Catholic Church

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Uruguay Legalizes Gay Adoption
Uruguay Legalizes
Gay Adoption
Sep 10, 2009 1:48 AM CDT

Uruguay Legalizes Gay Adoption

First Latin American nation to let same-sex couples adopt

(Newser) - Uruguay's senate has approved the first law in Latin America allowing gay and lesbian couples to adopt children, AFP reports. The bill, backed by leftist President Tabare Vazquez, passed despite fierce objections from the Catholic church and right-wing politicians. Uruguay, traditionally much more liberal than other countries in the region,...

Flu-Fearing Churches Ban Peace Handshakes

'Sign of peace,' prayer hand holding barred amid swine flu warnings

(Newser) - Churches nationwide are bracing for cases of swine flu, with one in Cincinnati banning peace handshakes during Mass, the Enquirer reports. The Catholic church passed out a flier telling parishioners not to shake with their neighbors during the “sign of peace” or clasp hands during the “Our Father”...

Catholic Bishops Slam Obamacare

Fears of abortion funding clash with social service concerns

(Newser) - After decades lobbying for better health care for the poor, a growing number of Catholic bishops have become an unexpected voice of opposition against President Obama's health care plan, the New York Times reports. "No health care reform is better than the wrong sort of health care reform,"...

US Nuns Dodge Specter of Sex Abuse
 US Nuns Dodge 
 Specter of Sex Abuse 
OPINION
Aug 17, 2009 9:11 AM CDT

US Nuns Dodge Specter of Sex Abuse

(Newser) - Last week the largest group of American nuns held its annual meeting, and once again they refused to let survivors of sexual abuse in Catholic schools attend. When even the bishops have acknowledged the depth and seriousness of abuse within the Church, it's strange for the nuns to bury their...

Why Gingrich Became Catholic


 Why Gingrich 
 Became Catholic 
analysis
Aug 16, 2009 5:20 PM CDT

Why Gingrich Became Catholic

(Newser) - Newt Gingrich shrugged off religious issues while in office, and was recently seen reading a novel before Mass—so why his sudden conversion to Catholicism? Some analysts say he converted this spring to position himself for the Republican nomination in 2012. Joining other high-profile conservatives on the road to Rome,...

Holy Hell: Churches Squeezed by Economy

(Newser) - The hallelujahs are strained in US churches these days as donations plunge at the same time demand for aid is skyrocketing, reports the Wall Street Journal. Congregations across the nation are slashing budgets and even laying off staff, including pastors. Churches and synagogues usually weather downturns well, but not this...

Italy OKs RU-486; Vatican Threatens Excommunications

(Newser) - Italy has legalized the abortion drug RU-486, drawing the ire of the Vatican, which threatened to excommunicate doctors who prescribe the medication and women who take it. A church official said using the pill is "a sin in a moral and juridical sense," but a politician who is...

Vatican Warms to Wilde
 Vatican 
 Warms 
 to Wilde 
OPINION
Jul 17, 2009 9:38 AM CDT

Vatican Warms to Wilde

Paper praises writer's 'lucid' analysis of his world

(Newser) - The Vatican long regarded Oscar Wilde as a “dissolute homosexual,” but things have changed, writes Richard Owen in the Times of London. A review in the Vatican newspaper of a study on the Irish writer celebrates him as “one of the personalities of the 19th century who...

Pope Has Best Take on Financial Crisis
Pope Has
Best Take on Financial Crisis
OPINION
Jul 13, 2009 10:13 AM CDT

Pope Has Best Take on Financial Crisis

Goldman exec touts Benedict's 6-point plan for global economy

(Newser) - All of Pope Benedict XVI's gaffes and controversies have obscured his principal appeal, writes Brian Griffiths in the Times of London: he's a scholar, with an uncommon command of theology and philosophy. For Griffiths, a vice-chairman of Goldman Sachs, the pope's recent encyclical on the economy is "without...

Obama Promises Pope He'll Work to Cut US Abortions

(Newser) - President Obama told Pope Benedict XVI yesterday that he would make every effort to reduce the number of abortions in the US, according to a Vatican spokesman. Bioethics and life issues were the focus of the men's 40-minute talk yesterday. The pontiff gave the president a booklet explaining the church's...

