Religion Award

CHRONICLE.COM, Dec. 2 — University of Notre Dame histor y professor George Marsden will receive the 2005 Grawemeyer Award for Religion for his book Jonathan Edwards: A Life, a biography of the 18th-century American preacher and theologian, reported the higher education website.

Marsden has written extensively on the influence of faith in American society and argued for more tolerance of religious viewpoints within academe. His other books include The Soul of the American University: From Protestant Establishment to Established Nonbelief. .

The $200,000 prize is awarded jointly by the University of Louisville and the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

Trimming Sails

THE NEWS-PRESS, Dec. 3 — Ave Maria University will scale back plans for its new campus and huge glass-and-steel oratory that were to open in the fall of 2006.

The Fort Myers daily said planners of the 956-acre campus in southwest Florida's rural Collier County will build the first phase in two stages to cope with the scarcity of steel, cement and laborers — and the rising cost of all three.

The Oratory of Ave Maria, a church that was to cover 60,000 square feet and be the centerpiece of the university, could be reduced in size or postponed to a later stage of development.

Fair (& PC) Play

THE CINCINNATI POST, Nov. 30 — Recent brawls during college and professional sporting events are making especially relevant an annual letter to Cincinnati-area students and parents from 14 Catholic high-school principals.

The letter, issued at the start of the basketball season, encourages fans and players to stay “true to the mission of Catholic high schools” and to avoid today's trash-talking, fist-swinging sports culture.

The letter is also politically correct, specifically prohibiting cheers that make reference to socio-economic status, race, sexual orientation and “personal attacks unrelated to the game.”

Driver Silenced

CNN.COM, Dec. 2 — An elementary-school bus driver was fired after telling students that actor Mel Gibson had said embryonic stem-cell research had not produced a single human cure in 23 years, encouraging them to tell their parents about it, reported the cable network's website.

They did, and parental complaints led to Julianne Thompson's dismissal for bringing up topics that, officials said, are better left to teachers.

Not talking is not in her contract, said Thompson, 42, who may sue the suburban Buffalo district.

Case Closed

THE DIALOG, Dec. 2 — A federal judge has dismissed a suit claiming that Ursuline Academy in Wilmington discriminated against a teacher by firing her after she signed an adver tisement suppor ting legal abortion, reported Wilmington's diocesan newspaper.

Under previous court findings, Judge Kent Jordan said Michele Curay-Cramer's role as a teacher at a Catholic school, especially as a religion teacher, made her a “minister” of the faith. To decide in her favor, he said, would be an “inappropriate entanglement of church and state.”

That is, said the judge, “short of a declaration that the Pope should pass draft encyclicals through the courts for approval.”