"This priest will not return the same...He's going to live in fear, going to live with the effects of this trauma."

"We're talking about killing a human being," said Aubert Martin, executive director of a grassroots anti-euthanasia organization. "This is criminal."

Nebraska voters reinstated the death penalty. California, Nevada and Massachusetts approved measures legalizing the recreational use of marijuana.

Cardinal Gerhard Muller said church law has not specified exactly what should be done with "cremains."

"It is very encouraging to witness the faith of the community of Christians living in that enclosed space and also in the midst of a huge Muslim community majority," said Cardinal Nichols.

Over three decades 500,000 British women were encouraged to give up their babies for adoption.