The US Catholic diocese of Orange will pay $57.5 million to use the iconic glimmering 10,000 paned glass Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove as its new Cathedral. “It will become a true center for our Catholic community in Orange County,” Bishop Tod Brown told reporters after Thursday’s verdict. The decision by US Bankruptcy Court Judge Robert Read more
British PM David Cameron’s plan to legalise gay marriage will weaken marriage as an institution at the heart of British society, Archbishop Vincent Nichols said. Nichols said at a news conference that Cameron wants to “annex the institution of marriage” for homosexuals. Nichols said he respects Cameron’s desire to encourage equality and committed gay relationships. Read more
The French charismatic movement, the Community of the Beatitudes, has admitted that its founder Gerard Croissant was a sexual abuser. “The Community is deeply ashamed of Ephraim’s behavior and expresses its sympathy with all the people who have been abused by him,” a statement on its website says. The Beatitudes Community says Croissant’s crimes were Read more
Philippines youth day organiser, Fr Favie Faldas says the Internet and social networking is having a negative impact on youth and lessening the influence of the Catholic Church. Faldas, head of the NYD Steering Committee said, social networks provide a way for people to openly the challenge the Church, whereas in the past people would not Read more
Africa’s future focused Pope Benedict’s attention on his second trip to the continent. In his final homily the Pope told some 50,000 packed into a stadium at Contonou and another 30,000 watching on giant screens from outside that corruption is not acceptable, AIDS is mainly an ethical problem and to seek reconciliation in the face of Read more
Five million no-show Catholics are the ‘target market’ of an outreach campaign by the Catholic Church in England and Wales. “Crossing the Threshold” is the name given to the the first stage of a national programme to help parishioners and priests reconnect friends and family. Around a million people regularly attend mass on Sundays, but church Read more
The US Catholic bishops say religious freedom is being whittled away by same-sex marriage, abortion and healthcare legislation, and they are vowing to up their efforts to protect it. “For some time now we have viewed with growing alarm the ongoing erosion of religious liberty in our country,” Bishop William Lori, bishop of Connecticut told the Read more
The people in Ireland have been misled about the extent of abuse by priests and priests subject to unjustifiable wrongs, according to the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin. Dr Martin, speaking at Mass to celebrate the lives of the nine priests who had died in the diocese this year, said he had been thinking about Read more
A nun, Sister Marie Thornton, who stole NZ$1.1m from a US college has been spared three years prison by a compassionate judge. The trusted financial officer of Iona College, New Rochelle was sentenced to 2,000 hours community work and a life of shame after losing NZ$1.1m she stole from the college and used to play one-armed Read more
Pope Benedict XVI, the iPad Pope, is to use an iPad 2 to light world’s largest electronic Christmas tree in the Italian town of Gubbio. The City of Gubbio and the Diocese of Gubbio announced that the pope would not have to leave his apartment in the Vatican City to light the tree. The tree-lighting Read more