Religion

Reuters reports: Former pope Benedict has chided conservative Roman Catholics who have not accepted his decision to resign as “fanatical”, telling them that there is only one pope and it is Francis. Benedict, now 93, in 2013 became the first pope in more than 600 years to resign instead of ruling for life, saying he no longer had the strength …

The New York Times reports: One of the country’s largest adoption and foster care agencies, Bethany Christian Services, announced Monday that it will begin providing services to L.G.B.T.Q. parents nationwide effective immediately, a major inflection point in the fraught battle over many faith-based agencies’ longstanding opposition to working with same-sex couples. The Michigan-based evangelical organization announced the change in an …

The San Francisco Chronicle reports: A San Francisco priest has died from COVID-19, a week after his church temporarily shut down after at least three priests and clergy members tested positive for COVID-19. Father Bob Stein of Saints Peter and Paul Church died early Tuesday morning, per a statement published by the North Beach institution on its website. The church …

Los Angeles’s ABC News affiliate reports: Frederick K.C. Price, one of Los Angeles’ most prominent religious leaders and founder of the Crenshaw Christian Center, has died from COVID-19 at the age of 89. Apostle Price, who led services in the landmark FaithDome for many years, died Friday evening, according to a statement issued by EIF Ministries. Price founded the Crenshaw …

Via press release from Christian Newswire: New research suggests that even as churches and other religious gatherings have been closed during lockdown, there’s been a big increase in people turning to prayer and other forms of spirituality. The free ChatPray app is being launched today in response to those needs. The app has been specifically designed as an intuitive way …

The Associated Press reports: As the pandemic began to unfold, scores of Catholic dioceses across the U.S. received aid through the Paycheck Protection Program while sitting on well over $10 billion in cash, short-term investments or other available funds, an Associated Press investigation has found. And despite the broad economic downturn, these assets have grown in many dioceses. Yet even …

From the head of the US Conference Of Catholic Bishops: I must point out that our new President has pledged to pursue certain policies that would advance moral evils and threaten human life and dignity, most seriously in the areas of abortion, contraception, marriage, and gender. Of deep concern is the liberty of the Church and the freedom of believers …

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 …