The British Columbia hospice that is trying to preserve its historical opposition to euthanasia is being taken to the Court of Appeal. Because of its views, the Delta Hospice Society (a member-run organisation) is likely to lose $1.5 million in funding from the Fraser Health Authority, a public health care authority in British Columbia. It Read more
Wearing a mask at services has been recommended by the leaders of the four main Churches in Ireland. Catholic Archbishop Eamon Martin (pictured), Church of Ireland primate Archbishop John McDowell, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland’s Rt Revd David Bruce and the Methodist Church in Ireland’s Revd Tom McKnight released a joint statement saying it is Read more
The Missionary Society of St. Columban, commonly known as the Columbans, is marking the upcoming Season of Creation with a podcast series on the beauty of biodiversity and the threats it faces. The Season of Creation is an annual celebration of prayer and action by Christian churches and ecclesial communities worldwide to protect God’s creation, Read more
As part of an effort to remember and pray for persecuted Christians, several churches in the Diocese of Málaga, Spain are displaying a chalice that was shot by the Islamic State. The chalice was rescued from a Syrian Catholic church in the town of Qaraqosh on the Nineveh plain in Iraq. It was brought to Read more
The Benedictine monks of Downside Abbey have announced they are to leave their Somerset monastery after 200 years. The decision comes soon after the abbey and its monastic community completely separated from Downside School, a move that followed a 2018 investigation by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) into abuse at both Downside Read more
The Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the World Council of Churches – WCC – have jointly called on Christians to reflect on charity and “the importance of interreligious solidarity in a world wounded by the COVID-19 pandemic.” The PCID and WCC on Thursday released a joint document “Serving a Wounded World in Interreligious Solidarity: Read more
Human foetal tissue used in a potential coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine is posing an ethical quandry for Australia’s Greek Orthodox, Catholic and Anglican leaders. The Oxford University vaccine has been developed from a kidney cell line (HEK-293) taken from a foetus aborted in 1973. The Australian government has ordered 25 million doses of the vaccine. If Read more
A bill to legalise child marriage has been presented to the Somali parliament. At present there is no law mandating a minimum age for marriage in Somalia. Deputy speaker Abdiweli Mudeey’s bill provoked criticism from other lawmakers when they realised it would legalise marriage at puberty. For some girls, this would be when they were Read more
A Catholic safe house for women in London has been partly responsible for ensuring two sex traffickers are jailed. The Catholic Diocese of Westminster’s Caritas Bakhita House enabled the traffickers’ 20-year old victim to report their crimes to the police. The traffickers were sentenced to prison terms of 15 and 16 years. Their victim’s nightmare Read more
A woman who yelled at and punched a reader during Mass this week will not be prosecuted. A video of Sunday’s live-streamed Mass shows two readers leaving the sanctuary after completing the readings when the mentally ill woman punched one of them twice in the face. The attack was seemingly unprovoked. The victim says the Read more