Catholic Church must show it really has changed, says abuse survivors support group
The Catholic Church in Australia must show it “really has changed” and always places the safety of children above the institution and its clergy, according to child abuse survivors support organisation, the Blue Knot Foundation. In a statement released after the Catholic Church made its formal response to the recommendations of the Royal Commission into […]
Hotter climate means hungrier insects will munch millions more tons of crops
Thomson Reuters Foundation A warming planet will see larger swarms of hungrier insects chomp through millions more tons of rice, maize and wheat crops globally by 2050, even if countries meet ambitious climate goals to curb carbon emissions, scientists said on Thursday. For every one degree Celsius rise in average temperatures, insects will consume an […]
Governments must act urgently to address issue of “enforced disappearances”, say UN experts
Governments must act urgently to find people who have been the subject of “enforced disappearances” and ensure the crime is properly investigated, according to a group of UN human rights experts. Marking the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances on 30th August, the UN experts released a statement saying relatives of those who […]
Updated: Catholic Church in Australia says it won’t lift the seal of confession despite Royal Commission recommendation
Latest update: 4pmAustralia’s Catholic Church has accepted “98 per cent” of recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse but cannot accept a recommendation that the seal of confession be broken to report abuse suspicions. In a report detailing its response to the Royal Commission’s recommendations, the church said it did not […]
EDUCATION: US CATHOLIC SCHOOLS STRUGGLE TO ACCOMMODATE DISABILITIES
HEATHER ADAMS, of Religion News Service, reports from the US state of Missouri on how the Catholic schools are working to help students with disabilities…
Egypt appoints its first ever female Coptic Christian governor
World Watch Monitor For the first time in Egypt’s history a Coptic Christian woman has been appointed as provincial governor. The new governor of northern Damietta, Dr Manal Awad Mikhael, is also the second female governor ever to be appointed in Egypt, reports the BBC. Mikhael, 51, was sworn in before President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on […]
ESSAY: WHEN CHRISTIANS SELL OUT CHRISTIANS FOR POLITICAL POWER
In an article first published on Religion News Service, SHANE CLAIBORNE and DON GOLDEN express their astonishment that evangelical leaders did not seem to have raised the plight of persecuted religious minorities at a special dinner with US President Donald Trump this week…
Indonesian president invokes ‘Pancasila’ to counter rising Islamism
RNS Indonesia’s President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, a moderate Muslim who enjoys widespread support from the country’s minority religious communities, is resurrecting the country’s founding secular ideology, known as “Pancasila,” as he aims to counter the growing forces of Islamism in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. Pancasila, a term from old Javanese that roughly translates […]
OPEN BOOK: PROVERBS FOR A NEW COVENANT – SAY IT!
Context counts, says BRUCE C WEARNE in his examination of a verse in the Epistle of James which addresses the issue of swearing oaths…