The ABC says it was inappropriate for its news channel to call Cardinal George Pell “disgraced” during a news bulletin last month. But the channel stopped short of apologising for the mistake. The public broadcaster posted a brief statement on its corrections and clarifications page online on Monday afternoon. They acknowledged that it was “inappropriate” Read more
Helping churchgoers make safe, digital donations during the Covid-19 pandemic has proved a boon for Kiwi company Pushpay, which doubled its first-half profit. After-tax profit jumped to US$13.4 million (NZ$19.6m) in the six months ended September 30, up from US$6.5m last year, while revenue rose 51 per cent to US$86.6m. Founded in Auckland by Christians Read more
Catholics in Rome marked the 70th anniversary of the proclamation of the dogma of the Assumption Sunday with a solemn Mass offered by Cardinal Mauro Piacenza. Pope Pius XII defined the Assumption of the Virgin Mary formally as a dogma of the Catholic faith on Nov. 1, 1950. This invoked papal infallibility to proclaim in Read more
Pope Francis, during his Wednesday General Audience, said his thoughts and prayers were with the innocent victims of hatred and terror that have bloodied European soil. Holding his in the library of the Apostolic Palace, the pope described the violence in Nice and Vienna as “deplorable acts that aim to compromise fraternal collaboration between religions”. Read more
Under new Covid restrictions passed into Irish law recently, a priest can now be fined, or imprisoned, or both, for saying Mass in public. The same applies to any minister of religion who holds a public act of worship. This is drastic, draconian and unacceptable and must raise questions about the Constitutionality of the measure, Read more
A Catholic official in Papua has condemned the killing of Rufinus Tigau, a catechist whom Indonesian security forces accused of being a separatist. “We are very concerned with this incident which targeted church servants,” Father Marthen Kuayo, apostolic administrator of Timika Diocese, told UCA News on Oct. 28. Tigau, 28, was reportedly killed on Oct. Read more
New Zealand has been named the country that most fits Islamic ideals for the second year in a row, but the area of everyday finance is still difficult for Muslims, says a financial commentator. In the 2019 Islamicity index, released earlier this year, New Zealand is ranked first overall, followed by Sweden, Iceland, the Netherlands, Read more
Pope Francis’ weekly general audiences, which had resumed with the public participating, will be moved back indoors and held virtually after one participant tested positive for the coronavirus, the Vatican said on Thursday. A statement said the audiences will be held from the pope’s official private library, as they were during the height of the Read more
A high court in Pakistan, ruling against a Catholic family whose 13-year-old daughter was allegedly abducted by a 44-year-old Muslim man, validated the girl’s marriage to her reported abductor. “Arzoo Raja had been taken from outside her home on October 13 and two days later, as the family searched for her, police announced that they Read more