ESSAY: IT’S TIME TO RECLAIM THE PRO-WORKER HISTORY OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING
In an article first published on Religion News Service, JOHN GEHRING, author and Catholic program director at Faith in Public Life Action, calls for greater action on labour rights in the US…
Africa-wide Roman Catholic body marks 50 years of progress
Nairobi, KenyaRNS Roman Catholic leaders in Africa are celebrating the church’s progress and steady growth across the continent as they meet in Kampala, Uganda, this week to mark the 50th anniversary of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar. Established during Pope Paul VI’s 1969 first-ever papal visit to Africa to give its churches […]
ESSAY: OPPONENTS OF THE PAN-AMAZON SYNOD DISCARD CATHOLIC SOCIAL DOCTRINE
In an article first published on Religion News Service, US Catholic commentator CHARLES C CAMOSY is disturbed criticism of the working document for the synod of bishops of the Pan-Amazon region scheduled to be held in Rome later this year seems to be targeted at Catholic social doctrine…
US Catholic bishops stop short of mandating lay involvement in abuse investigations
Baltimore, USRNS The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has passed a slate of long-awaited measures designed to combat sex abuse and hold church leadership accountable for mishandling cases, including creating a national hotline operated by an outside group for reporting incidents of abuse or their cover-up. “I’m confident that the idea of doing [investigations] in-house […]
VENEZUELAN REFUGEES: AS CRISIS BUILDS, CHURCH STRUGGLES TO CARRY OUT POPE’S CALL
EDUARDO CAMPOS LIMA, of Religion News Service, reports on how the ongoing crisis in Venezuela is affecting neighbouring nations and overwhelming Catholic Church efforts to help…
Pope demands ‘concrete’ response to abuse crisis at Vatican summit
Vatican CityRNS Pope Francis on Thursday opened a highly anticipated four-day meeting on his church’s ongoing sex abuse crisis by calling on the assembled bishops and other Catholic leaders to “hear the cry of the little ones who plead for justice” and be “concrete.” “The holy People of God look to us, and expect from us […]
Kenya’s Catholic bishops provoke debate over public health and contraception
Nairobi, KenyaRNS There’s nothing strange about a Roman Catholic bishop in this east African nation calling for an end to the use of contraceptives. But when a bishop here cited Kenya’s acute shortage of priests late last year as a reason to obey the Vatican’s longstanding ban on artificial forms of family planning, he ignited […]
Vatican instructs US bishops to halt voting on sex abuse measures
RNS Observers are calling this week’s US Conference of Catholic Bishops assembly a high-stakes opportunity for the bishops to address their role in the ongoing child sex abuse crisis that has rocked the church this year. But USCCB president Cardinal Daniel DiNardo opened the event on Monday by declaring that the Vatican had issued a […]
CATHOLIC CHURCH: VATICAN SYNOD CALLS FOR WOMAN LEADERS “AT ALL LEVELS”; AVOIDS USING LGBT OR GAY
DAVID GIBSON, of Religion News Service, looks at some of the outcomes from the month-long Catholic Church’s Synod on Young People…
Facing scandal and division, US Catholic bishops to hold unprecedented retreat
Vatican CityRNS The Catholic bishops of the US announced Tuesday that at the behest of Pope Francis they will meet for a weeklong retreat in Chicago in January. The unprecedented move reflects the depth of the crisis they are facing with the sexual abuse scandal and the long-standing divisions within their ranks over the broader […]