Former Archbishop Philip Wilson will serve a maximum 12-month sentence in home detention for concealing child sexual abuse, an Australian court has ruled. This decision means Wilson (67) will avoid jail. He resigned as archbishop of Adelaide after his conviction and has become the world’s most senior cleric to be convicted of the crime. His…
The Argentine senate has voted against a bill that would have decriminalised abortion during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. Senators voted 38-31 against the measure last week following a 15-hour debate. The measure had been approved in June by the lower house of Congress. The Argentine bishops’ conference hailed the vote, saying the debate…
Church agency Caritas has launched a project that aims to end hunger across South Asia by 2030. Caritas India introduced the programme in collaboration with its international partners to help farmers adapt methods to cope with erratic climate conditions. “Climate change is a global challenge and affects agricultural production and human well-being. It hits hardest…
Bishops in Phillipines warn media against ‘fake news’ Filipinos working in the Church’s social communication ministry need a lot of prayer and a “sense of mission” to be able “to combat fake news” and work for peace, a gathering in Davao City was told this week. The head of the Philippine bishops’ Commission on Social…
Prayers are being offered after almost 100 people have been confirmed dead after a magnitude-6.9 earthquake struck Indonesia’s Lombok Island on August 5, a week after another powerful quake killed more than a dozen people. The country’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency said more than 200 people were injured in the latest quake, which also jolted…
China’s nine major religious organisations want all religious sites across the country to raise the national flag on special days to reflect patriotism and sinicisation. But some Catholics claim the initiative aims to force religious people to be patriotic. “Is it necessary to train believers to hold the ritual of raising the national flag and to…
Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska, has apologised for failing to be more transparent about a pastor removed from ministry and sent to treatment last year because the priest had developed “an emotionally inappropriate, non-sexual relationship with a 19-year-old male which involved alcohol”. He sent Fr Charles Townsend, pastor of St Peter Parish in Lincoln,…
Building on the development of Church teaching against capital punishment, Pope Francis has ordered a revision of the Catechism of the Church to assert “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person” and to commit the Church to working toward its abolition worldwide. The catechism’s…
A Catholic bishop in the Philippines has expressed support for a government plan to rescue three Filipino migrant workers abducted in Libya last month. Bishop Rufino Santos, head of the Episcopal Commission on Migrants and Itinerant People, said he supports President Rodrigo Duterte’s proposal to send a frigate to help rescue the Filipinos. “Yes we support,”…