Some sociologists believe that the rising number of non-religious Americans is a reaction against rightwing evangelicals. What if I were to tell you that the following trends in American religion were all connected: rising numbers of people who are religiously unaffiliated (“nones”) or identify as “spiritual but not religious”; a spike in positive attention to …
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“Euthanasia is the last taboo. We can change gender, two men can have a baby, two women can have a baby, and abortion is legal (just!). But a person with an incurable disease who wants to end her or his life cannot do so in most countries.” (Letter to the Guardian Weekly from Elizabeth Keating, …
A Vatican document released last Saturday imposed further restrictions on the pre-Vatican II liturgy, including a prohibition on listing Latin Masses in parish bulletins. A preference for the old Mass is often associated with political conservatism and with a lack of support for Pope Francis. In his introduction to the document, Archbishop Arthur Roche, the …
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Opus Dei is an (extreme) organization within the Catholic Church, dedicated to “seeking holiness” in every aspect of the lives of its adherents, especially at work. Its members are supposed to follow a daily two hour ritual of wearing a spiked metal chain on their thighs. This is intended to remind them of the suffering of Jesus. They believe …
I case you haven’t read the news, some 216,000 children – mostly boys – have been sexually abused by clergy in the French Catholic Church since 1950, a damning new inquiry has found. The head of the inquiry said there were at least 2,900-3,200 abusers, and accused the Church of showing a “cruel indifference towards …
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