Tag Archives: religion

The Associated Press reports: The Vatican tribunal has convicted a former Holy See diplomat and sentenced him to 5 years in prison for possessing and distributing child pornography in the first such trial of its kind inside the Vatican. Monsignor Carlo Capella admitted to viewing the images during what he called a period of “fragility” and interior crisis sparked by …

The Independent reports: The Vatican has recognized the term “LGBT” by using it in one of its official documents for the first time. A paper examining the Catholic Church’s relationship with young people, published on Tuesday, said “some LGBT youth” were looking to “benefit from greater closeness and experience greater care by the church.” The use of the term appears …

CBS News reports: Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, archbishop emeritus of Washington DC, has been removed from public ministry after an accusation he abused a teen nearly 50 years ago while serving as a priest in New York archdiocese. McCarrick, now at age 87, previously served as archbishop of Newark in New Jersey. The cardinal maintains his innocence but has accepted the …

The Guardian reports: Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of a Chilean bishop he robustly defended earlier this year despite claims of a cover-up of clerical sexual abuse, a move that later forced the pontiff into making a public apology. In his continuing efforts to show he has grasped the extent of the Catholic church’s sexual abuse scandal, and intends …

“We have authority over volcanoes. We can even tell them to stop. Christ stopped the storm. So while we’re taking power and authority over the devil controlling that volcano. People are going to be laughing about this, I totally ignore them. Just ignore them. They don’t know what they’re saying and they don’t even know what’s going on. They don’t …

The New York Daily News reports: A Brooklyn city lawmaker is sponsoring sex-segregated beach days to give his Jewish and Muslim constituents an opportunity to enjoy the seaside. City Councilman Chaim Deutsch announced the first ever “Southern Brooklyn Beach Day,” with separate dates for men and women by the sandy spot behind Kingsborough Community College. Deutsch, who is an observant …

The Associated Press reports: A federal court has ruled that printing “In God We Trust” on U.S. currency doesn’t amount to a religious endorsement and therefore doesn’t violate the U.S. Constitution. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago made the ruling Thursday in a lawsuit brought by a self-declared Satanist, Kenneth Mayle. He argued that the motto propagates …

Politico reports: President Donald Trump will host an iftar dinner at the White House next week to recognize the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, according to a White House official, a departure from last year’s decision not to host the traditional post-sundown meal. The iftar dinner is scheduled for Wednesday. The White House official declined to provide a list of …

The Tennessean reports: A Texas seminary fired a prominent Southern Baptist leader earlier this week for mishandling allegations from two students who said they were raped. Paige Patterson, who was terminated from his top post at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, told the head of campus security that he wanted to meet alone with a student who told him she was …

The Los Angeles Times reports: California will ban state-funded travel to Oklahoma because of a new law there that lets private agencies deny placement of adopted children with same-sex couples, state Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra announced Friday. Oklahoma is the ninth state to fall under California’s anti-discrimination travel ban, joining Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, South Dakota and …

The Associated Press reports: The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has agreed to a $210 million settlement with 450 victims of clergy sexual abuse as part of its plan for bankruptcy reorganization, an attorney said Thursday, making it the second-largest U.S. payout in the priest abuse scandal. Victims’ attorney Jeff Anderson said the settlement was reached with the survivors …

The Belleville News-Democrat reports: Timothy V. McLean, 34, of Glen Carbon has been charged with four counts of hate crime, three counts of institutional vandalism, one count of violating the Cemetery Protection Act, and 14 counts of criminal damage to property. McLean was arrested within 24 hours of the discovery of hundreds of swastikas painted on graves in Sunset Hill, …

“What I’ve seen, what Trump is going through, is exactly what happened to me. When the parole board looked me in the eye and said, ‘Jim, we believe you’re that you’re not guilty’ – it shook all the way to Washington. They could not tolerate the fact that the board had said I wasn’t guilty. They did everything they could …

The Guardian reports: Ireland has voted by a landslide to legalise abortion in a stunning outcome that marks a dramatic defeat for the Catholic church’s one-time domination of the Republic. The Irish electorate voted by 1,429,981 votes to 723,632 in favour of abolishing a controversial constitutional amendment that gave equal legal status to the lives of a foetus and the …

The BBC reports: Turnout in the Republic of Ireland’s referendum on abortion laws is higher, so far, than in recent votes. Voting will continue until 22:00 local time on Friday. The turnout at mid afternoon on Friday was higher than at the same stage of the country’s referendum on same-sex marriage and its most recent general election. Polls opened at …

The Associated Press reports: An Australian archbishop on Tuesday became the most senior Roman Catholic cleric in the world convicted of covering up child sex abuse in a test case that holds to account church hierarchy that kept silent in the face of an international pedophile crisis. Magistrate Robert Stone handed down the verdict against Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson …

From the far-right Charisma News: Over the past several weeks, God showed me numerous attacks that the enemy is attempting to make against our president, Donald Trump. As I was praying about the attacks against our president, the Lord began to connect the dots. He started showing me how this person was connected to that group, and that group was …

The Guardian reports: A survivor of clerical sexual abuse has said Pope Francis told him that God had made him gay and loved him, in arguably the most strikingly accepting comments about homosexuality to be uttered by the leader of the Roman Catholic church. Juan Carlos Cruz, who spoke privately with the pope two weeks ago about the abuse he …

Vice reports: Beyoncé is undeniably the most powerful force in pop culture. So it makes sense that someone decided to bring her music and philosophy into church, where it belongs. Broadly recently attended a jam-packed Beyoncé Mass held at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, which was organized by reverend and theologian Yolanda Norton, who teaches a class on Beyoncé and …

The Associated Press reports: Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has signed a bill to prohibit health professionals from practicing “gay conversion therapy” on minors, as a growing number of states and municipalities are banning the practice. The Republican governor signed the bill Tuesday. Maryland is the 12th state to enact legislation against the practice of trying to alter a person’s sexual …