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VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI expressed “outrage,” “shame,” and “profound regret” over revelations of large-scale child abuse by Irish Catholic priests, the Vatican said on Friday (Dec. 11). The Vatican’s statement came after Benedict met with Ireland’s two leading bishops, Cardinal Sean Brady of Armagh and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, along with Secretary…

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says Hanukkah’s lessons should inspire everyone to be thankful for what they have. The eight-day celebration, beginning at sunset Friday, commemorates the rededication of the temple by Jewish rebels known as the Maccabees after their victory over the Syrians. The holiday is marked by the kindling of the lights of…

NEW ORLEANS (RNS) The green movement is going blue for many groups of different faiths that consider it a religious duty to protect the world’s bodies of waters. While water advocacy is a fairly recent phenomenon for some religious groups across the U.S., environmental activism as a matter of faith is a longstanding tradition for…

(RNS) Since becoming the first lesbian to be elected a bishop in the Episcopal Church on Saturday (Dec. 5), the Rev. Mary Glasspool has been hailed as a gay rights pioneer and maligned as the straw that will finally break the back of the Anglican Communion. Glasspool “wavered two or three times” before agreeing to…

WASHINGTON (RNS) In a speech bemoaning the necessity of war and the potential for peace, President Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize Thursday (Dec. 10) by declaring that “no holy war can ever be a just war.” In his 36-minute remarks in Oslo, Norway, Obama addressed how fear of loss of identity — including religious…

WASHINGTON (RNS) The vast majority of U.S. residents may be Christian, but nearly a quarter of them delve into a range of Eastern or New Age beliefs, a new study shows. Asked about their supernatural experiences, significant minorities of American Christian respondents said they believe in astrology (23 percent), reincarnation (22 percent), spiritual energy in…

DUBLIN – Ireland’s Catholic bishops privately debated Wednesday whether any of their number should resign in the wake of a damning investigation that blamed five of them for helping conceal child abuse by Dublin-based priests. Two of the bishops said they had done nothing wrong and would not step aside. Irish Cardinal Sean Brady, Dublin…

(RNS) Domestic membership in the Episcopal Church dropped by 3 percent in 2008, continuing a decline in which the denomination has lost almost 200,000 American members since 2004, according to Episcopal researchers. The Episcopal Church now counts slightly more than 2 million members in about 7,000 U.S. parishes. Church leaders say they are pleased, however,…

WASHINGTON (RNS) The latest Hanukkah tune is coming from an unexpected place this year: the halls of Congress and the pen of a conservative Mormon senator. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is the co-writer of a revamped Hanukkah song that debuted this week on the site of a Jewish online magazine, Tablet. Hatch, a noted songwriter,…

(RNS) An international Anglican commission on Tuesday (Dec. 8) urged Episcopalians to exercise “gracious restraint” by not confirming the election of a lesbian as a bishop in Los Angeles. The Rev. Mary Glasspool was elected a suffragan (assistant) bishop by the Diocese of Los Angeles on Saturday (Dec. 5). Glasspool, 55, has been with her…
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