote. "The government cannot, under any circumstance, affirmatively mislead the court."

Such "deception" could impede the court from performing its constitutional responsibilities, he added.

No one was immediately available to comment at the Department of Justice.

Shakeel Syed, executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, was disappointed in the ruling.

He said he feels the need to constantly look over his shoulder, especially now that the court has confirmed the government has been keeping files on the plaintiffs that will not be revealed.

"I know that I am under surveillance, I just want to know the reasons for that and I want to know whether that is warranted or not, I want to know if it is legal or not," Syed said.

The case is one of several that highlight widespread concern among Muslim-Americans that the FBI has been spying on them.

Such concerns were heightened in 2009 when an FBI agent testified in court that an informant had been planted at an Islamic Center in Orange County. The informant provided information about the brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden's bodyguard, who was arrested on charges of lying on his citizenship application. The government later dropped the charges.

In 2007, the Muslim activists and organizations, including the Islamic Shura Council and Council on American-Islamic Relations, sued the FBI alleging the agency failed to turn over records they had requested a year earlier related to their own activities.

The FBI released some records to the plaintiffs but redacted large portions of the documents, claiming the material was beyond the scope of their Freedom of Information Act request.

In 2009, Carney told the FBI to turn over the files to him so he could determine whether there was a valid reason for the redactions. He also ordered the agency to expand its records search for CAIR and its executive director for the greater Los Angeles area since only four pages of files had been produced.

Carney reviewed those files and wrote an order that was going to be made public, but was blocked by a federal government appeal.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last month that Carney should rewrite his order to remove references considered sensitive by the federal government.

Ahilan Arulanantham, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Southern California, said he was disappointed by the judge's ruling and concerned about the government's behavior.

"We're deeply concerned that the government appears to believe that they can mislead the courts when the American public seeks information about the government's activities," he said.

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Associated Press correspondent Dena Potter reports:

Virginia's prison system did not violate a Muslim inmate's religious rights when it refused to allow him to grow a 1/8-inch beard, which he believes is required by his religion, a federal judge has ruled.

William Couch, a 50-year-old Sunni Muslim, is a medium-security prisoner serving multiple life sentences for rape and other convictions. He challenged the Virginia Department of Corrections' grooming policy, which bans long hair and beards.

U.S. District Judge Samuel G. Wilson in Harrisonburg sided with the department in a ruling Thursday. Couch's attorney, Jeffrey Fogel, filed an appeal Monday.

Department spokesman Larry Traylor declined to comment on the case.

Fogel argued a 1/8-inch beard would be too short to allow Couch to easily change his appearance if he escaped or hide weapons or other contraband, which is why the department argues the policy is needed.

"There is no conceivable security issue for a Muslim, with concededly sincere beliefs, to grow a 1/8-inch beard," Fogel said Monday.

It will be difficult for Couch to convince the federal appeals court, however.

The 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the grooming policy after a group of Muslim and Rastafarian inmates challenged it when it went into effect in 1999. Many lived in segregation for more than a decade until the department created a separate living space for the inmates last year. Those inmates are gradually given more privileges in an effort to persuade them to cut their hair or beards.

Of the 26 inmates who had been in isolation but were moved into the program, 10 refused to participate and returned to segregation. The others are required to take classes in exchange for more recreation, personal property and other privileges.

Traylor pointed out that relatively few of the state's more than 31,000 inmates are in noncompliance, even among those who identify as Muslims or Rastafarians. Around 300 inmates say they are Rastafarian but obey the grooming policy, as do nearly 3,800 inmates who attend Muslim services, he said.

Couch wore a beard until the policy went into effect, but he has shaved since then. In court papers, he said he recently became convinced that his Islamic faith required him to wear a beard.

The policy allows for an exemption if inmates have a medical condition that is aggravated by shaving.

Virginia is among only about a dozen states that limit the length of inmates' hair and beards, according to the American Correctional Chaplains Association. A handful of those allow religious accommodations for Rastafarians, Muslims, Sikhs, native Americans and others whose religious beliefs prohibit shaving or cutting their hair.

There is no hair policy for federal prisoners.

The U.S. Supreme Court has said that religious rights do not end at the prison gates. Congress passed a law that said that prisons can restrict religious liberties only for compelling reasons such as security, but that such policies must be the least restrictive possible.

In his ruling, Wilson said he gives "due deference to the experience and expertise of prison jail administrators" in determining that the policy serves a compelling interest. And by segregating inmates who don't follow the rules instead of forcibly shaving them, officials have chosen the least restrictive means possible to maintain security, he added.

