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…
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,”…
Faith in Jesus satisfies deeper hungers Doing God’s will means believing in Jesus and allowing love for him to translate into love for one’s neighbours, Pope Francis has said. The Gospel story of the multiplication of loaves demonstrates the concern Jesus showed for people’s daily physical needs, the Pope said, but the passages that follow show how “it is even…
With more and more people planning their vacations online and sharing their experiences digitally, the tourism industry and tourists themselves should pay more attention to using online forums to encourage respect for the locales visited and for the communities that live there, the Vatican said. In a message for the September 27 celebration of World…