Teachers at many Catholic schools in two United States dioceses are facing contracts that list violations of Church teaching that could get them fired. In the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in Ohio, such behaviours include abortion, artificial insemination and “homosexual lifestyles”. Teachers have long been required to act in accordance with Church’s teachings, but spelling out Read more
A United Kingdom artist is stunned that his artwork depicting Jesus standing before an X-factor type panel has been banned from London’s tube platforms Transport for London decided the work by Antony Micallef could not appear alongside other contemporary interpretations of the Passion of Christ during Lent. Micallef said the decision is censorship. He could Read more
An American archbishop has bowed to pressure from his flock against plans for building a US$2.2million, 575 square metre mansion. Altanta Archbishop Wilton Gregory has apologised to Catholics in his archdiocese for failing to consider the pastoral implications of his plans. He regretted the impression his new home sent to Catholics in his area who Read more
An Italian cardinal has defended national guidelines exempting Italian bishops from having to report claims of abuse by clergy to police. Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, president of the Italian bishops’ conference, said Italian law does not require it and victims may not want it. The guidelines, published in revised form in late March, were called for Read more
Saudi Arabia has declared atheists are terrorists in new laws. Lengthy prison terms are threatened for almost any criticism of the government or Islam. The new laws are accompanied by a series of related royal decrees which seem to criminalise virtually all dissident thought or expression. Secular citizens who commit thought crimes are placed in Read more
A cardinal and 12 bishops celebrated Mass on the United States-Mexico border to commemorate those who died while trying to cross it. Hundreds of would-be migrants trying to cross from Mexico into the US die each year in the desert of dehydration or hypothermia or in shootings by border patrols or vigilantes. The bishops also Read more
Plans to put an inflatable whale in a London park for a re-enactment of the biblical story of Jonah have been refused because it would be too “religious”. The Potters Fields Park Management Trust recently denied the UK Bible Society’s request to erect the inflatable whale at London’s Potters Fields Park. The whale was going Read more
Christian relief organisation World Vision has changed its position on same-sex marriage twice within days in the United States. On March 24, it announced it would no longer define marriage as between a man and a woman in its employee conduct manual in the US. But it reversed that stand soon afterwards and said it Read more
The United Kingdom’s Prime Minister David Cameron has expressed his opposition to an assisted suicide bill before the issue is debated in Parliament Mr Cameron argued that people who are terminally ill will feel unfairly pressurised into ending their lives. Mr Cameron has opposed assisted dying before, but he was speaking out because a private Read more
Cardinal Walter Kasper’s proposals to allow Communion for remarried divorcees got a frosty reception from many of his fellow cardinals at a recent meeting That is according to an Italian journalist writing about the February consistory at the Vatican. In an article for the Turin daily, La Stampa, on March 24, Marco Tosatti wrote that Read more