Over a quarter of people who regularly meditate have had a particularly unpleasant psychological experience related to the practice. A new University College London study involving an international online survey of 1,232 people with at least two months’ meditation experience found 315 reported feelings of fear and distorted emotions. Female participants and those with religious Read more
Church volunteers who are members of the German Catholic women’s movement Maria 2.0 have launched a week-long strike. They are holding rites without priests outside churches and suspending voluntary church work and ministries in 50 parishes in protest over the male-only priesthood, celibacy and the church’s slow response to sex scandals. Masses and committees will Read more
The Catholic Church in Australia is looking for more collegial models of governance in Catholic schools, hospitals and charities. It is presently reviewing the clerical and hierarchical models that have failed dioceses and parishes during the ongoing child sex abuse crisis. Collegial models would see the significant participation of laypeople says Jack de Groot, who Read more
Sri Lankan police imposed a curfew from Sunday to dawn on Monday in a Catholic-majority town 80 kilometres north of Colombo after mobs attacked a mosque and Muslim-owned businesses there. The situation blew up when a resident apparently misunderstood a Muslim man’s Facebook post as posing a threat to Christians. The Muslim man has been Read more
In a message for Islam’s holy month of Ramadan and Id al-Fitr, the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue has released a message, urging Christians and Muslims worldwide to build bridges of brotherhood and promote the culture of dialogue. The Vatican is calling on Christians and Muslims worldwide to promote human fraternity and harmonious existence Read more
Pope Francis has decided to authorize pilgrimages to Medjugorje, which can now be officially organized by dioceses and parishes and will no longer take place only in a private capacity which as has so far been the case. The Vatican says the papal authorization must be accompanied by “care to prevent these pilgrimages from being Read more
In a first for Fiji, the government and the Seventh-Day Adventist Church will face off in court next week over the management of a school in the country’s north. The Education Ministry last month obtained a court order to prevent the church from taking over Vatuvonu College in Cakaudrove. The church’s general secretary, Joe Talemaitoga, Read more
Pope Francis has released a new law making it mandatory for all clerics and members of religious orders to report cases of clerical sexual abuse to Church authorities. It also includes actions or omissions of bishops and religious superiors that in any way interfere with or fail to investigate abuse. “The crimes of sexual abuse Read more
The Vatican commission exploring the possibility of female deacons has not been able to agree on whether women in the early Christian church were ordained as deacons in the same way men were. Pope Francis says each of the 12 commission members (six men and six women) have quite different positions on the issue, and Read more
A Church of England (C of E) working party says the Archbishops’ Council and House of Bishops must decide if C of E church law should change so priests can breach the seal of confession. The working party’s focus was on whether the law could be changed to enable priests to report the abuse, or Read more