“Women and children and the elderly are coming out in the cold, with nothing but the clothes on their backs, to seek safety.” reports Father Simon Faddoul, president of Caritas Lebanon. “It’s very cold, and they have nothing,” he said. The U.N. refugee agency said that as many as 2,000 Syrian Refugees crossed into Lebanon Read more
The Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols will tell Catholics on Sunday that marriage has an “instinctive understanding” and that changing the definition to include homosexuals would be a “profoundly radical step” that would strip it of its “distinctive nature. The warning will be read in 2,500 churches during Sunday Mass, and will also be co-signed Read more
A recently published article argues that since abortion is largely accepted even for reasons that do not have anything to do with the fetus’ health, after-birth abortion’ (killing a newborn) should be permissible in all the cases where abortion is, including cases where the newborn is not disabled because: 1. Both fetuses and newborns do Read more
The Government is rejecting opposition criticism of welfare reforms and says it’s on track to get 46,000 people off benefits over the next four years. Laws are going to be changed, requiring solo parents on a benefit to look for part-time work when their youngest child is five and fulltime work when that child turns Read more
Tongan Bishop, Paini Mafi, says church leaders need to open their eyes and look beyond the bible in order to understand and combat a “huge problem” of gender based violence. “As leaders of our churches we ought to be at the forefront of current issues such as violence against women and children, which are affecting not Read more
Wednesday 22 February marked one year since the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand. Because it was Ash Wednesday, as well as joining a civic earthquake memorial service many Catholics also attended their own churches, or joined with other denominations to begin Lent by remembering and praying for those who died, were injured or have suffered as a result of Read more
Father John Larsen SM, Director of the Marist Fathers in Ranong, Thailand, has was named 2011 Future Justice International Prize winner at a seminar recently held at ACU’s Melbourne Campus. New Zealand-born Fr Larsen served in the Philippines for many years before leading a Marist mission in to Burma (Myanmar). After being denied an entry Read more
A Muslim cabinet minister has defended the place of Christianity in Britain saying it is a vital part of British life and she warns of the dangers of eroding its importance. “You cannot extract Christian foundations from the evolution of our nations any more than you can erase the spires from our landscape,” she said. “I see Read more
Last week Bishops, Religious and mental health experts met at the Pontifical Gregorian University for a Vatican-backed symposium on clerical sexual abuse. Called “Toward Healing and Renewal” — the aim of the Symposium was to change the culture of how the church deals with cases of pedophile priests. At the end of the meeting a new internet-based Read more
A reputedly first-hand account of the Three Wise Men, who came to bring gifts to the child Jesus, has been found in the Vatican archives. According to a Times article in The Australian, the new account suggests there were “scores” of Magi, rather than just the three wise men bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. The Read more