Religion

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 …

The Associated Press reports: At the end of another long day trying to sign up new clients accusing the Roman Catholic Church of sexual abuse, lawyer Adam Slater gazes out the window of his high-rise Manhattan office at one of the great symbols of the church, St. Patrick’s Cathedral. “I wonder how much that’s worth?” he muses. Across the country, …

Bloomberg News reports: The U.S. ambassador to Zambia said a high court ruling sentencing two men to 15 years in prison for homosexuality was horrifying. Ambassador Daniel Foote [photo] urged the government to reconsider laws that punish minority groups. “I was personally horrified to read yesterday about the sentencing of two men, who had a consensual relationship, which hurt absolutely …

ABC News reports: The Alabama Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the majority-black city of Birmingham violated a state law protecting Confederate monuments when it put plywood panels in front of a towering obelisk in a downtown park. The all-Republican court reversed a circuit judge’s ruling that struck down Alabama’s 2017 law protecting Confederate monuments as an unconstitutional violation of the …

The Christian Post reports: Only thirty percent of adults in the United States have a “positive” perception of evangelicals as Americans increasingly view the religious demographic through a political lens, newly released Barna Group research indicates. “Based on a nationwide study of U.S. adults, we found that, though many people still view evangelicals as a committed group of believers who …

Agence France-Presse reports: Several Indonesian ministries are banning pregnant, disabled, or LGBT job hunters in favour of what one called “normal” applicants, the Ombudsman said Friday, slammed as “arbitrary and hateful restrictions” by a rights group. The report comes as the world’s biggest Muslim majority country takes applications from millions of candidates who are applying for some 200,000 civil-service jobs …

Reuters reports: Pope Francis said on Friday politicians who rage against homosexuals, gypsies and Jews remind him of Hitler. “It is not coincidental that at times there is a resurgence of symbols typical of Nazism,” Francis said in an address to participants of an international conference on criminal law. “And I must confess to you that when I hear a …

The Christian Post reports: Only a quarter of evangelicals in the United States believe abortion should be illegal in all cases, according to a new poll showing that a majority of self-identified Christians in the U.S. identify as “pro-choice” and less than half of evangelicals identify as “pro-life.” Save the Storks, a pro-life organization that partners with pregnancy centers to …

CBS News reports: A Roman Catholic bishop named by Pope Francis to investigate the church’s response to clergy sexual abuse in Buffalo, New York, has himself been accused of sexual abuse of a child, an attorney for the alleged victim notified the church this week. The attorney informed Catholic officials in New Jersey that he is preparing a lawsuit on …