Posts Tagged ‘Priests’

Can chatbots write inspirational and wise sermons?

Monday, July 24th, 2023
chatbots

When several hundred Lutherans in Bavaria, Germany, attended a service on June 9, 2023, designed by ChatGPT, the program not only selected hymns and prayers, but also composed and delivered a sermon, delivered by an avatar on a big screen. Indeed, programs like ChatGPT, that can produce a sermon in seconds, might seem attractive to Read more

Priests are not the Church’s ‘main course’

Thursday, June 22nd, 2023

Priests are part of the church community; they ‘give savour’ to the community and are not the ‘main course’. The captivating comment that shed light on the role of priests within the Church was made on Saturday, by Monsignor Gerard Burns, the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Wellington, during the installation ceremony of Catholic Read more

The Church needs priests, but for what?

Thursday, July 7th, 2022
Church needs priests

We’ve just turned the page on the month of June, traditionally in some parts of the world, the time for priestly ordinations in many parts of the Catholic world. According to figures from the national bishops’ conference, the Church in France was ordained 122 new priests this summer – 77 diocesan and 45 from religious Read more

Religious officials seek legal action against media defamation

Monday, February 28th, 2022
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Catholic officials in India are taking legal action against media who seem to be following a rising trend in defaming the Church, particularly priests and nuns. Father Michael Pulickal of the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council says the perceived increase in defamatory comments has seen priests and nuns lodge over 160 police complaints. All the complaints Read more

NZ Government courts wealthy; says priests are not essential

Monday, March 1st, 2021

Wealthy foreigners looking for residency status are being courted by New Zealand as prospective immigrants. Stuff reports, a team of five immigration officials – including one in Europe and another in North America –are still promoting “investor interest in New Zealand” so high net-worth investors can enter the country as soon as the borders re-open. Read more

Priests still too isolated when facing psychological distress

Monday, September 14th, 2020
priests

“Have we, the leaders, been able to hear their suffering?” Bishop Marc Stenger of Troyes in north-central France expressed his doubts on Twitter shortly after two priests in other dioceses within the country took their own lives on August 21 and 23. These were two very different situations. In the first case, Father Jacques Amouzou Read more

New poll shows growing view that clergy are irrelevant

Monday, July 22nd, 2019
clergy concelebrating mass

In her 2004 Pulitzer-Prize winning novel “Gilead,” Marilynne Robinson sketches a portrait of the Rev. John Ames, a small- town pastor in 1950s Iowa who is humble, self-aware, compassionate and devoted to his family and his congregation, and they to him. Americans no longer hold clergy in such high regard, according to a recent poll, Read more

Duterte threatens people who threaten priests

Thursday, February 28th, 2019

People who threaten priests in the Philippines may attract the wrath of their president. After calling the country’s Catholic bishops “useless fools” who should be “killed,” Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has now warned anyone against harming priests and prelates. The president made the warning after being told that people close to his family have threatened Read more

Priests a beacon of hope

Thursday, September 6th, 2018

Priests in Venezuela are a beacon of hope, providing spiritual solace is soaring as nation teeters on brink of collapse. The South American nation is facing a crippled economy amid falling oil prices, U.S. sanctions, hyperinflation and food shortages, according to a report in a diocesan paper in the United States.Read more

Not in my diocese: stop communion services without priests

Thursday, August 9th, 2018

Communion services where a priest is not present must stop says US bishop Robert Vasa. These services are “not consistent with the Instructions from the Holy See,” he told Catholics in his diocese. He pointed to an Instruction from the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments issued in 2004. The Instruction says Read more