The introduction of sex education classes in Croatia’s schools has sparked a bitter row between the Catholic Church and the centre-left government. “Peace in our homeland is at stake,” declared Archbishop Josip Bozanic of Zagreb as opponents of the curriculum change claim it will promote pornography, promiscuity and homosexuality. Deputy Bishop Valentin Poziac compared the Read more
Money from the annual Good Friday collection taken up in Catholic churches around the world last year enabled restoration and maintenance on holy places in Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Nazareth, Magdala, Capernaum, Mount Tabor and Mount Nebo. In a letter to Catholic bishops, the prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, said a Read more
The Vatican says the United Nations puts human rights at risk when it starts recognising “new rights” that stem from private interests rather than human dignity. Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States, said recent attempts to reinterpret certain terms in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to introduce “ambiguous expressions Read more
the Government has rejected a plan to make the Christ Church Cathedral safe but the group behind the proposal claims it has been further developed and meets all concerns. The Great Christchurch Buildings Trust, which is campaigning to save the cathedral, presented a concept plan to make the building safe to the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Read more
Insurance money from the Christ Church Cathedral can be used to build the $5.3 million cardboard cathedral, Anglican lawyers argued this morning. Anglican leaders have asked Justice Graham Panckhurst for direction on whether cathedral insurance money can be used for the transitional cathedral being built in Latimer Square. Justice Chisholm said in an interim ruling last year that Read more
Contrary to widespread public perception, the proportion of Christians in Lebanon is increasing and could rise by over a third by 2030. And because hundreds of thousands of overseas Lebanese are eligible to vote, 40 per cent of Lebanese on the electoral roll will be Christian by 2040. Reasons for the increase among Christians include Read more
The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has completed its consideration of the combined eighteenth to twentieth periodic report of New Zealand. The Committee experts noted that New Zealand had implemented most of the recommendations made during the last review. It asked questions about the status of the Treaty of Waitangi in domestic law, Read more
The Czech Republic has signed an historic agreement with the Catholic Church and 15 other religious groups to pay them compensation for properties seized by the Czech Republic’s Communist regime. The deal under which the Czech government will pay churches billions of dollars was signed despite left-wing opposition in what is the European Union’s most Read more
Catholic and Muslim scholars have pointed out that success in adult stem cell research is being underplayed in favour of more controversial work using cells from embryos because of the “aggressive secularism” or “personal investment” of researchers. Worldwide there have been three clinical trials using embryonic cells, derived from embryos discarded during in vitro fertilisation Read more
Shocked by bombs rocking his residence, the papal nuncio to Syria has reported he is in “a massacre; bodies charred and torn to pieces, strips of human flesh, fire fighters struggling to put out the flames”. “We continue to walk on the dead,” said Archbishop Mario Zenari. “The number of 70,000 war victims is even Read more