US Catholics more polarised than ever about still-popular Pope Francis, survey says
United States RNS US Catholics are more polarised than ever in how they view Pope Francis, even though majorities on both ends of the political spectrum have a positive view of the Pope, according to a new survey. Pew Research Center, in a report released on Friday, found that three-quarters of US Catholics (75 per […]
Catholic parishes disproportionately closed in poor, Black and Latino neighbourhoods in the US
United States RNS While the number of US Catholics is increasing, the total number of Catholic parishes nationwide declined nine per cent between 1970 and 2020, according to a new report by Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. In 10 of the 11 dioceses studied, those closures are disproportionately happening in Black […]
Essay: Anti-immigrant pastors may be drawing attention – but faith leaders, including some evangelicals, are central to the movement to protect migrant rights
In an article first published on The Conversation, BRAD CHRISTERSON, ALEXIA SALVATIERRA and ROBERT CHAO ROMERO – co-authors of ‘God’s Resistance: Mobilizing Faith to Defend Immigrants’, look at the role faith leaders are playing in protecting migrant rights in the US…
Essay: The secret synod
US Catholic commentator PHYLLIS ZAGANO, in an article first published on Religion News Service, says too many US Catholics don’t know about the global discussion of the church’s future…
Books: On apples and toothpaste and ordaining women in the church
JO KADLECEK reads US Catholic columnist Phyllis Zagano’s book, ‘Just Catholic: The Future Is Now’…
Essay: Catholic bishops punt again on ‘Faithful Citizenship’, reflecting divisions on politics
US Catholic commentator THOMAS REESE, in an article first published on Religion News Service, says nothing said at last week’s Catholic bishops’ meeting indicated that they know how to deal with the post-Dobbs, post-election reality other than to say, ‘more of the same’…
US Catholic bishops elect Timothy Broglio as new president
Updated: 12:20pm (AEST)Baltimore, US AP Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Military Services, who oversees Catholic ministries to the US armed forces, was elected Tuesday as the new president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Broglio, 70, was elected from a field of 10 candidates. He will succeed Archbishop José H Gomez of Los Angeles, who […]
US Catholic bishops’ report to the Vatican shows a church split by politics
Vatican CityRNS Catholics in the United States are deeply divided over issues as disparate as LGBTQ inclusion, clerical sexual abuse and celebrating the liturgy, according to a summary of consultations carried out in dioceses across the country in recent months as part of Pope Francis’ Synod on Synodality. “Participants felt this division as a profound […]
Roe v Wade overturned: For the religious right, a victory 50 years in the making
YONAT SHIMRON and JACK JENKINS, of Religion News Service, report on how a mighty coalition comprising mostly conservative Catholics, evangelical Christians and Mormons grounded its theological aims in the language of human rights and played its politics unrelentingly…
“We’ve done our part”: End of Roe brings answer to prayer for some
Tupelo, Mississippi, US AP There is a prayer Tanya Britton has said in the hazy first moments of morning and in the stillness of the night. She’s said it on her knees before her church’s gold tabernacle and slumped in the embrace of her living room sofa. The words have morphed, sometimes touching her lips […]