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Diocese of Rochester first to file after Child Victims ActROCHESTER, N.Y. (ChurchMilitant.com) - The diocese of Rochester, New York, where the famous preacher and writer Bp. Fulton Sheen once served as the local ordinary, filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy Thursday. The Child Victims Act, which went into effect in New York Aug. 14, allowed for dozens of alleged clergy sex abuse victims to sue the diocese of Rochester, worsening the diocese's debt/asset ratio. The 32-page Chapter 11 filing shows that the diocese estimated that its liabilities outweigh its assets: * Estimated assets: between $50 million and $100 million. * Estimated liabilities:...

Abortion clinic and neighborhood call the police on Christians Video is less than 5 minutes long. This happened at the Abortion mill in Charleston, W.Va. Yesterday. These protesters have had the police called on them at least 200 times.

In a recent letter to The New York Times, Marquette theologian Daniel Maguire suggested that the Catholic Church was headed toward a three-way schism. Writing about Pope Francis’ reforms to the annulment process, Maguire predicted: Catholicism is going the way of its parent, Judaism. In Judaism there are Reform as well as Conservative and Orthodox communities. This arrangement is not yet formalized in Catholicism, but the outlines of a similar broadening are in place …. While conservative and orthodox Catholics welcome this annulment concession by the Vatican, reform Catholics don’t need it. Their consciences are their Vatican. Reform Catholics, whose...

"...any group that separates from the Catholic Church would cease to be Catholic - even if they called themselves Catholic." Writing about Pope Francis’ reforms to the annulment process, Maguire predicted: Catholicism is going the way of its parent, Judaism. In Judaism there are Reform as well as Conservative and Orthodox communities. This arrangement is not yet formalized in Catholicism, but the outlines of a similar broadening are in place …. While conservative and orthodox Catholics welcome this annulment concession by the Vatican, reform Catholics don’t need it. Their consciences are their Vatican. Reform Catholics, whose numbers are swelling, are...

Christian politician speaks out on LGBT agendaA politician in Finland is being investigated by police for quoting the Bible. Päivi Räsänen is a member of Finland's parliament and former party chairwoman of the Christian Democrats. In June, she took to social media expressing outrage about the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland supporting gay pride month. Quoting St. Paul to the Romans, she said, "God gave them up to degrading passions. ... Men committed shameless acts with men," adding, "How can the church's doctrinal foundation, the Bible, be compatible with the lifting up of shame and sin as a subject of...

A CATHOLIC priest has told how he prayed in the middle of the night at a shrine on the Gold Coast hinterland surrounded by fire, and fearing for the safety of dozens of pilgrims staying in nearby cabins. “I was on my knees with the rosary beads in the chapel and praying for protection from Heaven,” Pauline Father Albert Wasniowski said. More than 25 visitors slept in cabins at the Shrine of Our Lady Help of Christians, in the Marian Valley bushland, as firefighters arrived to warn Fr Wasniowski to prepare to evacuate. It was 2am on September 7, and...

Iraqis are asking questions that challenge the assumed, self-granted legitimacy that emboldens those in power to claim a monopoly on religion. Atheists in Iraq are a growing minority no longer on the political sidelines and increasingly under the state’s radar. As their numbers grow, a critical debate is flourishing: Who might they be? What do they represent? Out of what conditions did they hatch? The growing prevalence of atheism is not entirely disconnected from the political misdeeds of political and religious figures, warned Iraqi thinker Izzat Shahbandar. The ruling political class, carefully propped up by religious institutions, regularly occupies television...

Are American Christians too politicized? Or are we not politically minded enough? And what about Christian leaders in America? Are they (we) too outspoken politically? Or perhaps not enough?I decided to come at this from another angle, asking this question on Twitter: “What's your opinion? If Paul was alive today and a USA citizen, how political would he be?”Since Twitter allows four possible responses to a poll, and since there are constraints as to how many characters can be used for each response, I offered these options, with the responses placed here in parentheses: He would not even vote (30...

The Greek Orthodox Church of St. George in Lynn, Massachusetts, was desecrated by unknown vandals with satanic and anarchistic symbolism. The mosaic icons of the Most Holy Theotokos and the Great Martyr George the Victorious were vandalized with an upside down Cross, a “Circle-A,” and the number of the beast. According to Father George Tsoukalas, the rector of the parish, the police and mayor of Lynn arrived on the scene and with great regret, declared that this shameful incident was not only against the church, but against the entire city of Lynn, as Romfea reported. “Somebody has got a sick...

Churches and gathering points in Shenyang have been sealed off as Catholics fear for the underground church's future Zhao, an underground church member in northeast China, is over 70 years old and has difficulty walking. To attend Mass, she sometimes has to get up very early and leave home without breakfast to catch three buses to reach the gathering point. "When I get up, I simply grab some food and eat on the way. If I finish eating before going out, I’ll be late. If I eat only after Mass, I would faint from hunger," Zhao told ucanews.com. This does...

