Religion

Reuters reports: A visibly indignant Pope Francis had to pull himself away from a woman in a crowd in St Peter’s Square on Tuesday after she grabbed his hand and yanked him toward her. After reaching out to touch a child, the pope turned away from the crowd only for a nearby woman to seize his hand and pull her …

The New Straits Times reports: Saudi Arabia has arrested more than 200 people for violating “public decency” – including by wearing immodest clothing – and “harassment“, police said, in the first such crackdown since the ultra-conservative kingdom began easing social norms. Some 120 men and women have been arrested over the past week for offending public morals, including wearing “inappropriate …

The Associated Press reports: Richard J. Poster served time for possessing child pornography, violated his probation by having contact with children, admitted masturbating in the bushes near a church school and in 2005 was put on a sex offender registry. And yet the former Catholic priest was only just this month added to a list of clergy members credibly accused …

Catholic news site The Tablet reports: Fr Roger Matassoli, 91, was found dead on 4 November at his home near Beauvais, choked by a crucifix stuffed down his throat. There were also multiple blows to his body. A 19-year-old suspect named Alexandre was soon arrested but has been held in hospital because he appeared delirious. A month later, the suspect’s …

The Washington Post reports: Former cardinal Theodore McCarrick gave hundreds of thousands of dollars in church money to powerful Catholic clerics over nearly two decades, according to financial records obtained by The Washington Post, while the Vatican failed to act on claims he had sexually harassed young men. Starting in 2001, McCarrick sent checks totaling more than $600,000 to clerics …

USA Today reports: France’s Notre Dame Cathedral, which failed to host Christmas services Wednesday for the first time in more than 200 years, may never recover from the devastating fire that collapsed the roof and an iconic spire, its rector said. Monsignor Patrick Chauvet said the church, which dates back more than 800 years, has been left so fragile that …

The BBC reports: The Pope has prayed for a softening of “stony and self-centred hearts” to help end injustice in the world, in his Christmas Day message. From the Vatican balcony, Pope Francis spoke of “walls of indifference” being put up to people fleeing hardship in the hope of finding a better life. For change to happen for the better, …

The National Catholic Reporter reports: The Legion of Christ religious order, which was discredited by its pedophile founder and the cult-like practices he imposed, says an internal investigation has identified 33 priests and 71 seminarians who sexually abused minors over the past eight decades. A third of the priestly abusers were themselves victims of the Legion’s late founder, the Rev. …

Reuters reports: For the first time in more than 200 years, worshippers will not be able to attend Christmas mass at Notre-Dame cathedral, still being restored after a devastating fire. “There won’t be a midnight mass at Notre-Dame. The last time this happened was during the French Revolution. Since 1803, there have always been Christmas masses at Notre-Dame,” a Paris …

CNBC reports: The Christian magazine that published a blistering editorial calling for President Donald Trump’s removal from office over his “blackened moral record” has received a boost in subscribers despite a public backlash among leading evangelicals, according to the publication’s editor in chief. “A stereotypical response is ‘thank you, thank you, thank you’ with a string of a hundred exclamation …

“I am making a moral judgement that he is morally unfit, or even more precisely it’s his public morality that makes him unfit. None of us are perfect we’re not looking for saints, but a president has certain responsibilities as a public figure to display a certain level of public character and public morality. “My argument is not to judge …

From the editor of Christianity Today: We have reserved judgment on Mr. Trump for years now. Some have criticized us for our reserve. But when it comes to condemning the behavior of another, patient charity must come first. So we have done our best to give evangelical Trump supporters their due, to try to understand their point of view, to …

The Christian Post reports: Christian children around the world are about twice as likely to live in a single-parent home, according to a recent report by the Pew Research Center. In a report released last week by Pew’s Religion & Public Life, the research organization found that 23 percent of children under 18 in the U.S. lived in a single-parent …

The Associated Press reports: Pope Francis has abolished the “pontifical secret” used in clergy sexual abuse cases, after mounting criticism that the high degree of confidentiality has been used to protect pedophiles, silence victims and keep law enforcement from investigating crimes. In a new document, Francis decreed that information in abuse cases must be protected by church leaders to ensure …

The Washington Post reports: A former investment manager alleges in a whistleblower complaint to the Internal Revenue Service that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has amassed about $100 billion in accounts intended for charitable purposes, according to a copy of the complaint obtained by The Washington Post. The confidential document, received by the IRS on Nov. 21, …

The Independent reports: LGBT+ conversion therapy could soon be banned across Canada after Justin Trudeau made this one of the priorities for his new government. In a letter to the country’s justice secretary on Friday, the prime minister stated that banning the controversial practice of attempting to forcibly change people’s gender or sexuality must be a “top priority”. He said …

From an op-ed published tonight by Jared Kushner: As the poison of anti-Semitism spreads with dangerous violence throughout Europe, the Middle East, and even here at home — most recently in a horrific attack on Tuesday in Jersey City — President Trump is taking meaningful action to crush this evil. On Wednesday, the president will sign an executive order to …

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: A year and a half ago, FamilySearch.org projected it would include same-sex parents and same-sex couples in its genealogy website sometime in 2019 — and it has, with three weeks to spare. The site, which is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, announced Tuesday that FamilySearch Family Tree now …

The Washington Post reports: Numerous Jewish groups castigated President Trump this weekend over his speech on Saturday to the Israeli American Council, accusing him of using anti-Semitic tropes while trying to appeal to Jewish voters. In a 45-minute speech in Hollywood, Fla., Trump sought to convince a Jewish audience that they had “no choice” but to vote for him or …

The Buffalo News reports: The press office for Pope Francis early Wednesday announced that Buffalo Bishop Richard J. Malone has stepped down. The Vatican press office described the departure as “renunciation of the pastoral government of the Diocese of Buffalo.” Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger of the Albany Diocese will take over as apostolic administrator of the Buffalo Diocese until Malone’s …