"Though it is quite clear that an inmate cannot secret weapons or contraband in a 1/8 inch beard, it is not clear than an inmate cannot change his appearance by shaving it, or identify himself as the member of a gang by growing it," Wilson wrote.

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Associated Press writer Angela Delli Santi reports:

Former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey, who abruptly resigned in 2004 after declaring himself "a gay American" and admitting an extramarital affair with a male staffer, has had his pursuit of the Episcopal priesthood put on hold indefinitely.

The New York Post reported Monday that the church has deferred his bid to join the clergy.

The church, which accepts gays and women into the clergy, wants McGreevey to wait so he can put more distance between his possible ordination and the fairly recent turmoil in his life: his coming out in a nationally televised speech, his resignation and a messy divorce from his wife, Dina Matos, in 2008.

The Rev. William Sachs, director of the Center for Interfaith Reconciliation in Richmond, Va., said it's "not unusual" for people to be deferred. Sachs said church officials would be interested in how someone with McGreevey's baggage would handle the ministry.

"How would he apply what he's learned to his ministry? Does he translate from being the person he was in the political realm to being in ordained ministry," Sachs asked. "It doesn't surprise me there would be an instinct to defer."

Neither McGreevey, a Democrat, nor the Episcopal Diocese of Newark would comment on his potential ordination, saying the process is confidential.

McGreevey, 53, earned a master of divinity degree last spring, three years after entering General Theological Seminary in New York City.

The Rev. Patricia McCaughan, who writes for the Episcopal News Service, said ordination is a complicated, subjective process that differs from state to state.

"If a person is deemed not ready to go forward, that doesn't mean that's the end," she said. "People can always try again."

For now, McGreevey said he plans to continue ministering to inmates and helping raise his daughter, who is in elementary school.

"I'm enjoying prison ministry, particularly with the women in Hudson County Jail who have suffered tremendously in their lives," he said.

McGreevey, a former Catholic altar boy, shocked the nation by declaring his homosexuality with his stunned wife and parents at his side. He was the nation's first openly gay governor, but he resigned three months later.

He converted from Catholicism after leaving office. His divorce from Matos followed a protracted public trial during which she claimed she was duped into marriage to advance his political career.

The couple spent four years married and living together and had one child, named Jacqueline. They formally separated in February 2005, three months after he left office. They publicly sparred about their breakup, each writing a tell-all book about the relationship, with almost no detail deemed too embarrassing to reveal.

McGreevey has lived with real estate executive Mark O'Donnell in Plainfield since 2005. He has made few public appearances since leaving office.

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In other Obama religious holiday news, the president extended best wishes to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before the start of Passover, the White House reports.

The weeklong holiday, which marks the biblical story of the Israelites' exodus from Egypt, began Monday night with a traditional seder meal.

Obama hosted a seder at the White House for the third straight year, the Associated Press reported.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Netanyahu expressed appreciation during their telephone conversation Monday for U.S. funding for a military weapons system that has intercepted several rockets aimed at Israeli communities, the AP rpeorted.

The leaders also discussed cooperation on counterterrorism, the Middle East peace process and violence in the Gaza Strip, Carney said.

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President Barack Obama hosted faith leaders and others Tuesday morning at the second annual White House Easter prayer breakfast. His remarks, as released by the White House:

"Well, it is absolutely wonderful to be here with all of you today. I see so many good friends all around the room.

"Before I begin, I want to acknowledge one particular member of my administration who I’m extraordinarily proud of and does not get much credit, and that is USAID Administrator, Dr. Raj Shah, who is doing great work with faith leaders. (Applause.) Where’s Raj? Where is he? There he is right there. Raj is doing great work with faith leaders on our Feed the Future global hunger program, as well as on a host of other issues. We could not be prouder of the work that he’s doing. I also want to acknowledge Congressman Mike McIntyre and his wife, Dee. (Applause.) Mike -- as some of you know, obviously, North Carolina was ravaged by storms this past weekend, and our thoughts and prayers are with all the families who have been affected down there. I know that Mike will be helping those communities rebuild after the devastation.

"To all the faith leaders and the distinguished guests that are here today, welcome to our second annual -- I’m going to make it annual, why not? (Laughter and applause.) Our second Easter Prayer Breakfast. The Easter Egg Roll, that’s well established. (Laughter.) The Prayer Breakfast we started last year, in part because it gave me a good excuse to bring together people who have been such extraordinary influences in my life and such great friends. And it gives me a chance to meet and make some new friends here in the White House.

