The Church of England will not conduct same-sex weddings, but have special prayers for gay couples after they marry and Church of England priests in same-sex relationships or civil unions will not be allowed to marry. These guidelines are contained in a new “pastoral guidances” statement from the Church of England’s “House of Bishops”. The guidelines Read more
Clericalism has a negative impact on laity as well as priests says Head of the Congregation for Clergy, Archbishop Beniamino Stella. Archbishop Stella spoke with Italian daily, La Stampa, shortly before being made a Cardinal. “Clericalism” is bad for priests because it distorts their mission and is harmful for the laity because it hinders their development as Read more
Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott has criticised a pharmacist for asking customers using the pill for birth control, to shop elsewhere. “That would certainly strike me as highly unusual behaviour,” Mr Abbott, a Catholic, told Fairfax Radio on Friday. “Chemists should act professionally”, he said. Mr Abbott said, ”If anyone has a problem with that, Read more
A nondenominational, 120-member church in Meridian, Idaho, USA “Connections”, has modified its website to accept Bitcoin donations. Bitcoin is an online form of money that has seen its use and value skyrocket in the past year is a “cryptocurrency”. Jeremy Wight, Connections executive pastor since January 2013, said accepting Bitcoin can only help the small Read more
As Pope Francis reaches out to Catholics across the globe to re-energise the Catholic faith, the vast majority of Catholics, world-wide, disagree with Church teaching about contraception, divorce and abortion, but agree with traditional marriage. These are some of the findings of a world-wide poll commissioned in 12 countries, the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Read more
Just days before being made a Cardinal, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had taken time to clarify he is not Pope Francis’ conservative opponent. In the interview, published by German Catholic news agency Kathpress Archbishop Gerhard Muller protests against being called Francis’ opponent. Admitting he and Francis had different philosophical, Read more
Mormons, Catholics, Baptists, Lutherans and Evangelicals joined together, February 10, in a ‘coalition of faith’ to defend traditional marriage, reports the Salt Lake Tribune. The coalition is calling on the US 10th Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold bans on same-sex marriage in Utah and Oklahoma, saying marriage is “indispensable to social welfare and our Read more
Pope Francis originally wanted to be named Pope John. The revelation comes in a recently published book called the “Diary of a Papist”, by author and journalist Gianluca Barile. The book, full of news and information about the Church and papacy, carries a rumour from Cardinal Francesco Marchisano, a good friend of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Read more
The number of Russian residents who call themselves Christian has more than doubled according to PewResearch. Between the years 1991 and 2008, Russian adults identifying at Orthodox Christian rose from 31% to 72%, and the share of Russia’s population not identifying with any religion dropped from 61% – 18%, the February 2014 international survey shows. However Read more
The Vatican has reaffirmed its support for the UN in general, and for the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The comments from Vatican Spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi, come as part of a response to the UN Committee’s report into the rights of children. However in a statement he also accused the Committee of going beyond its competencies Read more
