“Judas,” the second single from Lady Gaga’s new album, “Born this Way” speaks about her love relationship with Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus with a kiss and afterwards killed himself. Gaga, who leaked some of the lyrics of the single via Twitter, talks about always “falling in love with the wrong man over and Read more
In a repeated call to end the the fighting in Cote d’Ivoire and Libya, Pope Benedict said “Violence and hatred are always a failure.” Appealing for an immediate end to the fighting he said all sides should launch peace efforts “to stop further bloodshed.” Benedict says he is continuing to follow both these dramatic events Read more
Archbishop Timothy Dolan defended comments he made on his blog that the rate of sexual abuse among New York City public school teachers is ten times higher than that among priests. In his blog post of March 18 Dolan described a meeting with a man at Denver airport who would not shake his hand and Read more
The United States government should detain Terry Jones, the Pastor who oversaw Wayne Sapp burning the Qur’an in Florida, says the leader of the Catholic Church in Pakistan. “The US Government talks about religious freedom – but we call upon the US government to prevent such actions by extremists and other fundamentalist Christians.” Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha Read more
Divorced Catholics should look elsewhere for God’s mercy, somewhere other than the Eucharist, the Head of the Vatican’s council for family, Cardinal Ennio Antonelli told a conference for Latin American bishops. The Catholic Church welcomes those who are divorced and remarried, but, “mercy is inseparable from the truth,” he said. “Those who are divorced and Read more
Decorating a Christmas tree or going on an Easter egg hunt could soon be illegal activities in Childcare Centres across Australia. New legislation, to be enacted next year, makes it an offense for teachers to put students having a tantrum into “time out” or giving them any form of inappropriate discipline. It’s the same law, the Education Read more
An estimated 10,000 Ivorians are seeking refuge at a church amid mounting international concern about the humanitarian situation in the West African nation. The internally displaced persons sought shelter at a church in Duekoue as the town became engulfed in fighting between forces backing Alassane Ouattara, the UN-certified and internationally recognized president, and the forces Read more
The inventor of the drive-through confessional has himself confessed to the idea being an April Fool’s joke. The brain-child of Australian priest, Fr Bob McGuire, he said he was wanting to get with the times. “We’d do it (confession) like the fast food joints, because there’d be a menu, the 7 deadly sins. They’d be numbered.” Read more
France’s main religions are protesting plans by President Nicolas Sarkozy, to hold a debate next week on Islam’s role in the country. The leaders of France’s Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox Christians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists published a joint statement Wednesday saying the debate could fuel prejudice and add to the confusion in the times preceding the election. In Read more
The Executive Committee of the Oceania Catholic Bishops’ conferences met in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, 24 to 25 March. There are two bishops from each of the four Conferences on the Executive. The Committee members Expressed their solidarity and that of their Conferences with Bishop Jones and the people of Christchurch. All the bishops have experienced Read more