A study into the changing face of US Catholic parishes reveals the average number of registered parishioners in American parishes has grown 45% in the last 10 years. As well as getting bigger, the study found that parishes are getting more complex, more diverse and more than half of all parish staff are women. The study Read more
As part of President Obama’s healthcare overhaul, come August 2012, all American private insurers must provide women with coverage for FDA-approved contraception – including sterilisation and “emergency” contraceptives that have an abortifacient effect. The plan also covers breast pumps for nursing mothers, an annual “well woman” physical, counseling on how to avoid sexually transmitted diseases Read more
A Sydney man could be the first Australian sperm donor to have his name forcibly removed from his child’s birth certificate. The man, who has not missed one day of contact with his 9 year old daughter, pleaded before a NSW judge not to agree the request by the birth mother’s lesbian ex-partner. “She knows Read more
The rest of the world has watched transfixed and uncomprehending over the last few days as legislators in the United State struggled to come to some agreement to prevent the United States government defaulting on its debts. The spectacle led one commentator, Robert Dallek to say, “Something is at work here that makes you wonder if rational discourse Read more
Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has denied a report in the Phoenix magazine that he has held regular private meetings with Irish Prime Minister, Enda Kenny. The Phoenix’s page three article implied that Martin might have influenced Kenny’s recent attack on the Vatican. In a statement, the Archbishop denied the implications, saying the article had Read more
Archbishop John C Favalora, until last year the Archbishop of the Miami, Florida, stands accused of running his diocese along the lines of a corrupt “homosexual super-culture”. The Gawker report, written by former Miami New Times contributor and theatre critic Brandon K. Thorp, gathers information from an intensive investigation by a group of South Florida Catholics calling Read more
The Vatican, Saturday, unveiled an iPhone App to aid pilgrims’ participation in World Youth Day 2011. The new App, iGPII, named after the founder of WYD, former Pope John Paul II, works on iPod, iPhone and iPad, and will provide regularly updated information about World Youth day activities, directions to recommended restaurants, places to stay and Read more
The Papal Nuncio to Ireland, Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza is being transferred to the Czech Republic. Leanza, recently summoned back to the Vatican for ‘consultations’ resulting from the “Cloyne Report”, is at the centre of the fallout between the Catholic Church and the Irish Prime Minister. Appointed to Dublin in February 2008, Lenza was due to Read more
Fifty-six percent of Americans want a religious President in office according to a poll released by the Public Religion Research Institute and Religion News Service. The poll also revealed that although most Americans want a president with strong religious beliefs, only 40% were able to identify the religious beliefs of the current leading candidates. 20% Read more
The “Great Recession” has left black and minority households significantly worse off than white households and the wealth gap is at its widest in 25 years, since the US government began publishing statistics by ethnicity. According to the study conducted by Pew Research Centre the median wealth of white households was 20 times that of black Read more