By passing a bill to ban abortion in nearly all circumstances, the Alabama Legislature has recognised that abortion is “the extinguishing of a unique human life”, said the president and CEO of Americans United for Life. The law is thought likely to fall foul of the Constitution. “From conception to natural death, every single human…
Suspected church arsonist ‘unfit’ for trial A man accused of attempting to enter St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York last month carrying containers of gasoline and a lighter has been deemed unfit to stand trial due to his mental health. Police arrested Marc Lamparello in April after he attempted to enter the cathedral. The 37-year-old…
The Holy Spirit gives Christians the courage and the strength needed to engage in a loving dialogue with God that is like the dialogue of a child with his or her father, Pope Francis has said. “Do not forget this: The protagonist of all Christian prayer is the Holy Spirit. We can never pray without…
Dallas police have executed search warrants at three Diocese of Dallas sites yesterday (May 15), saying the process was an extension of their ongoing investigation of sexual abuse allegations into six current or former priests. This includes a priest accused of sexually abusing three minors. He is believed to have fled the country to his…
New papal norms on preventing clergy sexual abuse are “a blessing that will empower the Church everywhere to bring predators to justice, no matter what rank they hold in the Church”, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, has said. The new juridical instrument “calls for the establishment of…
A group of 62 doctors, scientists, and bioethicists have issued an open letter urging a global moratorium on experiments that alter human genes that can be passed on to subsequent generations, a practice known as ‘germline editing’. “Although we recognise the great scientific advancement represented by gene editing technologies and their potential value for an…
Helping children who lost their parents when a pair of cyclones hit Mozambique is among the most difficult work in the aftermath, an aid worker has said. “It’s not easy to find the links” to these children’s relatives, said Martina Zavagli, country representative for the Association of Volunteers in International Service Foundation, or AVSI. “Many…
Increasing severity in the persecution of Christians in different parts of the world is reaching “genocidal” levels, according to a new report commissioned by the British government. An interim report issued by an Independent Review set up at the request of the UK foreign secretary said that Christians are overwhelmingly the most targeted religious group…
Pope Francis is praying for the victims of the recent attack on a Catholic church in Burkina Faso, the interim head of the Holy See press office has said. “The Holy Father learned with sorrow the news of the attack on the church in Dablo, in #BurkinaFaso. He prays for the victims, for their families…
The commission Pope Francis appointed to study the history and identity of women deacons did not reach a unanimous conclusion about whether deaconesses in the early church were “ordained” or formally “blessed”, the Pope has said. “What is fundamental is that there was no certainty that there was an ordination with the same form and…