Pope Francis urges marriage annulment reform, with emphasis on children’s fate
Vatican CityRNS Speaking to members of the Vatican’s highest appellate tribunal, Pope Francis called for greater attention to the consequences of marriage annulments, especially their effects on a separated couple’s children. “Sentences of the ecclesiastical judge cannot ignore the memory, made of lights and shadows, which marked a life, not only of the two spouses […]
WHO says vaccine hoarding “keeps pandemic burning”
Geneva, SwitzerlandReuters Rich countries squabbling over COVID-19 vaccine supplies must consider the situation in poorer parts of the world, the World Health Organization said on Friday, warning that hoarding of shots “keeps the pandemic burning”. WHO officials were speaking after the European Commission said it had agreed a plan to control exports of vaccines from […]
Women work the COVID frontline but lack a voice, poll shows
Bogota, ColombiaThomson Reuters Foundation Seven in 10 workers on the frontline of the pandemic are female yet women are left out of many COVID-19 response and recovery plans, according to a global survey published on Thursday. The survey, by New York-based women’s rights advocacy group Women Deliver and Paris-based research organization Focus 2030, gathered the […]
Snapshot: Forests in The Gambia
See DAN ROIZER’s image…
Protecting refugees from COVID-19 a “global responsibility”, says Jordan’s king
Thomson Reuters Foundation The world has a “global responsibility” to safeguard the health of refugees from COVID-19, Jordan’s King Abdullah told a virtual meeting of leaders on Thursday after his country became one of the first to vaccinate refugees. Ensuring refugees and migrants get vaccinated is key to ending the pandemic through herd immunity, which […]
What next? US Christian leaders offer advice for confronting Christian nationalism
RNS For those who have been tracking Christian nationalism in the United States, the siege of the US Capitol was shocking, but it wasn’t surprising, according to Andrew Whitehead, co-author of the book Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States. It’s clearer than ever that Christian nationalism is a threat to […]
Nine retired nuns in US state of Michigan die of COVID-19 in January
Detroit, USAP Nine Roman Catholic nuns in southern Michigan have died in January due to a COVID-19 outbreak at their retirement home, which had gone for months without a single case, officials said Thursday. The women lived at the campus of the Adrian Dominican Sisters in Adrian, 120 kilometres south-west of Detroit. They had been […]
UN goal to end child labour by 2025 deemed impractical, out of touch
Thomson Reuters Foundation A goal to stamp out child labour by 2025 is out of touch with global realities and could push many working children into worse poverty and marginalisation, a group of academics said this week as they called for more realistic targets. The United Nations launched the International Year for the Elimination of […]
Israeli politics: Ultra-Orthodox unrest threatens Netanyahu re-election hopes
JOSEF FEDERMAN, of Associated Press, reports on how skyrocketing coronavirus infections and resistance to safety measures among ultra-Orthodox communities may impact the upconing election…
When it comes to building trust, belonging beats belief, study finds
RNS The Bible and other sacred texts are filled with warnings about the importance of putting your trust in the right place. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart,” the Book of Proverbs advises. “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal man who cannot save,” warns another Proverbs verse. But does faith […]