Religion

The New York Daily News reports: A Mexican cardinal’s Facebook video was flagged after he said COVID vaccines were being used to implant satanic microchips in people. Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iñiguez, 87, claimed vaccines come with a microchip that has “the mark of the beast.” Sandoval was archbishop of Guadalajara for 17 years before retiring in 2011. He continued to …

The Christian Post reports: Pope Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI have both received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccination program at Vatican City began on Wednesday, with the current head of the Roman Catholic Church and his predecessor getting the shot. After a vaccine was developed for the coronavirus, some pro-life groups and others expressed concern …

ABC News reports: Pope Francis made a Christmas Day plea for authorities to make Covid-19 vaccines available to all, insisting that the first in line should be the most vulnerable and needy, regardless of who holds the patents for the shots. “Vaccines for everybody, especially for the most vulnerable and needy,” who should be first in line, Francis said in …

The Catholic Review reports: Two top Vatican officials — Cardinal Konrad Krajewski and Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello — have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, Italian media reported, and a Vatican source confirmed. Cardinal Krajewski, the 57-year-old papal almoner, was tested at the Vatican health clinic early Dec. 21 and was hospitalized at Rome’s Gemelli hospital with the initial signs of …

ABC News reports: The Vatican on Monday declared that it is “morally acceptable” for Roman Catholics to receive COVID-19 vaccines based on research that used fetal tissue from abortions. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s watchdog office for doctrinal orthodoxy, said it addressed the question after receiving several requests for “guidance” during recent months. The doctrine …

The Hill reports: More than 370 international spiritual leaders this week called for a global ban on LGBTQ “conversion” therapy, a practice that aims to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Hundreds of spiritual leaders signed a declaration that calls for a prohibition of conversion therapy, criminalization of people based on their sexual orientation or gender identity and …

The Associated Press reports: A Paris court on Wednesday convicted a former Vatican ambassador to France of sexually assaulting five men in 2018 and 2019, and handed him a suspended 8-month prison sentence. Retired Archbishop Luigi Ventura, 76 — who was not present in court — was “shattered” by the verdict, according to his lawyer, Solange Doumic. Ventura has repeatedly …

The Christian Post reports: The most common religious identity among young adults in the U.S. is “none,” and the majority of Americans don’t believe it’s necessary for a person to believe in God to be moral and have good values, a new survey has found. Released Tuesday, AEI’s Survey Center on American Life investigating contemporary religion in the U.S. found …

The Houston Chronicle reports: Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church is among the large local congregations that received multi-million dollar loans as part of the federal government’s COVID-19 stimulus package. Lakewood received a $4.4 million loan through the Paycheck Protection Program, a part of the federal CARES Act that provided loans to pay employee wages or for other basic operational costs such …

Inside Edition reports: Marcus Lamb is the charismatic leader of one of the world’s largest religious networks, Daystar Television, which is also a very prosperous, tax exempt church. Lamb lives a life of luxury and owns a huge mansion with a beautiful pool. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Lamb’s Daystar TV applied for the government’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to …

ABC News reports: Pope Francis will celebrate Midnight Mass earlier than usual to comply with Italy’s anti-coronavirus curfew and will deliver his Christmas and New Year’s blessings in ways that aim to prevent crowds from forming. The Vatican on Thursday released the pope’s COVID-19 Christmas liturgical schedule. It said the pope’s Dec. 24 Mass — which for years hasn’t been …

From the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales: At present, debate concerns the use of the vaccines developed by Pfizer & BioNTech, Moderna, and AstraZeneca. Some have questioned the use of the Astra Zeneca vaccine since it has been developed from cell-lines originating from the cells of an aborted foetus in 1983. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith …

Pope Francis writes in a New York Times op-ed: With some exceptions, governments have made great efforts to put the well-being of their people first, acting decisively to protect health and to save lives. The exceptions have been some governments that shrugged off the painful evidence of mounting deaths, with inevitable, grievous consequences. But most governments acted responsibly, imposing strict …

The New York Times reports: The Supreme Court late Wednesday night barred restrictions on religious services in New York that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo had imposed to combat the coronavirus. The vote was 5 to 4, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and the court’s three liberal members in dissent. The order was the first in which the court’s …

“Today, listening to some of the populist leaders we now have, I am reminded of the 1930s, when some democracies collapsed into dictatorships seemingly overnight. We see it happening again now in rallies where populist leaders excite and harangue crowds, channeling their resentments and hatreds against imagined enemies to distract from the real problems.” – Pope Francis, in his new …

The Christian Post reports: A nonprofit ministry is set to launch the first-ever Christian airline next year, providing a source of travel for missionaries seeking to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ across the globe. Judah 1, currently based out of Shreveport, Louisiana, has already carried small groups of missionaries to disaster areas and mission fields in its capacity as …

Forbes reports: Pope Francis on Thursday became the latest in a string of world leaders congratulating Joe Biden on his projected victory in the 2020 election, even as President Trump and a handful of world leaders have refused to acknowledge him as President-elect. Biden had a phone call with Pope Francis Thursday morning, during which he “thanked His Holiness for …

Reuters reports: Pope Francis, in his first public comment after the release of an explosive report on the Vatican’s mishandling of the case of ex-U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, on Wednesday again vowed to put an end to sexual abuse in the Church. “Yesterday, the report about the painful case of ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick was published. I renew my closeness to …

The National Catholic Reporter reports: In an explosive report that calls into question the decision-making of three Catholic popes, the Vatican has revealed a series of institutional failures that led to the repeated promotion of now disgraced ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick despite rumors of his alleged sexual misconduct with young men as early as the 1990s. The Vatican places an abundance …

Religion News Service reports: In an exclusive interview with Religion News Service, President Trump said in a written statement that he no longer identifies as a Presbyterian and now sees himself as a non-denominational Christian. “Though I was confirmed at a Presbyterian church as a child, I now consider myself to be a non-denominational Christian,” Trump, who has repeatedly identified …