Smaller churches have recovered better from Covid lockdown restrictions than larger ones, a new study has revealed. The study published by Anglican evangelical mission agency CPAS is based on church attendance figures at Easter this year. CPAS found that, although in-church Easter attendance was three-quarters what it had been at Easter 2019, many people were Read more
A group representing US Catholic priests has developed guidelines for informing priests of their canonical rights when they are accused of misconduct – including sexual abuse. Survivor advocates are critical of the move, saying providing guidance could help cast accused priests in an overly sympathetic light. The Association of US Catholic Priests (AUSCP) say the Read more
Archbishop Mark Coleridge says despite a fall in the number of Australians identifying as Christian, fifty percent still identify as such. That means Jesus’s voice remains prominent in Australia, Coleridge says. Data from the 2021 census has just been released by the Bureau of Statistics. It includes figures on religious affiliation which show Catholics now Read more
Religious abortion-rights advocates in the US are planning their next move following the judgement against the right to abortion. One advocate is Jody Rabhan, chief policy officer for the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW). She and other members of her organisation are “absolutely devastated, shocked and angry,” she says. “This is not the end. Read more
Anti-abortion activists have been told being pro-life involves many issues that can threaten life. It’s not just about abortion. It’s about easy access to guns, poverty and rising maternity mortality. “Being for life always, for example, means being concerned if the mortality rates of women due to motherhood increase,” wrote Andrea Tornielli in his Vatican Read more
Some young girls are still auctioned off into marriage for cows in South Sudan — one of the social challenges that activists had hoped to highlight during Pope Francis’ now-postponed visit. The price of a daughter, determined in negotiations between her father and would-be husband, is typically 50 to 100 cows, each worth up to Read more
Churches across the US are tackling the big question of how to address homelessness in their communities with a small solution: tiny homes. On vacant plots near their parking lots and steepled sanctuaries, congregations are building everything from fixed and fully contained micro homes to petite, moveable cabins and several other styles of small-footprint dwellings Read more
Pope John Paul I seems to have favoured artificial contraception in some cases, a document he drafted in 1967 suggests. The man who would become pope – then Bishop Albino Luciani – prepared the document on contraception on behalf of the bishops of Italy’s Triveneto region. It was then was given to St Paul VI Read more
You need to live the Gospel before you can share it, not the other way around, says Pope Francis. The first thing communicators communicates is themselves, perhaps without meaning to. “A missionary is a disciple who is so united to his master and lord that his hands, his mind and his heart are channels of Read more
Pro-lifers in the United States are calling out devout Catholic President Joe Biden for his response to the US Supreme Court’s Roe v Wade decision. While the decision – that there is no longer a federal constitutional right to an abortion – is in tune with the Catholic view, the Catholic president lamented the ruling Read more