When Antje Mahler came out as queer in her teens, her family struggled to come to terms with her sexuality. She struggled to come to terms with her spirituality. “Your religion is the first thing they take away from you when you come out of the closet,” said Mahler, who was raised Catholic in Bavaria, Read more
Pope Francis will attend the UN Convention on Climate Change in Glasgow in November. Pope Francis and John Kerry, U.S. President Joe Biden’s special envoy for climate, met privately in a closed-door meeting, last week at the Vatican. In an interview after the meeting, Kerry said he believes Francis will participate in the UN Framework Read more
Pay cuts at the Vatican will see cardinals working at the Holy See taking a 10 per cent pay cut. Most other Vatican-based clerics’ salaries are also being reduced. Department heads and secretaries will have their salaries reduced by eight percent and clergy and religious by three percent. In addition, almost all employees will have 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
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
Why are some US bishops of the Catholic Church telling Catholics to avoid the newly approved Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine? Why did some U.S. Catholic leaders rush to issue warnings about this vaccine even though the Vatican has already said that it can be morally acceptable to receive it? Most importantly, why did these Read more
Catholics must work towards Christian unity, a new guidebook from the Vatican says. It can no longer be seen as “optional” by bishops. They won’t be left to work out how on their own though. The new guidebook, released by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, offers practical ways for bishops to promote unity Read more
Pope Francis is confident Catholics and Orthodox Christians will attain full communion. In a message to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I on Monday, Francis praised Bartholomew’s efforts to promote Christian unity. “We can thank God that relations between the Catholic Church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate have grown much over the past century, even Read more
President-elect Joe Biden is already being received as a promising ally for Francis’ pontificate. Vatican-U.S. relations have grown increasingly strained in recent years, mainly as a result of the opposing views of Pope Francis and the Trump administration on a wide range of issues, from immigration to the environment. Francis, who has sought to build Read more
“Act like Wonder Woman.” At the bottom of a wooden amphitheatre, the man with salt and pepper hair puts his hands on his hips. With a Roman collar around his neck, he continues to give instructions from behind his black face mask: “Plant your feet firmly on the ground, rotate your body, and shake your Read more