Religion news in brief

Romanian mountain Ice Church draws all types of Christians

BALEA LAC, Romania (AP) - High on a remote mountain in Romania, priests have blessed a church made entirely from ice, outstanding both for its architectural style as well as being a place for religious tolerance.

Builders have once again created the Ice Church, which is only reachable by cable car at an altitude of 2,000 meters (6,600 feet). Water from Balea Lake, 300 kilometers (190 miles) northwest of Bucharest, is blessed by priests. Chunks of ice are then cut with a chain saw and cemented together with water and snow.

The structure - 6 meters (20 feet) tall, 14 meters (46 feet) long and 7 meters (23 feet) wide - is a copy of an old church in Transylvania. Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant clerics held a service there this week.

Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant clerics held a service there this week.

Relations between the different Christian churches in Romania have been strained over the years due to disputes relating to church ownership. The communists seized churches in 1945, which were then given to the Romanian Orthodox Church. Some have not been returned to other denominations.

But Ioan Crisan, an Eastern Rite Catholic priest, said the Ice Church was a place to set aside religious differences.

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Portugal approves citizenship plan for Sephardic Jews

LISBON, Portugal (AP) - Portugal is following Spain and granting citizenship rights to the descendants of Jews it persecuted 500 years ago.

The government approved Thursday a change to its nationality law that provides dual citizenship rights for Sephardic Jews - the term commonly used for those who once lived in the Iberian peninsula. Spain adopted a similar law last year

Applicants will be vetted by Portuguese Jewish community institutions, as well as by government agencies.

After Spain drove out Jews in 1492, some 80,000 of them crossed the border into Portugal, historians estimate.

Portugal's monarch initially offered them shelter, but four years later demanded they convert or leave. When they started leaving, his successor King Manuel I prohibited their departure and forced them to convert, becoming so-called New Christians.

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California police probe swastika graffiti as hate crime

DAVIS, Calif. (AP) - While detectives investigate spray painted swastikas on a University of California, Davis off-campus Jewish fraternity house as a hate crime, a Muslim civil liberties group has come out in solidarity with the Jewish community.

Davis police spokesman Tom Waltz says no suspects had been identified and no arrests had been made Monday.

The Sacramento Bee reports (http://bit.ly/1CSFsgE) that the two large swastikas spray painted onto the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity house happened between 3 and 9 a.m. Saturday.

In a statement, UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi called the behavior "repugnant and a gross violation of the values our university holds dear."

Council on American Islamic Relations Sacramento Valley Executive Director Basim Elkarra released a statement Monday that says the group "condemns all acts of hate targeting members of any faith or background, including rejecting anti-Semitism."

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Pope approves martyrdom for slain Salvadoran Romero

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Francis has decreed that slain Salvadoran archbishop Oscar Romero was killed out of hatred for the faith, approving a martyrdom declaration that sets the stage for his beatification.

Francis approved the decree at a meeting Tuesday with the head of the Vatican's saint-making office.

Romero, the archbishop of San Salvador, was gunned down by right-wing death squads in 1980 while celebrating Mass. He had spoken out against repression by the Salvadoran army at the beginning of the country's 1980-1992 civil war between the right-wing government and leftist rebels.

His sainthood cause had been held up by the Vatican for years out of concern for his support for liberation theology. But Francis "unblocked" the cause soon after being elected.

Romero is a hero to many Catholics in Latin America.

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Senate backs allowing religion-based hiring by contractors

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Religious institutions that receive state and local government contracts would be allowed to make hiring decisions based upon religion under a bill approved by the Indiana Senate.

Senators voted 39-11 on Tuesday in favor of the bill, advancing it to the House for consideration.

Republican Sen. Travis Holdman of Markle says he sponsored the measure to restore the ability of religious institutions such as Indiana Wesleyan University to receive state workforce training grants. The state attorney general's office determined last year that the university's religious lifestyle mandate violated state contracting requirements against employment discrimination.

Democratic Sen. Karen Tallian of Portage argued that the bill's language allowing religious institutions to require all employees to conform to their faith tenets was too broad and could lead to lawsuits.