A new Vatican document has affirmed that the Catholic Church does not support any institutional mission to convert Jews. Marking 50 years of Catholic-Jewish dialogue since Vatican II, the Pontifical Council for Religious Relations with Jews has published “The Gifts and Calling of God are Irrevocable”. The document states that Catholics are called to witness Read more
A US archbishop has put the collapse of evangelical life in some European churches down to certain pastoral practices on the sacraments. In an article to be published in the journal First Things next month, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia criticised pastoral approaches that ignore the call to conversion. He wrote about divorced and civilly Read more
A UK man has been seriously assaulted by a gang as a result of his converting from Islam to Christianity. Father-of-six Nissar Hussain from Bradford was left needing surgery after the group broke his kneecap and hand on Wednesday. A pickaxe handle was used by one of the assailants. Mr Hussain, 49, is recovering in Read more
Environmental campaigner and former US vice-president Al Gore has said he could become Catholic because of Pope Francis. At an event at the University of California, Berkeley, Mr Gore said he thinks Francis is “quite an inspiring figure, really”. “I’ve been startled with the clarity of the moral force that he embodies,” Mr Gore said. Read more
News of pop singer Justin Bieber and his girlfriend, Selena Gomez, attending Bible study hasn’t garnered as much attention from the Evangelical community as it should. Not because we care about celebrity status or bad-boy behavior, but because we are deeply concerned about souls and spheres of influence. You might roll your eyes at this Read more
I never knew my maternal grandmother’s father, but my mother told me three stories that shaped my view of him. One involved his being mugged by a hitchhiker to whom he had offered a ride. I think my mom related this tale as a warning against good-natured but borderline foolish benevolence. The second dealt with Read more
Ulf Ekman, the founder of the Word of Life mega-church in Sweden, is to become Roman Catholic. Ekman called his conversion a “personal journey” and said it was not his agenda to unite Word of Life with the Catholic Church. Continue reading
25. I am aware that nowadays documents do not arouse the same interest as in the past and that they are quickly forgotten. Nevertheless, I want to emphasize that what I am trying to express here has a programmatic significance and important consequences. I hope that all communities will devote the necessary effort to advancing Read more
Statements by the Dalai Lama against conversions and the work of missionaries are causing confusion and opposition among many Christians in Asia. Attempting to condemn bad proselytism, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism spoke against conversions and changing from one religion to another. His position was seen as support for the policies of the radical Read more
The Rev. Mark Lewis awoke early on the last morning of his life as an Anglican priest and dressed in a suit and tie instead of his usual priestly regalia. That’s different, he thought, for the first of many times on a day when so much was different for St. Luke’s, the small Episcopal church Read more