Most doctors in South Africa are unwilling to perform abortions. Under the Choice of Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1996, abortions are legal up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. In pregnancies as a result of rape, incest or in cases of financial hardship, abortions are legal up to 20 weeks. Kgaladi Mphahlele, who is the Read more
The Catholic church has given up its patronage of three Irish rural schools to save them from closure. They are the first schools to abandon their Catholic ethos and become multi-denominational state-run schools. Many of the children at the tiny schools come from non-religious homes or are not Catholic. One effect of the change is Read more
Sydney Catholic and Anglican churches say they will not follow the example of the Uniting church, which has granted support to the school climate strike movement and given students support to attend the marches. Students across the country are planning to walk out of school on Friday 20 September, to protest government inaction on the Read more
The 145-year-old Vatican pharmacy has a new hire: a state-of-the-art robot working behind the scenes to manage the stockroom, retrieve medications and deliver the drugs quickly to the sales floor. The Vatican, which claims to have the busiest pharmacy in the world, recently adopted the new automated system by the Germany-based BD Rowa firm. The Read more
Ireland’s former president Mary McAleese has been selected as the winner of the prestigious Alfons Auer Ethics Prize. The award will be presented to Dr McAleese at a ceremony at the University of Tübingen in Germany on 30 October. Leading US moral theologian Professor Hille Haker of Loyola University in Chicago will deliver the commendation Read more
Christians who seem close to the church but are hypocrites because they don’t care for others are like aimless tourists, Pope Francis said last week. They “are always passing by but never enter the church in a fully communal way” Francis told those at his weekly general audience. Saying these Christians are like tourists visiting Read more
A priest and five nuns are facing defamation charges after releasing defamatory videos of Sister Lucy Kalappura, who was expelled from her congregation early this month. Franciscan Clarist Congregation (FCC) nun, Kalappura complained the accused used social media to falsely portray her interactions with journalists as a salacious affair. The police had registered the case Read more
A long-serving missionary bishop of the Amazon River delta says the Instrumentum laboris for October’s synod on the Amazon misses the problems faced by the Church in the region. “What is the Amazonian face? Can a synod next October of this magnitude be built with a presentation so far from reality, from identity, from respect Read more
Abuse survivor Tim Lennon says the Vatican should have been decisive after George Pell was convicted and immediately defrocked him. However following the Victoria Supreme Court’s 2-1 ruling against Pell (78) last week, his legal team says it is considering a further appeal to Australia’s High Court. The Vatican says it is waiting for Pell Read more
Pope Francis is pleading for the international community to work together to put out the fires raging in the Amazon rainforest. He is voicing the growing international concern about the vast tracts of tropical forest ravaged by blazes in Brazil and neighbouring countries. A Boeing SuperTanker and six other planes have been deployed to help Read more