A statement from a New Zealander on the goodness of sexual love in marriage is being considered for inclusion in the family synod’s final document. In a blog post on the New Zealand Catholic bishops’ website, Dr John Kleinsman wrote of how the synod’s working document made little mention of this goodness. He told a Read more
The pro-life coalition Voice of the Family has warned the working document for the synod on the family threatens elements of Church teaching. An analysis by Voice of the Family critiqued the Instrumentum Laboris for omissions and ambiguity in wording. The document “threatens the entire structure of Catholic teaching on marriage, the family and human Read more
On June 26th the Supreme Court ruled (by a slim 5 to 4 majority) that all states must now grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Writing for the majority Justice Anthony Kennedy contended that committed same-sex partnerships should be treated as fully equivalent in dignity and honor to traditional marriage, and that by not doing Read more
A Carlist group in the northern Spanish region of Asturias has caused controversy by seemingly calling for beaches to be segregated by gender. “Catholics, preserve your decency in summer, too: Don’t go to mixed beaches!” reads the poster, uploaded by the Traditionalist Group Pedro Menéndez de Avilés to its Facebook page. The poster was accompanied Read more
An Irish priest has challenged the belief that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a life-long virgin. Writing on his blog, suspended Redemptorist Fr Tony Flannery mentioned a Scripture passage that refers to Jesus’ brothers and sisters. “We are told that Jesus had four brothers, and an indefinite number of sisters,” Flannery wrote. “This does Read more
Some Secondary school principals have been left feeling uneasy after Family Planning presented a session called Taming Terrifying Topics at the Physical Education NZ 2015 conference in Hamilton on Monday. The subtitle for the session was “teaching pleasure within your sexuality education programme.” At the conference teachers were shown pamphlets that said sex talks should Read more
Every priest and parish in Britain and Ireland is to receive a DVD defending Catholic teaching on marriage, the family and sexuality. The DVD comes from the British Confraternity of Catholic Clergy in collaboration with St Anthony Communications, which specialises in catechetical video presentations. It has been launched as the Church prepares for the synod Read more
Germany’s main lay Catholic organisation has called for a raft of new pastoral practices concerning marriage and sexuality. The Zentralkomitee der deutschen Katholiken (Central Committee of the German Catholics) called for the admittance of civilly remarried divorcees to Communion, acceptance of all forms of cohabitation, the blessing of same-sex couples and the reconsideration of the Church’s teaching Read more
A US mega church whose leader’s preaching appears regularly on New Zealand television claims Pokemon was designed to “turn” youths gay. Creflo Dollar’s preaching is on TV2 in New Zealand early every weekday morning. Televangelist Pastor Creflo Dollar says the close relationship between Ash and Brock was a sign of the cartoon’s “gay agenda”. He Read more
The more speaking engagements I do, the more convinced I am of the important role parents play in their teenagers sexual education…in fact, every part of their lives. As a parent of teenagers myself, I feel ‘in the thick’ of it every day; the emotions of their stage of life, the joy and pain, the Read more