In a July 25 ruling, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit agreed with the lower court that the Adorers of the Blood of Christ had not made their religious objections known during the federal administrative process that led to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approval of the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline.

Farr cited repeated cases in which diplomats ignored or overlooked the importance of faith and religion in dealing with sensitive matters, leading to decades of stumbles in diplomacy.

The church has tried to play a mediating role between Ortega's Sandinista government and protesters who have increasingly demanded his ouster amid demonstrations and clashes in which about 450 people — most of them protesters — have been slain.

For a website with a quantitative bent, FiveThirtyEight is surprisingly willing in this case to use statistics to obscure the truth.

Ambassador Callista Gingrich joined Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican secretary for relations with states, and other speakers at an event to discuss the Vatican's perspective on and fight for religious freedom around the world.

The group calling itself the League of Defense of the Church alleged there was inaction by Cardinal Dieudonne Nzapalainga of Bangui as the church faced attacks, with Christians and priests being killed.