A law change allowing a first-born daughter to succeed to the throne — and permitting an heir to the throne to marry a Catholic — has been passed by the House of Commons. But an effort by a Catholic MP, Jacob Rees-Mogg, to change the Succession to the Crown Bill so that a Catholic could Read more
The future leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Archbishop-elect Eamon Martin, has been described as “a clean pair of hands” who “does not carry any baggage from the past with him”. Archbishop-elect Martin has been appointed coadjutor archbishop of Armagh, making him the designated successor to Cardinal Sean Brady, who has been under pressure Read more
Pope Benedict XVI believes the world’s current crisis of faith in God has caused a crisis for the Christian vision of marriage, even to the extent that lack of faith could affect the validity of a marriage bond. “Faith in God, sustained by divine grace, is therefore a very important element for living in mutual Read more
Colorado’s Catholic bishops have hastened to uphold the rights of the unborn after a Catholic hospital in the state won a wrongful-death lawsuit by arguing that an unborn child is not a person. The case was brought by Jeremy Stodghill, whose 31-year-old wife Lori and her unborn twins all died in 2006 at a hospital Read more
Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St Joseph in Missouri says the National Catholic Reporter — published in his diocese — rejects Church teachings and should not call itself Catholic, but the paper insists it is “proud to call itself a Catholic publication”. In a column for World Communications Day in his diocesan paper, The Catholic Read more
Catholic and pro-life leaders have strongly criticised the Irish government for deciding to introduce legislation to legalise abortion in cases where the mother’s life is deemed to be at risk. The Fine Gael-run government’s action follows the death of Savita Halappanavar, an Indian woman who was admitted to a Galway hospital while miscarrying. She reportedly Read more
The University of Notre Dame in the United States has launched a pastoral plan for gay students — “for the support, holistic development and formation of students who identify as GLBTQ [gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, questioning], as well as their heterosexual friends and allies”. Though the announcement follows years of petitions for an official “gay-straight Read more
Research into the behaviour of Catholic clergy treated by the Encompass Australasia clinic in New South Wales was under way when it was closed in 2008, according to a Fairfax Media report. The clergy sex abuse study, titled ”Sexual Boundary Violations Among Catholic Religious”, was conducted under the approval of the human research ethics committee Read more
More than 80 per cent of the world’s people identify with a religious group — but unbelievers, including atheists and agnostics, are now the third largest grouping. These results come from a new demographic study carried out by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life. Christians, with 2.2 billion or 32 per Read more
The increasing number of Christian-Muslim marriages in the United Kingdom has prompted new guidelines for both priests and imams in these inter-faith situations. Launched by the Christian-Muslim Forum, the guidelines are based on the advice of people of both faiths with many years’ experience in working pastorally with mixed-faith couples. They urge ministers of religion Read more