ROME - On a day remembered for the terrorist attacks against the United States, Pope Francis met with members of a committee of Muslim leaders and Vatican officials promoting a new era of dialogue and world peace. The first meeting of the committee working to fulfill the goals of the “Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together” was held Sept. 11 in the Vatican residence where the pope lives. “The date was chosen as a sign of the will to build life and fraternity where others sowed death and destruction,” said a communique by the Vatican press...

Last week, the California Senate gave party-line approval to Assembly Concurrent Resolution 99, a resolution demanding people of faith in the state change how they teach, preach, and counsel others related to LGBT identities and behaviors. Authored by Assemblyman Evan Low (D-San Jose), ACR 99 condemns pastors, counselors, and religious workers who offer compassionate support to the fellow Californians struggling with unwanted same-sex attraction or gender identity confusion. Most shockingly, ACR 99 goes so far as to blame the so-called “stigmatizing beliefs” of these individuals and organizations for the high rates of depression and suicide in the LGBT community. The...

Priests and religious leaders face up to three years jail in Victoria if they don't report child physical and sexual abuse allegations, including misconduct disclosed during confession. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews declared no one was above the law after new legislation passed the state parliament on Tuesday night after getting the green light from the Legislative Assembly. “There’s been some controversy in recent weeks and months about churches, particularly the Catholic Church, we believe this is exactly what needed to happen,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “The seal of the confessional, no one, no politician, no priest … has any...

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (Reuters) - Pope Francis said on Tuesday he prayed that dissent from American Catholic conservatives would not lead to a schism in the Church and that he was willing to listen to critics and make corrections if necessary. But in frank comments to reporters aboard the plane returning to Rome from a trip to Africa, he said he was not afraid of a schism. Some of his critics had allowed political ideology to infiltrate religious doctrine, he said. It was the first time Francis has spoken so openly about the possibility of a schism in the...

Salalah (Agenzia Fides) - More than a thousand people took part in civil ceremonies and liturgical celebrations that took place on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 December in the Sultanate of Oman, on the occasion of the inauguration of a new Catholic church. The place of worship is dedicated to St. Francis Xavier, patron of the missions, and is located in the city of Salalah, governorate of Dhofar. The first stone of the church was laid in February 2018, and the construction of the entire place of worship was completed in just 18 months. The church has a capacity of...

A report by the Syrian Network for Human Rights blames the Syrian regime for 61 per cent of attacks on churches. Between March 2011 and September 2019, 124 places of worship were hit. For Bishop Audo, the issue is "complicated and delicate", one that requires "extreme care". Both sides are exploiting the issues.Aleppo (AsiaNews) – The propaganda war in Syria between the Syrian government and rebel groups is one of the conflict’s many battlefronts, each side with its own regional and international patrons. For Mgr Antoine Audo, Chaldean bishop of Aleppo, this is a "complicated and delicate" issue, one that...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis’ first Catholic bishop has been replaced on a mural downtown months after he was included in a list of clergymen accused of molesting children. The "Upstanders Mural" – on a wall across from the National Civil Rights Museum – is supposed to honor heroes, but after allegations of child sex abuse against the late Carroll Dozier surfaced earlier this year, the group that painted the mural decided he no longer belongs there. “I would certainly say that that would be their right to change that. And I think as time changes with people, society changes, ideas...

In Meriwether v. Trustees of Shawnee State University, (SD OH, Sept. 5, 2019), an Ohio federal magistrate judge recommended dismissing challenges brought by a faculty member against his university claiming that the school's nondiscrimination policy violates his 1st and 14th Amendment rights as well as his rights under the state constitution. Shawnee State requires faculty to refer to students using pronouns that reflect the student's gender identity even when that is different that the gender assigned to the student at birth. Plaintiff alleges that he is an evangelical Christian with the religious belief that gender cannot be changed after the...

The cardinal has been 'consulting extensively' regarding his duties as metropolitan as the crisis over Bishop Malone deepens The Catholic Herald has learned that the Archdiocese of New York is closely monitoring the crisis in the Diocese of Buffalo, and that broad consultations are ongoing, with a view to possible action. The embattled Bishop of Buffalo, Richard J. Malone, faced several new calls for his resignation last week and over the weekend, including one from a group — the Movement to Restore Trust — that had previously sought to work with the bishop, and an editorial published Saturday by The...

The Greek Orthodox Church of St. George in Lynn, Massachusetts, was desecrated by unknown vandals with satanic and anarchistic symbolism. The mosaic icons of the Most Holy Theotokos and the Great Martyr George the Victorious were vandalized with an upside down Cross, a “Circle-A,” and the number of the beast. According to Father George Tsoukalas, the rector of the parish, the police and mayor of Lynn arrived on the scene and with great regret, declared that this shameful incident was not only against the church, but against the entire city of Lynn, as Romfea reported.