"I wanted to host this breakfast for a simple reason -– because as busy as we are, as many tasks as pile up, during this season, we are reminded that there’s something about the resurrection -- something about the resurrection of our savior, Jesus Christ, that puts everything else in perspective.

"We all live in the hustle and bustle of our work. And everybody in this room has weighty responsibilities, from leading churches and denominations, to helping to administer important government programs, to shaping our culture in various ways. And I admit that my plate has been full as well. (Laughter.) The inbox keeps on accumulating. (Laughter.)

"But then comes Holy Week. The triumph of Palm Sunday. The humility of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet. His slow march up that hill, and the pain and the scorn and the shame of the cross.

"And we’re reminded that in that moment, he took on the sins of the world -- past, present and future -- and he extended to us that unfathomable gift of grace and salvation through his death and resurrection.

"In the words of the book Isaiah: 'But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.'

"This magnificent grace, this expansive grace, this 'Amazing Grace' calls me to reflect. And it calls me to pray. It calls me to ask God for forgiveness for the times that I’ve not shown grace to others, those times that I’ve fallen short. It calls me to praise God for the gift of our son -- his Son and our Savior.

"And that’s why we have this breakfast. Because in the middle of critical national debates, in the middle of our busy lives, we must always make sure that we are keeping things in perspective. Children help do that. (Laughter.) A strong spouse helps do that. But nothing beats scripture and the reminder of the eternal.

"So I’m honored that all of you have come here this Holy Week to join me in a spirit of prayer, and I pray that our time here this morning will strengthen us, both individually as believers and as Americans. And with that, let me introduce my good friend, Bishop Vashti McKenzie, for our opening prayer." (Applause.)

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien has issued a statement on former Baltimore Mayor and Maryland Gov. William Donald Schaefer, who died Monday at age 89:

"The prayers of the more than half-million Catholics of the Archdiocese of Baltimore are with the former Governor's family and with their fellow citizens of Baltimore and Maryland at the loss of one of the greatest civic leaders we have known. As mayor and governor, William Donald Schaefer was a partner and friend to my predecessors, championing the needs of others throughout his many years of service. As we celebrate this Holy Week, we encourage prayers for the repose of the soul of our late Governor, and give thanks to God for his selfless service."

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The Associated Press reports:

The former Alabama judge known for refusing to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state courthouse says he is forming an exploratory committee for a possible presidential run.

Former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore made the announcement Monday on the Des Moines, Iowa, radio station WHO. He said he would immediately begin a weeklong tour of Iowa. January's Iowa Caucuses will be the first test for 2012 candidates.

Moore said in a release that he is concerned about what he called the country's moral, economic and constitutional crisis.

Moore, a conservative Christian, came to prominence as a circuit judge when he posted the Ten Commandments in his courtroom. Later, he was removed from office as chief justice for refusing to move the Ten Commandments monument.

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Associated Press correspondent Errin Haines reports:

The voice of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. again filled the halls of Ebenezer Baptist Church and a pipe organ triumphantly announced the reopening of the sacred sanctuary regarded as the birthplace of the civil rights icon's vision of justice, equality and a nonviolent society.

The King family was joined by members of the civil rights movement and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in celebrating the reopening of the Atlanta church, called the cornerstone of King's legacy. Salazar said the church is "hallowed ground for a nation still very much in progress."

"To be here this afternoon is to feel that history and remember out personal connection," Salazar told the crowd gathered in the building, which was closed to visitors in 2007.

Ebenezer's Heritage Sanctuary has been restored to its original appearance from 1960 to 1968, when King co-pastored there with his father. Work began on the $8 million project in 2000, and includes a return of the original pulpit furniture and furnishings, architectural and paint finishes, the baptismal pool and choir loft seating.

It also restored King's most important title: preacher, said his youngest daughter, Bernice King, who delivered the keynote address at the ceremony.

"I'm happy that so many people will come to this place ... that will stand as a reckoning point for millions of people all around the world," she said. "You must remember always the pastor and the pastor's mission: To redeem the soul of America. He loved God. He obeyed God and he loved God's people."

Excerpts of King's most famed sermons were piped into the sanctuary before the ceremony began.

"Much comes to my mind as I stand here this afternoon, because I grew up in Ebenezer," a smiling Martin Luther King III, president and chief executive officer of The King Center, told the audience.

