By FRANCIS X. ROCCA c. 2011 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY (RNS) The morality and effectiveness of using condoms to prevent HIV/AIDS will be on the agenda at a Vatican conference this weekend (May 27-28), six months after comments by Pope Benedict XVI again touched off worldwide controversy. The conference, which will focus on “the…

By YONAT SHIMRON c. 2011 Religion News Service DURHAM, N.C. (RNS) For decades, mainline Protestants have been beset by bad news: declining numbers, aging membership, waning cultural influence. A new study from Duke University Medical Center, however, gives these Protestants one reason for cheer: they seem to have larger brains than born-again Christians, Roman Catholics…

By RON CSILLAG c. 2011 Religion News Service TORONTO (RNS) A former Roman Catholic bishop in Nova Scotia has pleaded guilty to trying to import child pornography after he was arrested in 2009 returning from a trip to Thailand. Appearing in an Ottawa court on Wednesday (May 4), Raymond Lahey, 70, pleaded guilty to a…

WASHINGTON (RNS) With less than two weeks to go, fifth-grader Simone Marshall ticked off what she was looking forward to most as she awaited the Easter Vigil where she would officially become a Roman Catholic. “I cannot wait to get baptized so I can be born again and I can be closer to Jesus,” she…

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