UK Prime Minister David Cameron is backing a range of plans to shield British children from the spread of selling inappropriate clothes to pre-teen children, sexualised imagery in magazines, advertising and music videos. Recommendations in the Bailey Review, “Let Children be Children” include: The Advertising Standards Authority to discourage placement of billboards with sexualised imagery Read more
The coming five years will be among the most critical in the history of recent Irish Catholicism according to Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin. Martin was commenting on the time it was going to take to release the findings of the Visitation of the Catholic Church in Ireland. “I can say that I am impatient Read more
Girls are not allowed to serve at the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, commonly known as the Tridendine Rite. The clarification comes after the recent Vatican encouragement to bishops, for them to “be generous” in providing the Extraordinary Form of the Mass. In answer to question whether female altar servers were permitted in the Extraordinary Read more
No blackboards, 200 students in a mega-classroom, agile learning areas, open-plan rooms where much larger groups, and sometimes even the whole school, learn under one roof are increasingly part of the Catholic school system in the Sydney diocese of Parramatta. With a stated goal of closing the last traditional classroom within 5 years, executive director of Read more
Two different visions of the Catholic Church’s future will be on “display” in metro Detroit this weekend with separate conferences — one liberal, the other conservative. Both are expected to draw thousands. The liberal conference is sponsored by the American Catholic Council and is expected to be one of the biggest gatherings of left-leaning Catholics Read more
The Boston Archdiocese is considering a radical reshuffle that would unite its 291 parishes into 80 to 120 groups according to an internal memo obtained by the Associated Press. The changes aim to save money in the parishes, which are “in a spiral of financial distress,” church officials say in confidential minutes of meetings where Read more
A priest with a gambling addiction and who allegedly stole more than US$300,000 of the parish collection money is expected to plead guilty to theft. John Regan, the former priest at St Walter parish, Roselle Ill, is expected to enter a “blind” plea of guilty that may see him receive a 15 year prison sentence. Read more
Global reform of the food system is needed in order to help people buy adequate food, Oxfam warns. Rising food prices are tightening the squeeze, even on those who can currently afford food, the NGO says. In an acceleration of a trend which has seen food prices double in the last 20 years, the charity Read more
Rugby is experiencing an American boom, and nowhere more so than at the 80-plus Jesuit high schools and colleges coast to coast. It’s probably not too surprising that a Catholic order conceived in the aftermath of battle, one which has always seasoned its intellectual and spiritual fervour with a healthy respect for physical strength, has Read more
The Carbon Tax debate is heating up in Australia with high profile actress Cate Blanchett joining Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s campaign. Blanchett joined the debate in a pro-carbon tax advertisement shown on Australian television and she along with 140 prominent Australians, including former Liberal leaders, Malcolm Frazer and John Hewson are backing the Labor-Green carbon tax proposal. Read more