His daughter, Yolanda Renee King, opened the ceremony by ringing a liberty bell near the pulpit.

The Rev. Joseph Lowery attended the ceremony and said he had many fond memories of the church, where he often met to discuss strategy for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which he co-founded with King in 1957.

"I can't tell you how it feels to me to be standing here in this spot, in this place, at this hour," Lowery said from the pulpit where King delivered his sermons more than four decades ago. "This church and this ministry have been significant in the history of this country for a long time. I thank God that it remains here to be seen."

King was born just blocks from Ebenezer on Auburn Avenue in downtown Atlanta, and grew up in the church. His father, the Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. — known as "Daddy King" preached there and was a local civil rights activist. His grandfather, A.D. Williams, preceded him and also fought segregation during the early 20th century.

King is also buried next to the church, in a crypt alongside his widow, Coretta Scott King.

The Rev. Raphael G. Warnock, current pastor of Ebenezer and a King scholar, said Friday's ceremony was not only a restoration of a building, but of a movement.

"We must rediscover lost values," he said. "The black church has been the conscience of America. We held vigil for that which is truest and best in the American spirit. We still have work to do. We can't be silent."

During the ceremony, King's only living sibling, Christine King Farris, was made an honorary park ranger by National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis.

"This day is a day of tremendous emotional resonance for me," said Farris, who was baptized by her father at Ebenezer when she was six years old. "I've tried to share as much as I can, being the last survivor of the nuclear family."

Ebenezer is the anchor of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site, which welcomes more than 700,000 national and international visitors annually.

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Sun colleague Mary Gail Hare reports:

A retired Episcopal priest whose last assignment was as the vicar at a church in northern Harford County acknowledged last week that the state has enough evidence to convict him of sexually abusing two young girls in Cecil County.

The Rev. Donald W. Belcher, 82, entered an Alford plea on two counts of sexual abuse of minors in Cecil County Circuit Court. An Alford plea allows a defendant to maintain his innocence while acknowledging that the state has enough evidence to convict.

Belcher was released on $100,000 bond and is awaiting a June 28 sentencing, in which he could receive 25 years on each count, to be served consecutively, said Kevin Urick, assistant state's attorney for Cecil County.

Belcher was indicted by a grand jury on charges of molesting a 15-year-old girl in 2006 and an 8-year-old girl in September of last year in the Cecil town of North East. As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors dropped two other sex offense charges, officials said.

The abuse was not related to Belcher's pastoral duties, investigators and church officials said. No information was available on the victims.

Bishop Eugene Taylor Sutton of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland prohibited Belcher from exercising any priestly functions in January. With the conviction, the diocese will pursue deposing Belcher to permanently exclude him from the Episcopal priesthood.

"We continue to pray for the two young victims and their family, and Belcher and his family," said the Rev. Scott Slater, canon to the ordinary of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland.

Belcher served as vicar at Holy Cross Church in Street for six years until 2007, when he retired and moved to northwestern Montana, where he owns a bar. He was arrested in Yaak, Mont., in December and extradited to Maryland in January.

Belcher was ordained a priest in Montana and served several parishes in that state before his assignment began in Maryland in 2001.

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Associated Press correspondent Dave Collins reports:

A prosecutor says racism that had been brewing for years "reached its boiling point" when a white man and two friends burned a predominantly black Massachusetts church after Barack Obama's election as president.

Nicole Lee Ndumele presented her closing argument Monday in federal court in Springfield in the case of 26-year-old Michael Jacques.

Jacques and two friends were charged with setting fire to the Macedonia Church of God in Christ in Springfield hours after Obama's election in November 2008.

Ndumele said Jacques told his friends Obama's election meant blacks and Puerto Ricans were taking over the country, and he confessed several times to his involvement in the fire.

The defense has said that Jacques only used racial epithets with his white friends and that his confession was coerced.

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Associated Press correspondent Elaine Ganley reports:

Karima has a plan. If police stop her for wearing a veil over her face, she'll remove it — then put it back on once they're out of sight. If that doesn't work, she'll stay home, or even leave France.

For Muslim women in France who cover their faces with veils, it is the moment for making plans. Starting April 11, a new law banning garments that hide the face takes effect. Women who disobey it risk a fine, special classes and a police record.

The law comes as Muslims face what some see as a new jab at their religion: President Nicolas Sarkozy's party is holding a debate Tuesday on the place of Islamic practices, and Islam itself, in strictly secular but traditionally Catholic France.

