David Gibson is an award-winning religion journalist, author and filmmaker. He writes for Religion News Service and until recently covered the religion beat for AOL’s Politics Daily. He blogs at Commonweal magazine, and has written two books on Catholic topics, the latest a biography of Pope Benedict XVI.
(RNS) Is Pope Francis endorsing heresy? It might look that way from headlines that made it seem as though the pontiff had said that everyone – even atheists! – were destined for heaven. What he actually said was boilerplate Catholic doctrine.
(RNS) As U.S. Catholics grow increasingly accepting of homosexuality, there’s going to be inevitable conflict as an uneasy “Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell” policy clashes with gay Catholics’ increasing visibility in the form of marriage licenses or wedding announcements.
(RNS) In remarks that may prompt a theological debate about the nature of salvation, Pope Francis declared that God “has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone!”
Graffiti on a church is a good thing? The Pat Robertson School of Theodicy gets deconstructed in the wake of the Oklahoma tornadoes, and Pope Francis has some stern words for believers who don’t see the good in others. “To say that you can kill in the name of God is blasphemy.”
(RNS) Nothing can upset the folks in the pews as much as changing the liturgy that they’re used to, and that seemed likely to be the case when the Vatican ordered revisions to the familiar prayers of the Catholic Mass. But now, more than a year after the changes took effect, a survey of American priests shows that they are more disturbed by the innovations than their flock.
(RNS) The Catholic diocese in Missouri led by Bishop Robert Finn, who was convicted last year of failing to report a priest who was taking pornographic pictures of children, will pay a $600,000 settlement to the family of one of the priest’s victims.
(RNS) News that scientists in Oregon had for the first time recovered stem cells from cloned human embryos prompted dire warnings from religious leaders who say the research crosses a bioethical red line and could lead to designer babies.
(RNS) The Vatican on Wednesday said that Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who resigned in February amid reports that he had made sexual advances to a number of priests, will do penance in an undisclosed location outside of his country.
Does Cardinal O’Brien’s exile mean there’s a new sheriff in the Vatican? Praying for Kermit Gosnell’s conversion, not his death. The theology of Star Trek, explicated, just in time for the new movie…
(RNS) When rogue abortionist Kermit Gosnell was found guilty of delivering and then killing late-term infants, abortion opponents were convinced they had a case that could finally reshape a static abortion debate. Yet for a variety of reasons, those prayers for a game-changing impact may go unanswered.
