The security of Christians in Northern Iraq remains “tenuous” and will require close attention in the future, the US State Department’s religious freedom ambassador has told members of Congress. While the situation is “far better in Northern Iraq right now” for Yazidis and Christians, who in 2016 were recognised by the State Department as genocide…
Francis permits seafarers to grant absolution for sins Pope Francis has given priests who minister to seafarers special permission to grant absolution for sins that usually would require the intervention of a bishop or the Vatican itself. “Many seafarers come or will come to priest chaplains with problems on their conscience that make them suffer…
The Church is ‘forever young’, new bishop says The new bishop of Madison told the congregation at his installation Mass last week that the Catholic Church “is forever young” and this is “our moment” to proclaim the good news of Christ. “In God’s time, 2,000 years is merely the blink of an eye,” Bishop Donald…
A court in Germany has ruled that a homeschooling Christian couple may retain custody of their children as they await an appeal against the country’s compulsory school attendance law. For nearly 15 years, Dirk and Petra Wunderlich have been engaged in a legal battle over their decision to homeschool their four children, in violation of…
A panel of Court of Appeal judges has halted a court-ordered abortion in the UK, overturning a decision made last Friday in a case involving a mentally disabled woman. On Friday, Justice Nathalie Lieven ordered that a 22-week-pregnant mentally disabled woman be forced to have an abortion, despite the objections of the woman and the assurances…
A Satanic Temple member who won the right to open a regional Alaska government meeting declared “Hail Satan” during her first invocation, prompting about a dozen officials and attendees to walk out. Last week’s invocation that started the meeting of the Kenai Peninsula Borough also spurred a protest outside the southern Alaska borough’s administration building…
The Venezuelan bishops have expressed their concern for the risks to which Venezuelan emigrants, especially women, are exposed. More than four million Venezuelans have emigrated since 2015. Under the socialist administration of Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela has been marred by violence and social upheaval, with severe shortages and hyperinflation. “The Justice and Peace Commission and Caritas…
The Archdiocese of Indianapolis has announced that a local Jesuit high school will no longer be recognised as a Catholic school, due to a disagreement about the employment of a teacher who is in a same-sex marriage. “All those who minister in Catholic educational institutions carry out an important ministry in communicating the fullness of…
Australian bishops have written a pastoral letter denouncing Victoria state’s “new, and deeply troubling chapter of health care”, as voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide became legal last Wednesday. The Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2017 took effect on June 19. In a letter earlier this month, the bishops of Melbourne, Ballarat, Sale, and Sandhurst wrote that “we…
The California Catholic Conference commemorated the fourth anniversary of Pope Francis’ encyclical ‘Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home’ by issuing a pastoral statement calling for heightened attention to ecological issues in the state that could affect future generations. The document from the conference, which includes all of California’s bishops, focused on the encyclical’s…