Vatican Steps Up Scrutiny of American Nuns

Nuns fear church heirarchy is seeking to return them to strictly traditional ways

(Newser) - The Vatican has launched two major probes into the lives of America's 60,000 nuns, the New York Times reports. Many nuns have stopped wearing habits, moved out of convents, and found work in academia or political advocacy in the last few decades, and some fear the investigations are part...

Kissing Priest Marries Galpal
 Kissing Priest Marries Galpal 
Jun 17, 2009 8:34 AM CDT

Kissing Priest Marries Galpal

(Newser) - In scarcely more than a month, Alberto Cutié has gone from celebrity priest to sex scandal poster boy to Episcopalian—now he can add boring old married guy to his resume, reports the AP. The Miami priest who left the Catholic Church amid a racy photo scandal married his secret...

'Father Oprah,' Fiancée Set Wedding Date

Former Catholic cleric plans Episcopalian nuptials

(Newser) - The onetime Catholic priest whose cavorting with his then-girlfriend led to his departure from the church is headed for the altar—as the groom. The Rev. Alberto Cutié, aka the "kissing priest," and his girlfriend of 2 years plan to wed this month in the Episcopal church,...

Confession Isn't Therapy, Church Warns

Priests told to get tough on sinners instead of providing counseling sessions

(Newser) - The Vatican plans a campaign to remind priests that the confessional isn't a psychiatrist's couch, the Guardian reports. A handbook will be issued to emphasize that sinners are in confession to be given penance, not counseling sessions. The number of Catholics going to confession has slumped in recent years and...

'Church Is About Forgiveness': Kissing Priest

'Father Oprah' gives first Episcopal sermon to standing ovation

(Newser) - His Catholic parish was scandalized when photos surfaced of the Rev. Alberto Cutié cavorting on the beach with a 35-year-old divorceé, but his new Episcopalian flock greeted his first sermon this morning with a standing ovation, reports the Miami Herald. From the altar of Miami’s Episcopal Church of the...

Kissing Fla. Priest Joins Episcopal Church

He's expected to marry girlfriend and keep preaching

(Newser) - The Miami priest who sparked a debate on celibacy earlier this month when he was caught kissing and embracing a woman has left the Roman Catholic church to join the more liberal Episcopalians. The latter doesn’t require chastity for priests, and Alberto Cutié is expected to announce that he’...

Pizzeria in Town Built by Domino's Chief Not Domino's

(Newser) - The first pizza shop in Domino’s founder Thomas Monaghan’s Catholic university town of Ave Maria, Fla., will not be a Domino’s, the Fort Myers News-Press reports. Domino’s says the town is covered by another franchise’s delivery radius, and Ave Maria will get a Milano’s...

Pope Benedict Wants to Meet You on Facebook

(Newser) - Pope Benedict probably isn’t at the computer himself, but the Vatican is making a major push to lure young believers online, Reuters reports. It’s launched www.pope2you.net, which offers Web 2.0 applications like “The pope meets you on Facebook,” and another that downloads the...

Sex-Abuse Report Shames Ireland, Church
Sex-Abuse Report Shames Ireland, Church
OPINION
May 21, 2009 8:28 AM CDT

Sex-Abuse Report Shames Ireland, Church

Writer lauds harrowing report of violence against children

(Newser) - The massive report released yesterday documenting the systematic abuse of children in Irish Catholic schools and institutions is "a monument to the shameful nature of Irish society throughout most of the decades of the 20th century," writes Mary Raftery in the Irish Times. The painstaking disclosure of physical...

Irish Church Long Shielded Pedophiles: Report

Long-awaited report finds rampant abuses at reform schools

(Newser) - Sexual abuse was endemic in Irish Catholic institutions until the 1980s, a 9-year government inquiry has found. Over a 60-year period, 2000 children—mostly boys, now over 50—suffered physical and sexual abuses at the rigid schools, the BBC reports. Church officials encouraged beatings and shielded pedophiles in their orders,...

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