A select committee considering a private members bill which allows for bereavement leave for miscarriages have come back with their report, and have rejected calls for the leave to be extended to allow support for women with post-abortion grief. When lodging the original bill, Labour MP Ginny Anderson said, “I think [abortion] would be [grounds], Read more
With a little more than three months to go until the Nov. 3 election, the campaigns of President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are each making efforts to attract Catholic voters, a once-reliable Democratic constituency that in recent years has been up for grabs. The campaigns and their surrogates say the choice Read more
It’s time to think big about the future of worship before the future passes us by. As this pandemic transforms faith communities, the national conversation among leaders has been too timid and tactical — focused mostly on the logistics of returning to our brick-and-mortar buildings: How soon can we get bodies back into the pews? Read more
A Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist known for her compelling Christian characters has urged Christians to engage fearlessly and generously with a world “enthralled by contentiousness.” “There’s something very, very wrong when so many people who claim to be religious act as if they have to hide out, as if their understanding of things couldn’t support Read more
As Millennials reach a new stage of life – the oldest among them will turn 39 this year – a clearer picture of how members of this generation are establishing their own families is coming into view. Previous research highlights not only the sheer size of the Millennial generation, which now surpasses Baby Boomers as Read more
Just to set the record straight, the simple truth is that it is not against Catholic doctrine for Protestants to receive Communion at Mass. 1. We believe that Baptism in the Protestant Churches gives exactly the same thing Baptism in the Catholic Church gives — the “state of grace”: divine life and the divine gifts Read more
A two-year audit of Facebook’s civil rights record found that the company’s elevation of free expression – especially by politicians – above other values has hurt its progress on other matters like discrimination, elections interference and protecting vulnerable users. Facebook hired former American Civil Liberties Union executive Laura Murphy in May 2018 to assess its Read more
The two dogmas adopted 150 years ago this month at the First Vatican Council deserve contemplation rather than celebration. The final vote was accompanied by a violent thunderstorm over St. Peter’s Basilica, darkness lit up only by frequent flashes of lightning and by a flaming taper brought in to enable the voting roll-call to be Read more
By reconverting the Hagia Sophia into a mosque and holding celebratory prayers there for the cameras, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan seems keen to divert attention from the fact that his country is entering a new phase of acute political and financial turmoil. The Hagia Sophia dates to the sixth century, and for almost a Read more
In the past two weeks, a former refugee family stepped into one of our churches. They were days away from the end of their short-term lease and had nowhere to go. The rental market in Wellington was so tough, they said, in this season. Did we have anywhere they could stay? Even if it just Read more