As leaders of most of the women’s religious congregations in the United States prepared for their response to the Vatican’s call for reform, their outgoing president said they would tap their collective wisdom “thoughtfully and deliberately”. Franciscan Sister Pat Farrell was addressing the 900-strong assembly of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in St Louis, Read more
The Catholic bishops of France are reviving a 17th-century custom by asking the faithful to pray for their country on August 15 as a new government plans to legalise same-sex marriage and possibly euthanasia. The custom began with King Louis XIII, who first ordered a “prayer for France” in all churches on the feast of Read more
Nuns and priests in Manila have led a rally of around 10,000 Catholics in protest against a proposed birth control bill that would provide free contraceptives and introduce reproductive health and sexuality classes in schools. The protesters, many dressed in red, gathered at a Catholic shrine to voice opposition to the bill, which would also Read more
An English judge has ruled that a 10-year-old Jewish girl may choose to be baptised a Christian despite her mother’s opposition. The Romford County Court in Essex was told that the girl’s parents divorced in 2010 and her father subsequently converted to Christianity. After attending an evangelical Christian festival with her father, the girl said Read more
A Catholic priest in Zambia has been deported for a Sunday sermon in which he preached about justice for cotton growers. Father Viateur Banyangandora, a Rwandan, was picked up at his residence at Lundazi by police at about 5pm on July 30, and taken to Lusaka, the Zambian capital, for questioning, said parochial vicar Father Read more
Bestselling Irish author Maeve Binchy, who lost her faith as a young woman, was thanked for her generosity to the Catholic Church at a funeral Mass in the parish where she lived. Father William Stuart told a crowded congregation in the Dalkey district of Dublin that Binchy had not been a religious person in a Read more
Pope Benedict has completed the third volume of his Jesus of Nazareth trilogy and may follow it with a new encyclical for the Year of Faith. Since the Pope has already written encyclicals on hope and charity, there has long been speculation that he would address the third theological virtue with an encyclical on faith. Read more
An Olympic Cross, hospitality centres for athletes and round-the-clock adoration of the Blessed Sacrament are featuring in the Catholic pastoral programme for the London Olympic Games. The cross will stand at the Joshua Camp, an international Catholic Olympic gathering in East London, until August 13. The camp provides hospitality and creates a Catholic presence to Read more
Six former American ambassadors to the Holy See have banded together to encourage Catholics to vote for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who is a Mormon. The six — Frank Shakespeare, Tom Melady, Ray Flynn, Jim Nicholson, Francis Rooney and Mary Ann Glendon — were announced as co-chairs of a nationwide Catholics for Romney campaign. Read more
As international pressure grows for the release of Asia Bibi — a Christian mother of five who faces a death sentence in Pakistan for alleged blasphemy — local Church officials are trying to dampen down protests lest they provoke Islamic extremists. “Instead of making noises, we would prefer to keep quiet and wait for the Read more