Daily Links, July 17: Sisters, (S)aints, and Suri-mania

We haven't heard the last of the conflict between the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) and the Vatican. LCWR president Sister Pat Farrell talks to NPR's Terry Gross [1] about the sisters' response to the Vatican critique.

The Catholic Church in Australia has announced the appointment of a federal judge [2] to launch an independent investigation into sexual abuse by a priest, indicating that hopefully they've learned from how church leaders dealt with the issue in other countries.

The Atlantic has an interesting look at the debate over physician-assisted suicide [3], noting the Catholic Church as a strong opponent of the practice.

The St. Paul Saints, a minor league baseball team, announced that the team will celebrate "atheist night" by changing their name for one night only [4] to the Mr. Paul Aints. Team owners insist they aren't making light of anyone's faith and that the event is meant to be in good fun, but I'm sure someone will take offense.

In religious freedom news, the government in Vietnam deployed tanks and soldiers [5] to stop Catholics from marching for, you guessed it, their religious freedom.

Marissa Mayer might be trying to prove that women really can have it all. The newly-appointed Yahoo CEO is also expecting a child in October [6].

And everyone is talking about America's most famous (soon to be) Catholic school student, Suri Cruise. She's headed to the prestigious Convent of the Sacred Heart School [7] in New York, which has bloggers and gossip sites chatting about the Catholic school [8] and what kind of education it offers [9]. Good PR for Catholic education, or just more useless celebrity news?