Liberal Catholics say the US attorney general William Barr’s Catholic faith is threatening the separation of church and state. Their concerns follow a speech on religious freedom last week, where Barr said “militant secularists” were behind a “campaign to destroy the traditional moral order”. He claimed Catholicism and other mainstream religions were the target of Read more
France’s Catholic bishops are planning to open their plenary assembly to lay participation. They made the decision following the passage of a controversial bioethics law despite mass church-backed opposition. Archbishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort who is the French Catholic Bishops’ Conference president, “wants to change how our plenaries function and highlight themes common to both church Read more
Police have freed more than 300 young men from torture and abuse in a Quranic school in northern Nigeria. A police raid on Oct. 14 found them chained and subjected to various physical abuses inside the boarding school based in Katsina. Katsina’s police chief Sanusi Buba told reporters that the house had more than 300 Read more
The mystery over the ‘unauthorised’ sale of ancient bible fragments by an Oxford academic deepened last night amid claims matching texts have been sold to other private collectors. Dr Dirk Obbink, 62, an associate professor at Oxford University’s classics faculty, has been accused of selling without permission fragments belonging to the vast Oxyrhynchus collection. Dr Read more
Muslim youths in California schools are bullied at double the rate of students across the nation, according to a report by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The report, “Singled Out: Islamophobia in the Classroom and the Impact of Discrimination on Muslim Students,” is based on a statewide survey of about 1,500 Muslim students between 11 Read more
The Vatican is promoting a “smart rosary” bracelet connected to a mobile app that’s activated by making the sign of the cross. The device can be worn as a bracelet and is made of 10 consecutive black agate and hematite beads. It also has a data-storing “smart cross”. Taiwan-based tech company GadgTek Inc (GTI) developed Read more
One proposal at the Pan-Amazon Synod is for indigenous- or Amazonian-rite ceremonies to be used to enhance and enrich the liturgy. Cultural signs and gestures could be incorporated into the liturgy without changing what is essential for Catholics, bishops say. Bishop Rafael Escudero Lopez-Brea of Peru, says this suggestion isn’t about Catholics asking for a Read more
An inquiry is under way into the ethics of endorsing a miracle healing a child. The inquiry is being conducted by the Kerala chapter of the Indian Medical Association. Dr V K Sreenivasan, a paediatrician in Kerala, endorsed the miraculous recovery of a premature baby born at the hospital in 2009. Sreenivasan says the infant Read more
Pope Francis has appointed a new head of the Vatican Security Services and commander of the Gendarmerie (Police). Gianluca Gauzzi Broccoletti (known as Gauzzi), a cybersecurity expert, is taking over the security leadership role after the shock resignation of Commander Domenico Giani. Giani resigned amid a scandal stemming from his role in an leaking information Read more
Celibacy is not an obstacle to increasing priestly vocations. According to Bishop Wellington de Queiroz Vieira of Cristalandia and a member of the current Amazon synod the real issue is a lack of holiness. de Queiroz says combating priest shortages in the Amazon region by ordaining mature married men does not address a greater problem. Read more