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
It has been shocking, but not surprising, to arrive in Australia in time to watch religious liberty emerge as a progressive point of attack in the nation’s federal election. Shocking, because religious liberty is a fundamental principle of liberal democracy. Not surprising, alas, because progressives throughout Western liberal democracies have turned “religious liberty” into a Read more
The Gospel commandment to love has led a Catholic school to change its policy on same-sex marriage announcements. Where the prestigious school’s alumnae magazine had never allowed same sex union announcements, the policy has been re-examined and changed recently. Visitation Sister Mary Berchmans, the school’s president emerita, wrote a letter announcing the change. The letter Read more
Brunei plans to implement Islamic criminal laws such as stoning to death for LGBTQ sex, and amputation for theft. Brunei, which is a tiny nation on the island of Borneo, has adopted a more conservative form of Islam in recent years. In 2013 it announced its intention to introduce sharia law, the Islamic legal system Read more
The question of whether to accept LGBTQ Christians into the fold is causing a schism in the United Methodist Church. America’s third-largest religious denomination is likely break apart over its members’ inability to reconcile differing opinions on whether to affirm LGBTQ Christians. Delegates to the church’s General Conference ended a three-day meeting on Tuesday by Read more
Catholic Social Services (CSS) is no longer included in City of Philadelphia’s’ foster care programme. The city says it has stopped using CSS because it does not place children with same-sex couples. Last week one of the Philadelphia Councillors asked for the city’s Public Health and Human Services to investigate Philadelphia’s partnership with organisations that Read more