Until very recently, people with intersex variations have often been unseen, stigmatised and routinely discriminated against. Intersex Awareness Day (October 26) is therefore an opportunity to examine how much progress has been made and how far we still have to go. It’s estimated 1.7 to 4% of people globally are intersex – meaning they don’t Read more
Parwana Malik, a 9-year-old girl with dark eyes and rosy cheeks, giggles with her friends as they play jump rope in a dusty clearing. But Parwana’s laughter disappears as she returns home, a small hut with dirt walls, where she’s reminded of her fate: she’s being sold to a stranger as a child bride. The Read more
We’re on the brink of a disruption as great as last year’s sudden shift to remote work: the move to hybrid work — a blended model where some employees return to the workplace and others continue to work from home. We’re experiencing this at Microsoft, and today we shared how we’re evolving our own hybrid Read more
President Joe Biden’s recent meeting at the Vatican with Pope Francis has further unmasked the animosity that the Catholic right and alt-right in the United States harbour toward the current Bishop of Rome. In fact, that animosity has become even more virulent and graphic. One American bishop (a Catholic bishop!) even called Francis a “serpent”, Read more
A new study found that Generation Z Americans — defined as those age 13-25 — increasingly distanced themselves from religious institutions like churches, mosques or synagogues in 2020, finding spirituality instead in practices like tarot card readings and sharing fears and musings in online spaces like Tik Tok. Half of the more than 10,000 young Read more
Netflix recently announced that “Squid Game,” a South Korean dystopian drama series, is its most-watched original content ever, reaching over 144 million streams and the No. 1 spot in 94 countries. “Squid Game” presents an undeniably dark world, in which hundreds of people, crushed under the weight of their debt, compete in a series of Read more
Most Holy Father, Inspired by your messages on interdependence and sharing, we humbly bring to your attention the issue of vaccine inequality plaguing our planet and ask you to support action to address the unequal distribution of global vaccines between high and low-income countries. Over 6 billion doses have been administered worldwide, but 70% of Read more
Sometimes, an author of children’s books is invited into schools far beyond the tourist’s world. The richness of such an experience can be life-changing. The would-be teacher becomes a learner as an understanding of God grows beyond cultural boundaries. I’ve learned that other cultures do not have a different understanding of God: they simply use Read more
A great deal has been heard of late about the use of vaccine mandates to control who can and cannot work in various organisations, from hospitals to schools, and who will or will not be allowed to attend concerts and sporting fixtures. In the midst of what can be a confusing scene, the leaders of Read more
Sexual abuse is rooted in abuse of power, which is very often the first step. While abuse of power can take many forms, many abusers rely on the excessive and, let’s say it, clericalist use of secrecy. For decades many Church bodies, including the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, have repeatedly called for Read more