The increasing focus on France's Muslims — who number at least 5 million, the largest such population in western Europe — comes with presidential elections a year away and support for a far-right party growing. A recent palpable rise in tensions has also been boosted by fears of a mass migration of Muslims due to disarray in the Arab world.

Interior Minister Claude Gueant put it bluntly Monday.

"This growth in the number of (Muslims) and a certain number of behaviors cause problems," he said in remarks carried on French radio. "There is no reason why the nation should accord to one particular religion more rights than religions that were formerly anchored in our country."

France's challenge is evident in the Paris suburb of Trappes. It has a large Muslim population and is one of the few towns in France where veiled women are occasionally seen on the streets.

At the town hall, the subject of the impending crackdown is taboo. Some predict police will turn a blind eye to any veils to keep things tranquil.

"I have a choice to take it off. I choose not to," said Karima, 25, shopping at the outdoor market in this town of 29,000 southwest of Paris.

Karima is forthright, though she refuses to provide her full name because of her defiant stance on the ban. Others are not so willing to talk. Two women veiled in black scurried away when approached.

"The problem of veils and so on become public issues because people are afraid," said Farhad Khosrokhavar, a noted expert on Islam in France. "It's a process of scapegoating and it works beautifully."

The topic of Tuesday's roundtable by Sarkozy's conservative UMP party is officially secularism, a foundational value of France. However, the talks are expected to take up distinctly Muslim social issues like halal food in school cafeterias or demands by some for separate hours for women at public swimming pools.

Its backers say debate is needed to address evolutions in French society — such as a growing demand for mosque building and Islamic butchers — since the country's 1905 law formally separated the state from the Catholic Church.

Detractors, however, see a sheer political ploy to lure potential voters as Sarkozy's popularity keeps sinking and the extreme-right National Front is getting a second life under its new leader, Marine Le Pen, the daughter of party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen. While Le Pen's party performed well in local elections in March, Sarkozy's party suffered a drubbing.

Muslims have felt stigmatized by the 2004 law banning Islamic headscarves in classrooms and again during the intense debate that preceeded the face veil ban. Muslim leaders are now so irked they have refused any role in the roundtable.

France's top religious leaders — Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox Christians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists — published a joint statement last week saying the debate could add "to the confusion in the troubled period we are traversing."

Sarkozy fired his adviser on integration, Abderrahmane Dahmane, last month for castigating party leader Jean-Francois Cope, who is organizing the talks.

"Cope's UMP is the plague of Muslims," Dahmane said in an interview.

Dahmane is a controversial figure who has called on French Muslims to wear a green star Tuesday, similar to the yellow star that Jews were forced to wear under Nazi occupation. Prominent Jewish figures in France have bristled at the comparison.

Another longstanding UMP member tore up his party card in a rage at the Paris mosque. Abdallah Zekri, a member of the High Council of Mosques of France from the southwestern city of Nimes, says Arabs are being targeted.

"Muslims will always be scapegoats," he said at a Paris news conference. "We no longer talk about immigrants. We talk about Muslims."

In unusual terms for a secular leader, Sarkozy extolled the virtues of his country's "Christian heritage" during a recent visit to Puy-en-Velay, the starting point of a famed medieval Christian pilgrimage route.

"Without identity there is no diversity," the president said. "The (French) republic is secular. It belongs to each citizen without any distinction."

Muslim women who choose to cover their faces with veils may doubt that they belong.

The measure banning the veil forbids women to hide their faces in public places, even in the streets. It punishes those who defy the law with a fine of euro150 or a citizenship course of both. Anyone discovered forcing a woman to cover her face risks a year in prison and a euro30,000 fine — doubled if the veiled person is a minor.

Authorities estimate at most 2,000 women in France wear the outlawed garment. But for each of them removing the filmy cloth would be an exceptional act.

"Behind this is spirituality," said Karima, a doctoral student of history with Algerian-born parents. "This law will keep women at home."

Khosrokhavar predicts that, despite the ban, the status quo will quietly continue for many women, with local authorities turning a blind eye.

The French "have lots of lofty abstract principles" like secularism, he said. "But when it comes to dealing with it concretely, you cope with it."

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Associated Press correspondent Tom Breen reports:

The cliche notwithstanding, there are atheists in foxholes. In fact, atheists, agnostics, humanists and other assorted skeptics from the Army's Fort Bragg have formed an organization in a pioneering effort to win recognition and ensure fair treatment for nonbelievers in the overwhelmingly Christian U.S. military.

