(RNS) To many advocates of reform in the Catholic Church, the election of conservative Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as pope in April 2005 was a blow to hopes the Vatican would change positions on gender, sexuality, divorce, and the church hierarchy. Yet the result encouraged three prominent reformers who were appointed to a U.S. bishops’ National…

(RNS) A South Carolina diocese has declared itself “sovereign” within the Episcopal Church, the latest salvo in a long-running skirmish between the conservative diocese and the denomination. The Diocese of South Carolina, which covers 47 parishes in the eastern and coastal parts of the state, voted on Friday (March 26) to assert the local authority…

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Will Pope Benedict XVI resign? Less than two weeks ago, that question was just a publicity-grabbing ploy by an Irish online bookmaker. Now, following charges that he personally mishandled cases of pedophile priests in Munich and Milwaukee, the idea of Benedict stepping down is actually being taken seriously, at least in some…

(RNS) Easter usually comes twice to the Kringas household in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y.: first with baskets of pastel eggs and a ham baked in the oven, then a week or more later with dark red eggs and lamb roasted on a spit. Maureen Kringas, who splits her time between her mother’s Catholic parish and her…

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