Posts Tagged ‘Divorce’

Vatican conducts survey on gay marriage, contraception, divorce

Tuesday, November 5th, 2013

The Vatican is conducting a worldwide survey on how parishes deal with sensitive issues such as contraception, divorce and gay couples. The Vatican, through the survey, is asking bishops and parish priests around the world about local views on gay marriage, divorce and birth control ahead of a meeting of bishops next year to discuss Read more

Remarried and in communion: Theology relating to humanity?

Friday, November 1st, 2013

The other night I was drinking with an American Catholic nun and her daughter.The mother had been married twice, once to a former priest. She had entered a convent straight out of high school and left to marry her high school sweetheart eight years later. Some time after the second marriage broke down and her Read more

Catholic bishops asked to help in Israeli divorce case

Friday, June 28th, 2013

An Israeli appeals court has asked Catholic bishops to join proceedings to help them decide a divorce case involving a Maronite couple. The court overturned a lower court ruling that awarded compensation to the husband because his wife refused to change her religion so he could divorce her. Maronites, founded in Syria, form the only Read more

Readers say what they want from a new pope

Wednesday, March 6th, 2013

Sex abuse and its handling by Church authorities is the top priority for the new pope, according to a recent readership survey conducted by ucanews.com. The survey – conducted from February 18-28 – attracted 2,300 responses, with the majority (72 percent) from Asia. More than three quarters identified sexual abuse and how Church authorities respond Read more

New Swiss bishop calls for pragmatism

Friday, September 14th, 2012

The incoming head of the Swiss bishops’ conference has suggested that allowing remarried divorcees to receive communion and lay people to deliver homilies is a “pragmatic” course of action. The Swiss bishops elected Bishop Markus Buechel of St Gallen to be the next president of the Swiss bishops’ conference, replacing Bishop Norbert Brunner in January. Read more

Katie Holmes returns to Catholic Church after divorcing Tom Cruise

Friday, July 13th, 2012

Six years after she converted to Scientology to marry actor Tom Cruise, actress Katie Holmes has divorced her high-ranking Scientologist husband and returned to the Catholic Church in which she was raised. Holmes and the twice-divorced Cruise were married in 2006 at a 15th-century castle in Italy, in a Scientology ceremony. They already had a Read more

Woman ‘insulted’ by church role in annulment

Tuesday, June 26th, 2012

Alice Bassett-Smith was married, and now she is not. She and her United States-born husband married in 2000, lived together in both New Zealand and the US, divorced in 2008 and have both moved on. So, she was stunned when telephoned “out of the blue” by a Catholic priest a month ago and told her Read more

Study of children of same gender parents is flawed

Friday, June 22nd, 2012

A recently released study suggesting children of same gender parents fare worse than others is flawed because it does not compare children living with parents in stable same gender relationships with children living with parents in stable heterosexual relationships. “In fact, only a small proportion of its sample spent more than a few years living Read more

Priests defy Rome over Communion for remarried divorcees

Friday, June 8th, 2012

One hundred and forty priests from the archdiocese of Freiburg announced yesterday that they have signed a memorandum in which they admit to publicly allowing remarried divorcees to receive Communion. “In our parishes remarried divorcees go to Communion, receive absolution in the sacrament of reconciliation and receive the last rites with our specific permission,” say Read more

Brits obsessed with sex and divorce says bishop

Friday, June 8th, 2012

An obsession with sex and divorce is running rampant through British society, the Bishop of London said on Saturday, urging Britons to use the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations as a chance to reflect and change their ways. Taking stock of the changes in Britain since Elizabeth came to the throne in 1952, Richard Chartres said Read more