With a few months to the first session of the long-awaited Australian Plenary Council (PC2020), we are finally headed down the home stretch. The initial phase of listening drew nearly 220,000 people across Australia and 17,500 individual and group submissions. These submissions were distilled into the six national theme papers and then further distilled again Read more
A new Vatican statement that has provoked widespread criticism for sharply rejecting the blessing of same-sex unions is the latest example of why it’s hard for many people to take the Catholic Church’s own professed values of equality and dignity seriously. The decree, which notes God “cannot bless sin,” reiterates traditional Catholic teaching on sexuality. Read more
Pope Francis, who made headlines in the first months of his papacy by responding, “Who am I to judge?” when asked about gay priests, has now signed off on a Vatican decree that priests cannot bless same-sex unions since God “cannot bless sin.” The decree, issued by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Read more
Since the Catholic Church forbids celebrating marriage between people of the same sex as a sacrament, some Catholics, and even some bishops, have discussed having a blessing for such couples as an alternative. On Monday (March 15), the Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith, the chief doctrinal office in the Vatican, responded to queries about Read more
Every year hundreds of thousands of children send letters to Santa through the United States Postal Service’s (USPS) Operation Santa, a program that seeks to put those letters in the hands of organizations and individuals who can respond and send a thoughtful gift on Santa’s behalf. And each year, the USPS shares some of the Read more
One day after the US presidential election, the US Supreme Court will hear arguments in a blockbuster religious freedom case. Fulton v. City of Philadelphia is one of the first cases of new Supreme Court appointee Amy Coney Barrett and one of the biggest cases of the Court’s term. The case could hand religious conservatives Read more
What a difference 30 years make in gay ministry! In 1990, then-Cardinal John O’Connor forced any of New York parishes hosting Dignity support groups for Catholic gays and lesbians to evict them from church property. Late last month, with the approval of New York’s current cardinal, Timothy Dolan, Fordham University released the first in a Read more
In mid-February, NCR ran two stories that seemed tangentially related, but are actually profoundly connected. The first piece told the story of Alana Chen, a 24 year-old woman who died by suicide in early December 2019 in the Colorado wilderness. Just four months earlier, Alana, a deeply devout Catholic, had told The Denver Post about Read more
An LGBTQ-friendly Italian archbishop has been promoted to cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church, and right-wing Catholics are losing it. Pope Francis announced Sunday that Archbishop Matteo Zuppi of Bologna and 12 other clerics were being elevated to cardinal, a rank that gives them great influence in the church and, for those under age 80, Read more
A bishop’s anti-LGBTQ tweet decrying Pride Month has drawn a large amount of negative backlash. On Saturday, Rhode Island Bishop Thomas J. Tobin’s tweet urged Catholics not to support or attend LGBTQ events planned for this month. “A reminder that Catholics should not support or attend LGBTQ ‘Pride Month’ events held in June,” he tweeted. Read more