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Children fathered by priests must be have their needs “given the first consideration”, say guidelines issued by the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference in May. No-one knows how many children have priests or religious as parents. Some suggest there could be thousands. The “Principles of Responsibility Regarding Priests who Father Children While in Ministry” was written Read more
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Dear Katrina, After watching our friends’ two grown kids go off to college and stop going to Mass and the disappointment it’s caused their parents, I was wondering if you had some advice for me and my own son, who will be leaving for college in two years. He’s already grown disinterested in coming to Read more
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Children with HIV and AIDS need better treatment like easier to swallow drugs say the World Council of Churches and many of Kenya’s faith leaders. They are challenging pharmaceutical companies to step up and help. The situation for very sick children in Kenya is bad, the church and faith leaders say. They estimate 26,000 children Read more
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With the release of a shocking report from Australia on accusations of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests, the old question is bound to arise: “Is the discipline of celibacy to blame for sexual abuse of minors?” The complicated question is dealt with in historian Philip Jenkins’s excellent study on the problem. Published in Read more
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The Australian child sex abuse Royal Commission has heard seminary life and training of Catholic priests in the past was “dangerous and distorted”. It also heard the priests should have had ongoing formation and supervision. Diocese of Broken Bay vicar general Dr David Ranson also told the Royal Commission the changes in priestly formation over Read more
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Chances are you are going to loathe at least one of your kid’s friends, sometimes for no good reason, but this is one situation where you have to tread very carefully. 1. Never admit it. That’s the fastest way to make them infinitely more attractive to toddlers and teenagers. If you want to change a Read more
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A million Syrian children have signed a petition to the United Nations and the European Union. Three Syrian Church leaders are visiting EU and UN officials in Brussels and Geneva on the children’s behalf this week. Acting as “Ambassadors of the Children,” they will deliver the petition. In it, the children ask for peace in Read more
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Parenting is hard work. It calls on mothers and fathers to really forget themselves and put their kids first. So it’s no wonder that sometimes, we take shortcuts. We buy them a toy rather than spend more time with them; we lose our temper rather than practice patience; we put on the TV at dinnertime Read more
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Tim Wilson is a changed man. In the past four years he has converted to Catholicism, met and married singer/songwriter Rachel, and had two “sparkling” children — Roman, 17 months, and Felix, five months — whose existence lights him up from the inside like a sky lantern. For those readers who might confuse fiction for Read more
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At the time I had my first child I was a solicitor, a job for which I’d studied and trained and got qualifications. You’d think that those negotiating and persuasion skills I’d acquired on the job would have equipped me for parenting. Have you ever tried negotiating with a toddler? It becomes very clear who’s Read more
