The US Catholic bishops maybe about to re-think their objection to Obama-mandate, that employers’ health insurance cover must cover contraception. The bishops are meeting in Washington this week, and while there is no public indication of their dropping their fight, Reuters reports there are small but clear signs from within the Conference that suggest they Read more
Pope Benedict and the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the Church of England, on Saturday afternoon gave thanks together on the 1000th anniversary of the Camaldoli monastic community and celebrated Vespers in the church of St Gregory on the Caelian Hill. Williams is the third successive archbishop of Canterbury to visit San Gregorio Read more
Former Monkee, Davy Jones was remembered in a small private funeral at Holy Cross Catholic Church, Indiantown, close to his home in Florida, and next to Hope Rural School, which Jones has supported. Attending the funeral were his immediate family; his wife and daughters, and besides family, the man who first trained Jones to ride racehorses Read more
Tony Blair, Britain’s former Labour Prime Minister and a Catholic convert, has come out in support of Conservative efforts to provide a way for gay and lesbian couples to marry. Blair, who introduced same-sex civil unions to Britain, is reported as telling friends that he “strongly supports” plans for gay marriage. Blair’s support of gay Read more
Despite its best attempts, the hacker collective “Anonymous” was not able to bring the complete Vatican website down. As reported in Friday’s edition of CathNews, the Vatican’s website was off line on Wednesday 7 March, allegedly under attack from Anonymous. However, despite launching an attack for several hours, Anonymous was unsuccessful in completely shutting the Read more
Pope Benedict received the Annuario Pontificio, the Catholic annual year book, on Saturday. The presentation was made by Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. Key in the findings is that the number of Catholics has increased, especially in Asia and Africa, and globally Catholics now make up 17.5% of the world’s population. As well as Read more
Engaging in a preventive war without clear proof that an attack is imminent cannot fail to raise serious moral and juridical questions Bishop Richard Pates wrote in a March 2 letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Pates, chairman of the US Catholic Bishops Committee on International Justice and Peace of the United States Conference of Read more
Religious liberty is “off the table” at the White House, and Cardinal Timothy Dolan is urging his fellow bishops to “prepare for tough times”. In a letter to all US Bishops, Dolan said at a recent meeting the White House officials told bishops conference staff that revisiting the mandate or broadening the contraception exemption in order to Read more
The Vatican website was off line Wednesday for a number of hours, allegedly attacked by the Italian branch of the hacker collective Anonymous. “Anonymous has now decided to lay siege to your site in response to the doctrines, liturgies and the precepts absurd and anachronistic that your organization is for profit (Roman Apostolic Church) propagates Read more
The director of SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, has admitted the organisation has published false information and is unsure whether the group employs licensed counselors. David Clohessy was answering questions in court, amid accusation the group had printed restricted information in a press release. Asked by lawyers, “Has SNAP to your knowledge Read more