Nation : Move to Halt Papal Imprint Denied

WASHINGTON —  A group supporting the separation of church and state today lost a Supreme Court challenge to a cancellation stamp that commemorated a 1987 visit to the United States by Pope John Paul II.

The court, without comment, refused to revive a lawsuit by the Texas-based Society of Separationists against the Postal Service. The group’s leader, Ralph B. Shirley of Austin, Tex., said the stamp improperly used taxpayer money to promote religion.

At the request of a customer during the Pope’s 1987 trip, post offices in the nine cities the pontiff visited used a special rubber stamp bearing the emblem of the Vatican in Rome to cancel postcards and first-class letters.