Gonzaga University, a Jesuit-run university in Washington state, has refused to recognise the Knights of Columbus as a student organisation because its membership is solely Catholic and solely male. “These criteria are inconsistent with the policy and practice of student organisation recognition at Gonzaga University, as well as the university’s commitment to non-discrimination based on Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Catholic’
This generation can turn the marriage problem around
Friday, April 5th, 2013
Marriage has been under assault for at least 40 years, but according to Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, the younger generation can turn the tide — by getting married and staying married. Archbishop Cordileone of San Francisco is the chairman of the US bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage. As the Supreme Court on Read more
No stranglehold on God
Friday, April 5th, 2013
I soooooooo don’t get it. John Main says, “Language may not be able to lead us into the ultimate communion but it is the atmosphere in which we first draw breath of consciousness.” I have spent more than fifty years acquiring language – a spiritual language, that is, not my native tongue – and suddenly Read more
High-profile convert from Islam now renounces Church
Friday, April 5th, 2013A high-profile convert from Islam — baptised by Pope Benedict XVI at Easter 2008 — has renounced the Catholic Church. Egyptian-born Magdi Cristiano Allam, who was instructed in the Catholic faith by Archbishop Rino Fisichella, head of the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelisation, says he still believes in Jesus. But, he says, “The thing Read more
What makes Pope Francis ‘tick’ spiritually?
Tuesday, March 26th, 2013
Much has been made of the impressions Pope Francis has created by his ordinary, every day activities: catching buses, using a telephone to make his own calls, not dressing in all the fine drapery usually worn by popes, treating people respectfully as he did the journalists, celebrating the Holy Thursday Mass in a Roman prison. Read more
Seminary enrolments rise in Australia and US
Tuesday, March 19th, 2013
Seminary enrolments in Australia and the United States are rising, in spite of the sex abuse and other scandals that have plagued the Catholic Church in recent years. In Australia, the seminary intake has risen from about 235 a year in 2007 to 350 in 2012. The rector of Holy Spirit Seminary in Queensland, Monsignor Read more
Catholics leave Nigeria’s ecumenical association over politics
Friday, March 15th, 2013
Interchurch relations in Nigeria have been dealt a blow by the Catholic Church’s decision to indefinitely suspend its involvement in the nation’s 40-year-old ecumenical association. Catholic and Protestant churches formed the Christian Association of Nigeria to promote Christian unity and to speak with one voice on national issues. Catholic leaders have now decided to pull Read more
Cardinal: Blaming Catholics for sex abuse avoids the issue
Friday, March 15th, 2013Putting the blame for child sex abuse on the Catholic Church is a way of avoiding the issue, French Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois has said. “We shouldn’t be duped. It’s easy because that prevents asking the question within society itself,” said Cardinal Vingt-Trois, the archbishlp of Paris. “Paedophilia is not solely a Church problem. Eighty per Read more
Orthodox and Catholic patriarchs to tackle Middle East issues
Friday, March 8th, 2013The leader of the Maronite Catholic Church has announced plans for a meeting of all Orthodox and Catholic patriarchs of the Middle East. Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai, one of the four leaders of Eastern Catholic Churches who will be taking part in the conclave to elect the new pope, said the aim would be “to Read more
A send-off worthy of Hotere
Tuesday, March 5th, 2013
Yesterday I had the honour to say a few words of farewell to Ralph Hotere as he spent his last few hours in Otago before heading back to his birth home of Mitimiti. Many have already commented on the man, his life and his works and I have read reflections and tributes online that tell Read more