Religion

Agence France-Presse reports: Pope Francis risked the ire of the world’s childless dog and cat owners by suggesting people who substitute pets for children exhibit “a certain selfishness”. Speaking on parenthood during a general audience at the Vatican, the pontiff lamented that pets “sometimes take the place of children” in society. “Today … we see a form of selfishness. We …

The Associated Press reports: Pope Francis canceled his New Year’s Eve tradition of visiting the life-sized Nativity scene set up in St. Peter’s Square to discourage large crowds from forming. Meanwhile, major Italian cities scrapped their traditional Dec. 31 open-air concerts as Italy battles a record-setting surge in coronavirus cases. The Vatican has largely followed Italy’s lead in imposing restrictions …

The New York Times reports: Desmond M. Tutu, the cleric who used his pulpit and spirited oratory to help bring down apartheid in South Africa and then became the leading advocate of peaceful reconciliation under Black majority rule, died on Sunday in Cape Town. He was 90. The cause of death was cancer, the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation …

The Associated Press reports: Pope Francis prayed Saturday for an end to the coronavirus pandemic, using his Christmas Day address to urge health care for all, vaccines for the poor and for dialogue to prevail in resolving the world’s conflicts. Amid a record-setting rise in COVID-19 cases in Italy this week, only a few thousand people flocked to a rain-soaked …

The Associated Press reports: An advertising-technology billionaire has formally resigned his membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and rebuked the faith over social issues and LGBTQ rights in an unusual public move. Jeff T. Green has pledged to donate 90% of his estimated $5 billion fortune, starting with a $600,000 donation to the LGBTQ-rights group Equality …

The Guardian reports: The chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League led condemnation of Donald Trump after the former president used antisemitic tropes in remarks about American Jews and Israel. “Insinuating that Israel or the Jews control Congress or the media is antisemitic, plain and simple,” Jonathan Greenblatt said. “Unfortunately, this is not the first time he has made these offensive …

The Christian Defense Coalition’s Patrick Mahoney: The ‘People’s House,’ as the US Capitol Building is so rightly called, must be a place where all Americans should be afforded the right to come and peacefully celebrate and express their First Amendment Rights. That is why it was so troubling when I read the official guidelines for ornaments on the 2021 U.S. …

Reuters reports: France’s parliament voted on Tuesday to ban so-called conversion therapy, joining a handful of countries that have taken steps to outlaw practices that seek to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Under the French legislation, people offering LGBT+ conversion therapy could be jailed for up to two years and fined 30,000 euros ($33,810), with even tougher …

The Associated Press reports: According to a survey released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center, this group — commonly known as the “nones” — now constitutes 29% of American adults. That’s up from 23% in 2016 and 19% in 2011. “If the unaffiliated were a religion, they’d be the largest religious group in the United States,” said Elizabeth Drescher, an …

The Boston Globe reports: Over Thanksgiving weekend, the first residents of the home in Worcester moved in: three gay men seeking asylum in the U.S. “I don’t even have the words,” said Alain Spyke, 26, who fled Jamaica after being continually harassed and threatened by a local gang for being gay. “To come into this country and have a safe …

The Associated Press reports: A Vatican official has apologized to a leading Catholic LGBTQ advocacy group for having yanked a reference to it from the Vatican website, saying he realized the move caused pain and that the Catholic Church does indeed want to include gays and hear from them. The Vatican’s General Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops, which is …

Religion News Service reports: Pope Francis said Monday he accepted the resignation of the archbishop of Paris because the monsignor could no longer govern effectively thanks to the “gossip” about his relationship with a woman a decade ago. Francis was asked en route home from Greece about the surprise decision, which came only days after Archbishop Michel Aupetit put his …

Lynchburg’s ABC News affiliate reports: A professor at Liberty University has been arrested on suspicion of sexual battery and abduction. Online records show William Atwell, who is listed on Liberty University’s website as an associate professor of American Sign Language, has been charged in Lynchburg General District Court. According to online records, Atwell was arrested by Liberty University police on …

Religion News Service reports: The Seventh-day Adventist Church has removed a New York City pastor who said in a sermon earlier this month that husbands may rape their wives. Burnett Robinson, who served as senior pastor of Grand Concourse Seventh-day Adventist Church for nine years, is no longer a pastor in the denomination, said Kevin Lampe, a communications consultant for …

Religion News Service reports: In a sermon about wifely submission, the pastor of a New York City Seventh-day Adventist Church went on to suggest that husbands may rape their wives. “I would say to you gentlemen, the best person to rape is your wife,” said Burnett Robinson, senior pastor of Grand Concourse Seventh-day Adventist, a church located in the Bronx …

Religion News Service reports: Germany’s Roman Catholic archdiocese of Cologne held a service of penance Thursday for cases of sexual abuse by clergy, saying the ritual was not an absolution for the perpetrators but a “confession of guilt.” The German Catholic Church’s handling of sexual abuse reports has caused a crisis in Cologne, where the archbishop, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki …

The Washington Post reports: U.S. Catholic bishops Wednesday overwhelmingly passed their first document in 15 years on the meaning of Communion, emphasizing in the text the “special responsibility” of Catholic public figures to shape their own views based on “the Church’s faith and moral law.” The document did not mention politicians who support abortion rights or single out abortion in …

The Christian Post reports: The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans has agreed to pay more than $1 million as part of a settlement over allegations of falsified Hurricane Katrina aid claims. The settlement came in response to allegations that the archdiocese had violated the False Claims Act by knowingly submitting false claims to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) …

From the Department of Justice: Acting U.S. Attorney Bridget M. Brennan announced that Robert D. McWilliams, 41, of Strongsville, Ohio, was sentenced today by Judge Sara Lioi to life in prison. McWilliams, a Northeast Ohio-area Catholic Priest at the time of the offense conduct, previously pleaded guilty to two counts of sex trafficking of a minor, three counts of sexual …

The Christian Post reports: Liberty University is asking a federal court to stop a former employee from disclosing confidential information and documents amid a legal battle over claims that the evangelical Christian school wrongfully fired him for speaking out about how it handled sexual assault allegations. Scott Lamb, formerly the school’s senior vice president of communications, sued the Lynchburg-based university …