The seminary on the University of St. Thomas campus is welcoming

33 new seminarians this fall. That will bring the total number of men studying for the priesthood there to 92, putting its residence hall at full capacity.

Monsignor Aloysius Callahan says the high enrollment gives hope for the future of the church.

Tada, who’s been a quadriplegic since breaking her neck in a

1967 diving accident, was diagnosed with breast cancer in late June and has since undergone surgery and two rounds of chemotherapy.

Tada told KTIS radio that she still thanks God for getting her through each day, trusts the Bible’s promise of reward for those who persevere, and knows that her current suffering won’t last forever.

She says, “It’s good to know that soon and very soon this will be behind me.”

Her latest book, “A Place of Healing,” is subtitled: “Wrestling with the Mysteries of Suffering, Pain, and God’s Sovereignty.”

Capt. Dale Goetz was among five soldiers killed by an improvised bomb on Monday. Officials say he had hitched a ride on a resupply convoy.

The 43-year-old Goetz is survived by his wife and three young sons.

He listed his hometown as White, S.D., and once served there as pastor of First Baptist Church, according to the Argus-Leader of Sioux Falls.

Goetz and Staff Sgt. Christopher Stout, who was killed in Afghanistan in July, are the first chaplain and chaplain’s assistant to die in combat since 1970.

Members of Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority staged a noisy protest outside the White House Thursday, demanding that Mubarak work for justice at home instead of between Israelis and Palestinians.

The protesters cited the drive-by killing of Coptic Christian worshippers after their Christmas Eve service and the burning of Christian homes and churches. They also said Egyptian Muslims kidnap Coptic Christian girls and force them to convert to Islam.

Christianity predates Islam by centuries and is still the faith of about ten percent of Egyptians, but Coptic Christians say they routinely face oppression by Egypt’s Muslim majority.

The Rev. Ivey Belch of Ocracoke Assembly of God says he and the island’s Methodist minister were on the same ferry to the mainland, and they joked that other islanders could view their departure as ominous.

Belch says people have asked how he can pray that the storm will miss Ocracoke, but evacuate anyway.

He responds that while the Bible says faith is believing what you can’t see, “stupidity is staying when you’re seeing, and not believing it.”

Capt. Ludovic Foyou  says the 34-year-old Stout was the first chaplain’s assistant to die in combat in 40 years.

The Army says Stout was killed in action while repelling an insurgent attack on an Afghan police compound in Kandahar. He’s survived by his wife and children.

Capt. Foyou offered his condolences, and recalled that he and Stout sometimes prayed together as they ministered to troops in the

82nd Airborne Division.

Alec Hill says that won’t change, despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s June ruling against the Christian Legal Society. The justices ruled that a law school in San Francisco can deny recognition to a CLS chapter that won’t let non-Christians or gays become leaders, even though any student can join.

Hill says InterVarsity Christian Fellowship welcomes students regardless of their faith. But if those students were to elect a non-Christian chapter leader, Hill says InterVarsity would have to suspend its affiliation with that chapter.

He hopes campus recognition won’t be an issue this school year, so that IVCF can extend the same welcome as other student groups to incoming freshmen.

Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, says taxpayers shouldn’t fund religious charities that discriminate against nonbelievers in hiring.

But officials from Protestant, Catholic and Jewish groups argue that while they serve people of any religion, it’s the shared faith of their employees that motivates and defines their mission.

In a letter to members of Congress, the religious groups note that their freedom to hire people of the same faith was protected under the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act.