Pope Francis sent a letter of gratitude to a Spanish teen pilgrim with an intellectual disability after the 15-year-old traveled more than 60 miles along the famed Camino de Santiago de Compostela. In a letter signed July 21 and published on the website of the Diocese of Malaga, Spain, the pope said he learned of Read more
Excerpts from a poem by poet James K. Baxter have been removed from a Dunedin church. In a recent edition of the Mercy Parish newsletter, Father Gerard Aynsley wrote that the Parish Pastoral Council had met to discuss the quote from the poem My Love Came Through the City, which was displayed in the foyer Read more
A church volunteer has admitted to starting the fire at Nantes Cathedral and was charged with arson on Saturday. The 39-year-old Rwandan refugee — who had been detained and released by the police immediately following the July 18 fire at the Gothic cathedral — was arrested again and indicted July 25 on “charges of destruction Read more
A Catholic cleric who officiated the civil union of two lesbians at a ceremony in Rome has controversially resigned from his post. On July 11, Father Emanuele Moscatelli, from the former pastor of the Church of St. Lawrence the Martyr in Sant’Oreste, presided over the wedding of two close friends identified as Beatrice, 50, and Read more
UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has accused China of “gross and egregious” human rights abuses against its Uighurs and said sanctions against those responsible cannot be ruled out. Reports of forced sterilisation and wider persecution of the Muslim group were “reminiscent of something not seen for a long time”, he told the BBC. The UK Read more
The sense of defeat was palpable amongst a set of RSE workers who were forced to board a repatriation flight before any of their claims of mistreatment and unfair dismissal could be resolved. One of the workers, Lyn Soapi, said the group were sad to be leaving without anything to show for their efforts but Read more
Thirty five Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and human rights organisations have called on the global Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB), based in the Netherlands, to strip Rio Tinto of its status as a global human rights leader, following the company’s blasting of a 46,000 year old Aboriginal sacred site in the Pilbara region, Western Read more
Consumer NZ is slamming funeral insurance as predatory and overpriced after an 85-year-old woman paid nearly $19,000 dollars for a policy worth $10,000. Customers are losing money on the products and a change to the law is overdue, it says. Read more
The Church in Germany received more money in church tax than ever before in 2019 despite losing a record number of members. According to official figures released Monday, the German Church received 6.76 billion euros ($7.75 billion) in 2019. This represents a increase of more than 100 million euros ($115 million) compared to 2018, when Read more
Recidivist priest Vince Ryan, 82, was paroled from jail on Tuesday after serving less than half of a three-year sentence for the historic sexual abuse of two altar boys. The Australian Catholic priest had previously served 14 years for the sexual abuse of more than 30 boys. Bishop of the Maitland – Newcastle diocese, Bill Read more