"We exist, we're here, we're normal," said Sgt. Justin Griffith, chief organizer of Military Atheists and Secular Humanists, or MASH. "We're also in foxholes. That's a big one, right there."

For now, the group meets regularly in homes and bars outside of Fort Bragg, one of the biggest military bases in the country. But it is going through the long bureaucratic process to win official recognition from the Army as a distinct "faith" group.

That would enable it to meet on base, advertise its gatherings and, members say, serve more effectively as a haven for like-minded soldiers.

"People look at you differently if you say you're an atheist in the Army," said Lt. Samantha Nicoll, a West Point graduate who in January attended her first meeting of MASH. "That's extremely taboo. I get a lot of questions if I let it slip in conversation."

The decision on recognition goes first to an Army agency called the Installation Management Command and may be reviewed after that by the Army Chaplain Corps. Neither agency returned calls for comment. MASH members said chaplains at Fort Bragg have been supportive of their effort.

Similar groups of non-theists at about 20 U.S. military bases around the world are watching the outcome at Fort Bragg in hopes it will lead to their recognition, too, said Jason Torpy, president of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers.

MASH, whose name conjures the 1970s movie and sitcom about an Army field hospital in the Korean War, formed in January, partly in reaction to a concert called Rock the Fort that was sponsored by an evangelical Christian organization and held on base last fall. Griffith, an atheist when he joined the Army 4 1/2 years ago, said he tried to organize an atheist festival but called it off because higher-ups were not providing the same support they had for the Christian event — a claim Fort Bragg officials deny.

Griffith said MASH has about 65 members among more than 57,000 active service members who live on and off the post. Bragg is the home of the 82nd Airborne Division and headquarters of the Army's Green Berets.

Fort Bragg Garrison Commander Col. Stephen Sicinski disputed Griffith's account of how the atheist concert came to be canceled but said the post is doing what it can to help Griffith win recognition for MASH. "He knows the procedures, he knows what the paper trail needs to look like, and we're guiding him along in the process to see where that goes," Sicinski said.

Meetings of military personnel who are non-theists — an umbrella term for the many varieties of nonbelievers — have been held at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida and aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. But groups of any kind are prohibited from meeting on Army bases without official recognition.

If the Fort Bragg group succeeds, it will be overseen by the Chaplain Corps. That might seem contradictory for a group defined by its lack of belief, but it means MASH's literature would be available along with Bibles and Qurans. It could raise funds on base and, its members say, they could feel more comfortable approaching chaplains for help with personal problems. Recognition would also be an official sign that not believing in God is acceptable, something members say is lacking now.

"They call it `coming out of the atheist closet,'" Griffith said. "There are people who won't say anything to anyone outside of their own close-knit group. They don't want Grandma to find out, or whoever. People feel like they have to lie about it."

Griffith said he doesn't know of any soldiers being denied promotions because of their atheism, and he and other MASH members at Fort Bragg said they have no horror stories about outright discrimination, that the reaction from their comrades has amounted to little more than raised eyebrows and lots of questions.

Instead, they said, they are largely motivated by a sense of isolation and a desire to spend time with people who not only understand the military experience but also share their views on religion.

It is difficult to pin down how many nonbelievers are in the military, in part because some soldiers lose their faith or convert to a different one. But a report last June by the Pentagon's Military Leadership Diversity Commission concluded that about 20 to 25 percent of military personnel have no religious preference. Up to 3.6 percent identify themselves as humanist — a catchall that can refer to a nonreligious ethical philosophy.

Surveys of the general population generally find the "no preference" category at between 10 and 15 percent, a figure that has grown steadily over the past 20 years, making the military numbers less surprising, said Phil Zuckerman, a sociology professor at Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif.

"People are increasingly much more likely to identify themselves with no particular religion, although that doesn't mean they're atheists. About half the nonreligious are still believers," Zuckerman said.

The Pentagon is studying religious diversity in part to make sure tensions in society at large don't become problems in the military.

The MASH group meets at restaurants and homes, discussing books or having dinner together. About 15 people attend regularly, but Griffith said he has received inquiries from roughly 100 soldiers at Fort Bragg, along with dozens from other bases.

"Granted, most soldiers are Christian, but I'd like to see some secular kind of spiritual and emotional support," said Sgt. Adam Jennings, a Special Forces medic who has been in the Army for 11 years and served in combat in Afghanistan. "I want a place where I can go and be part of a close-knit community."

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