Bella Wong, superintendent of Wellesley public schools, has sent out a letter of apology to parents of students for allowing six-graders to pray while visiting the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center (ISBCC), in Roxbury.

According to the letter, school teachers brought students from the (mandatory) "Enduring Beliefs and the World Today" class on field trips to visit a synagogue and a mosque, and they also visited a gospel music performance and met with "representatives of the Hindu religion". Students had to receive parental permission to attend the field trips.

For the mosque visiting, half the students went one day, the rest the next. On the second day, a representative of the mosque invited students to join them in a prayer. Five students chose to participate.

Yesterday, a video of the Islamic prayer session was posted on YouTube by Boston-based Americans for Peace and Tolerance. (I don't know how to embed).

The Globe reports on the dust up between the Archdiocese of Boston and Boston Catholic Insider.

The Globe, naturally, doesn't provide links to either that site or the other two blogs it discusses: Bryan Hehir Exposed and Magisterial Fidelity.

Jeff Tamagini took in the St. Agrippina Feast in the North End this weekend and captured, among other things, one of the marching bands. Paul Keleher was there, too, and also had his camera out, so he could show us a vendor that probably doesn't want you staring at the goods too long:

Copyright Jeff Tamagini and Paul Keleher, respectively. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Anti-Semitism is apparently alive and well in parts of the Commonwealth.

The Brockton Enterprise News reports that a family in Lakeville was harassed repeatedly over a period of years after they purchased property on Long Pond in 2005 and began working on an island, nearby.

According to the newspaper, the dispute was over who had the right to a path leading to a small beach area; the local homeowners association earlier sued to gain access.

"A swastika was painted on a garage, association members secretly took photos of the families and their young children, and repeatedly filed unfounded complaints with police on the two families," according to India L. Minchoff, lawyer for Scott J Hyman.

Rhea Becker went on a bike tour of once and present Jewish locales in Boston, including those along Blue Hill Avenue:

... We saw the remains of old institutions (schools, synagogues, stores), but you had to know where to look. For instance, many of the now-Haitian churches are housed in buildings that still have Stars of David motifs in the iron gates or atop the roofs. ...

Because they're both divorced and remarried, right? No, no, of course not. Jeff Cutler, who lives in Hingham, discusses St. Paul School, which objects to the fact that one third grader's parents are both women:

... I'm just wondering if St. Paul's is teaching this boy the hard lesson that even religious organizations can lie and go back on their word, what sort of lessons should we worry they're teaching the children already enrolled there?

Deadline New York reports on plans for a movie about our own pedophile priest scandal - as told from the viewpoint of the Globe reporters and editors who helped expose it:

Journalists including [Ben] Bradlee Jr., Michael Rezendes, Walter Robinson, Sacha Pfeiffer, Matt Carroll and Globe editor Marty Baron will cooperate with the film.

State Sen. Cynthia Stone Creem, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, reports the Senate has killed a bill that would have barred all childhood circumcisions without exception.

In a letter to the Jewish Boston mailing list, an aide to Creem (who represents Newton and Brookline), wrote: