Pope again cancels appearances due to nerve pain
Vatican CityAP Pope Francis is once again canceling public appearances due to nerve pain. Francis will not participate in three events over the coming days “due to a recurrence of sciatica,” Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a statement on Saturday. The 84-year-old pope will go ahead with the Angelus blessing on Saturday, delivered from […]
US lawsuit: NRA’s rhetoric spurred deadly synagogue shooting
PittsburghAP The son of a couple killed in a Pittsburgh synagogue attack that killed 11 worshippers is suing the National Rifle Association, arguing the group’s inflammatory rhetoric led to the violence. Marc Simon, the son of Sylvan and Bernice Simon, filed the wrongful death lawsuit Thursday in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court against the NRA, […]
UK officials struggle to persuade suspected modern slaves to accept help
London, UKThomson Reuters Foundation Britain’s anti-labour exploitation agency is ramping up investigations into worker abuses and uncovering more suspected victims of modern slavery, but few are choosing to receive support from the government, a report showed on Thursday. The Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority – which has police-style powers and inspects sites from factories to […]
Explainer: Can my employer make me get a COVID-19 vaccine?
Thomson Reuters Foundation After widespread disruption caused by COVID-19 in 2020, businesses around the world hope the roll-out of vaccines this year can accelerate a return to normal. To speed things up, some are even incentivising their staff to get vaccinated. Dollar General Corp, Instacart and Trader Joe’s in the United States are paying frontline employees to […]
Expected Australian honour for tennis great Margaret Court stirs controversy
Melbourne, AustraliaReuters News that Australia is to award tennis great Margaret Court the country’s highest honour next week has stoked controversy because of her views on LGBTQ+ issues including her opposition to same-sex marriage. News that Court, who won 24 singles Grand Slam titles in her career and 40 doubles Grand Slams before retraining as […]
In a first for Spain, Jesuits admit to decades of sex abuse
Madrid, Spain/Rome, ItalyAP The first comprehensive internal inquiry on sex abuse allegations by a religious order in Spain has identified 81 children and 37 adult victims of 96 Jesuits since the late 1920s, a much higher number than the cases that had so far been publicly known. Associations of victims are welcoming the disclosure, but […]
Confronting the past: German teens go to Israel to atone for their families’ Holocaust history
MICHELE CHABIN, writing for Religion News Service, reports from Israel on an initiative that is encouraging Germans to “actively atone” for the Holocaust through volunteerism and fights anti-Semitism through activism…
World leaders urged to learn from pandemic in adapting to climate change
Barcelona, SpainThomson Reuters Foundation The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the world what it is like to go through a dangerous emergency of the kind that could occur if climate change accelerates – and offers lessons on how to respond, the head of the UN climate science panel said Friday. Hoesung Lee, chair of the Intergovernmental […]
US Christian author and speaker Jen Hatmaker apologises for line in inaugural prayer critiqued as erasing Native Americans
RNS Jen Hatmaker was “proud” to offer the final prayer in the liturgy for the inaugural interfaith prayer service Thursday hosted virtually by the Washington National Cathedral. The popular Christian author, speaker and podcaster has also apologised for it – at least for the first line of the prayer, which began, “Almighty God, you have […]