Cardinal-designate Wilton Gregory, archbishop of Washington, says he wants to collaborate where possible with the Biden administration. At the same time, he says he’ll also respectfully point out situations where President-elect Joe Biden’s policies diverge from Catholic teaching. “I have always seen myself as someone who is charged with being in dialogue and in conversation, Read more
For 14 nights they have marched, enraged by a near-total ban on abortion that has stirred a generation to stage the largest mass demonstrations that Poland has seen since Solidarność toppled the communist regime in the 1980s. Until soaring coronavirus numbers and a looming national lockdown made it almost impossible, up to a million people Read more
Culture warrior Catholics are falling prey to fundamentalism and bigotry says a Czechoslovakian academic. Warning the positive content of faith has become emptied, Father Tomáš Halík quotes the former Archbishop of Milan, Carlo Maria Martini; “I am not so much afraid of people who do not have faith; what disturbs me are people who do Read more
Let’s think about this. Being anti-abortion and being pro-life are in effect, not the same thing. The first is negative and confrontational, while the second is positive and pro-active. Which is likely to work? I’m not dismissing the way we feel about the first. Abortion is always a tragedy. There may be some women for Read more
In a written statement covering a range of ethical concerns, the French bishops permanent council urges Catholics to express their opposition to changes to France’s bioethics laws. The proposed reforms have just passed the National Assembly on first reading and should be passed into law by early next year. They will allow assisted procreation to Read more
Concern is mounting that people voting in the euthanasia referendum may not realise what they are voting for. In an interview on Magic Talk on Monday National Party Leader, Judith Collins, seemed to blur the line between managing pain and a deliberate choice for a person to end their life. Asked how she reconciled her Read more
Ireland’s former president Mary McAleese says blind obedience isn’t enough for people to stay in the Catholic Church. They are tired of “little old men” who continue to “beat the drum of obedience,” she says. “I am a person of faith but I am also a person with a thinking brain.” The hierarchy of the Read more
After-birth abortion or infanticide for babies with a disability is supported by more than 9 in 10 Belgian physicians surveyed, a shocking new research paper into abortion attitudes has revealed. A poll of healthcare professionals in Flanders, Belgium found 93.6% of physicians surveyed “agree that in the event of a serious (non-lethal) neonatal condition, administering Read more
A Catholic mother of seven is the front-running candidate to replace US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Friday evening aged 87. Judge Amy Coney Barrett is reportedly the most likely presidential nominee for the role. Appointed a federal judge in 2017, Barrett was a professor at Notre Dame law school until her Read more
For the duration of the Democratic primary season, the abortion issue was off the table — largely because all the significant candidates were solidly in support of abortion rights. The one exception might have been Joe Biden, who has swum outside the party’s pro-choice mainstream, but last year he abandoned his longstanding support of the Read more