A state in Brazil is under fire for requiring prospective female teachers to have gynaecological exams or prove their virginity in order to work. Sao Paulo state’s education department requires the women to have a pap smear to show they are free of cancers or produce a doctor’s statement that they have not been sexually Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Brazil’
Faith and life in Brazil
Tuesday, June 17th, 2014
It’s official: the deep Amazonas is more remote than Siberia. In all of the visits I have made to provinces of the Congregation of Jesus (CJ) all over the world, never have I been without a signal for my BlackBerry… until I visited one of our sisters living and working in a community along the Read more
Pope Francis sends message to World Cup participants
Tuesday, June 17th, 2014Pope Francis has delivered a message to organisers, players and fans of the soccer World Cup, promoting the sport’s values. The Pontiff, who is a soccer fan himself, delivered the video message in Portuguese before the tournament started last week. He promoted the sport’s values of bringing people together, teamwork and opposing racism. The Pope Read more
Brazil’s bishops give red card to World Cup
Tuesday, June 10th, 2014Brazil’s Catholic bishops have given a red card to the organisers of the World Cup Soccer tournament in their nation. The bishops are critical that billions of dollars were spent on stadiums, but Brazil’s public services are still poor. In a red card-shaped brochure distributed in churches, the Brazilian bishops’ conference urged their government to Read more
World Cup and child abuse
Friday, June 6th, 2014
As Brazil counts down to the opening of the World Cup on June 12, churches in cities hosting the international soccer tournament are not content to sit on the sidelines and cheer. They’ve launched a nationwide campaign to raise awareness of the hundreds of vulnerable children at risk of sexual exploitation during the monthlong competition. Read more
Pope says married men could be ordained as priests if bishops agree
Tuesday, April 15th, 2014
Pope Francis has discussed the possibility of ordaining proven married men as priests, a South American bishop says. Bishop Erwin Krautler, whose diocese of Xingu is in the Brazilian rainforest, spoke with Pope Francis on April 4 in a rare private interview. The desperate shortage of priests in the bishop’s huge diocese was one of Read more
Brazil’s bishops admit some prelates backed military dictatorship
Tuesday, April 8th, 2014Brazil’s Catholic bishops’ conference has acknowledged that some of its members supported the military dictatorship that ruled the country from 1964 to 1985. Some bishops backed the junta in order to combat communism. Continue reading
World Cup injustice
Tuesday, April 1st, 2014
Where once an event like the Olympics or the World Cup may have been seen as a triumph of corporate and athletic enterprise, today’s world counts the cost of games much more carefully. Previous events have left countries with decaying venues and huge bills that take years to pay off. Local communities are increasingly unhappy Read more
Is World Youth Day worth it?
Friday, August 2nd, 2013
My Facebook newsfeed in recent days has been filled with exciting stories and photos about World Youth Day (WYD)—which ended today with a Mass in Rio. Yet again, we have had some amazing quotes from Pope Francis on his visit to Brazil reminding us about the church’s social and ethical obligations towards the poor. However, Read more
Brazil: Singing priests make faithful cry
Friday, July 26th, 2013It looks like an airport hangar and it sounds like a rock concert. Thousands have packed into a megachurch on the periphery of Sao Paulo for one of Father Marcelo Rossi’s Thursday night masses. Singing priest, Father Marcelo, 46, was a personal trainer before he joined the clergy. Now he is at the forefront of Read more