By Mary E. Hunt
Now that the smoke has cleared from St. Peter’s Square, the future of the Roman Catholic Church is on the minds of many. Catholics are eternally hopeful, so the news of the papal election of an
Church of Scotland votes to allow gay ministers
General assembly votes to allow congregations to admit gay ministers but only if they specifically elect to do so
By Severin Carrell
The Church of Scotland, the country’s largest Protestant church, has narrowly voted to admit gay and lesbian ministers
Church lecture on morality? What a joke (Opinion)
Veiled threats by the Catholic hierarchy to excommunicate politicians who support the proposed abortion legislation are clerical comedy at its blackest.
As administrators of a private club, governed by self-generated rules, bishops and cardinals are perfectly entitled to formulate their
Cardinal Dolan’s ‘Dirty Freddy’ Story Was No Joke
Catholic church excommunicates Brazil priest for liberal views
File under: Insulated, monolithic, callous, tone deaf church power structure
By Paulo Prada
The Catholic Church has excommunicated a Brazilian priest after he defended homosexuality, open marriage and other practices counter to Church teaching in online videos.
In a statement
Women Catholic deacons ‘no longer taboo’
Germany’s top Roman Catholic has called for women to be allowed to become deacons, which would enable them to perform baptisms and marriages outside of mass – a novelty for Catholic women.
Archbishop of Freiburg Robert Zollitsch, who chairs the
Kentucky woman ordained as priest in defiance of Catholic church
By Peter Smith
In defiance of Roman Catholic authority and doctrine, the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests ordained its first Louisville-area priest on Saturday.
Rosemarie Smead of Bedford, Ky., a retired Indiana University Southeast counselor-education professor, was ordained during
Pope Francis and the American Sisters
By MARY E. HUNT
The jury is still out on Pope Francis in a pontificate that may well be shaped by women. A month after Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was named Bishop of Rome, his Prefect of the Congregation for
Pope stresses “fundamental” importance of women in Church
Pope Francis emphasised the “fundamental” importance of women in the Roman Catholic Church on Wednesday, saying they were the first witnesses of Christ and have a special role in spreading the faith.
By Naomi O’Leary
The pontiff’s decision a week
Silent or supportive, U.S. conservatives give gay marriage momentum
By Peter Henderson
On a frosty December night last year, about two dozen guests slipped into the Alta Club, a century-old private retreat a block away from the temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that dominates