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ROME — Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, president of the European Bishops’ Conferences (COMECE), has called on the European Union (E.U.) to accept Ukraine’s application for membership. The Ukrainian government applied for E.U. membership on February 28 of this year, Cardinal Hollerich notes in his May 9 statement, a request that “deserves a positive and realistic response.” “Ukraine, but also Moldova, Georgia, and all the other European countries, notably in the region of the Western Balkans, which have made the same request in the past, and have undertaken significant reforms, need a credible accession perspective,” the cardinal declares. The cardinal’s statement, which...

Dear Cardinal Cupich: At least obey the rubrics of the Novus Ordo Mass Dear Cardinal Cupich:I write to you as a Catholic priest on the feast of St. Thomas Becket, who is commemorated in the Octave of Christmas. St. Thomas Becket was certainly a complex man, but in the end—and the end is ultimately important to us all-- how he died so violently in the Cathedral at Canterbury at the hands of assassins driven to that terrible deed by King Henry II, made him a saint, not by a proclamation from Rome, but rather because of the “common” Catholics...

I can't copy on my iPad. Sorry. Very annoying article from the Huffington Compost.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The first openly gay bishop in the Anglican church has announced he is divorcing his husband.

Bishop Gene Robinson, whose 2003 election as the first openly gay Episcopal bishop rocked Anglican Communion, has announced his divorce from his longtime partner and husband. Robinson, who retired in 2013 as the Bishop of New Hampshire, and his partner of 25 years, Mark Andrew, were married in a private civil union in 2008. The announcement was made public Saturday (May 3) in a statement to the Diocese of New Hampshire. “As you can imagine, this is a difficult time for us — not a decision entered into lightly or without much counseling,” Robinson wrote in a letter. “We ask...

Last week the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America installed Rev. Guy Erwin as Bishop of the Southwest California Synod. Rev. Erwin is the first practicing homosexual to be a bishop in the ELCA. The ELCA's Living Lutheran website reported that there were at least 10 ELCA bishops in attendance. (see here) Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson, the highest ranking ELCA leader, delivered the sermon at the installation. Bishop Hanson's sermon made it clear that there is no more debate in the denomination about whether homosexuality is sinful or godly. He then proclaimed the ELCA's repentance for once holding the Biblical...

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's downward spiral of apostasy took a huge leap when the Southwest California Synod ELCA elected the first ever homosexual bishop of the denomination. “The Rev. Dr. Guy Erwin has been elected as bishop of the Southwest California Synod ELCA” announced a facebook post by the synod. (See synod facebook page here) Rev. Dr. Guy Erwin's faculty profile at California Lutheran University where he teaches says this, "Dr. Erwin is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; he and his partner Rob Flynn are members of St. Matthew's Lutheran Church in North...

A notoriously 'gay-friendly' parish in San Francisco has invited an openly homosexual Episcopalian cleric to lead an Advent Vespers service. Most Holy Redeemer parish asked Bishop Otis Charles, a retired Episcopalian prelate, to lead the November 30 service. After serving as the Bishop of Utah from 1971 to 1993, he publicly announced that he is homosexual. Divorced from the mother of his 5 children, he solemnized a same-sex union in 2004.

Gene Robinson, the homogenital bishop of New Hampshire and the first homosexual to be ordained to the episcopacy, has opted for an early retirement saying that seven years of controversy have "taken their toll" on him, his family and followers. Robinson told his diocesan convention that "the constant strain" was too much to bear. He went on to say that death threats, and the now-worldwide controversy surrounding his election as bishop, have been a constant strain, "not just on me, but on my beloved husband, Mark, who has faithfully stood with me every minute of the last seven years, and...

Across the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire, congregants and clergy today reacted with heavy hearts to word that Bishop V. Gene Robinson is retiring. Robinson, 63, whose consecration seven years ago as the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church divided the Anglican Communion worldwide, yesterday announced at the annual convention of the New Hampshire diocese that he plans to retire in January 2013, short of the mandatory 72-year-old retirement age for Episcopal bishops. He cited death threats and the considerable strain that the worldwide rift has placed on him, his family, and the church.

Presbyterian leaders approve gay clergy policy The change needs approval from a majority of the church's regional presbyteries to take effect. By PATRICK CONDON Associated Press Updated: 07/08/2010 06:31:58 PM EDT MINNEAPOLIS -- Leaders of the Presbyterian church have voted to allow non-celibate gays in committed relationships to serve as clergy. Thursday's vote isn't a final stamp of approval for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) or its more than 2 million members. But it's a step that could make the church one of the most gay-friendly major Christian denominations in the country. Delegates voted during the church's general assembly in Minneapolis,...

MINNEAPOLIS – Presbyterian leaders voted Thursday to allow non-celibate gays in committed relationships to serve as clergy, approving the first of two policy changes that could make their church one of the most gay-friendly major Christian denominations in the U.S. But the vote isn't a final stamp of approval for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) or its more than 2 million members. Delegates voted during the church's general assembly in Minneapolis, with 53 percent approving the more liberal policy on gay clergy. A separate vote is expected later Thursday on whether to change the church's definition of marriage from between "a...

The Consecration of Mary Glasspool as an Episcopal bishop on Saturday was incredible. They had odes to Mother Earth, random pagan rituals, a smudging ceremony to increase their relationship to plants or something, a smidge of ancestor Worship thrown in, and don't forget the dancing Girls. And, of course, there's guitars. There's always guitars. And by the way there didn't seem to be a whole lot of Jesus at least in the first hour or so that I saw. You can see the video here. AFP reports:A 56-year-old lesbian was ordained as a bishop by the Episcopal church here Saturday,...

Seven years after the Episcopal Church caused an uproar by consecrating its first openly gay bishop, it has done the same thing again -- only this time with a woman. The Rev. Canon Mary Glasspool, of Baltimore, was ordained and consecrated on Saturday, making her the second openly gay bishop in church history and one of the first two female bishops in the Diocese of Los Angeles' 114-year history. Breakaway Episcopal conservatives have formed a rival church, the Anglican Church in North America. Several overseas Anglicans have been pressuring Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the world's 77...

US Church Set To Ordain Lesbian Bishop By Robert Pigott Religious affairs correspondent, BBC News Mary Glasspool has been with her partner since 1988. The Episcopal Church in the US is set to go ahead with the controversial ordination of an openly lesbian bishop. Saturday's ordination comes despite warnings from the Archbishop of Canterbury that it will deepen an already bitter dispute on sexuality. Canon Mary Glasspool, 56, will become an assistant bishop in Los Angeles, the first openly gay US bishop since Gene Robinson seven years ago. Since then the Anglican Communion has been on course for a permanent...

A majority of bishops and dioceses of the Episcopal Church have approved the election of the church’s second openly gay bishop, the Rev. Mary D. Glasspool, a decision likely to increase the tension with fellow Anglican churches around the world that do not approve of homosexuality. The worldwide Anglican Communion, the network of churches connected to the Church of England, has been in turmoil since the Americans elected their first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson, in New Hampshire in 2003. Theological conservatives in the Communion say the Bible condemns homosexuality, while liberals say the Scripture is open to interpretation....

Reporting from Los Angeles and Riverside - The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles on Saturday elected the first openly gay bishop since the national church lifted a ban that kept gays out of its highest ordained ministry, a move that deepened divisions between liberals and conservatives in the faith. Clergy and lay leaders, meeting in Riverside for their annual convention, chose the Rev. Canon Mary D. Glasspool, 55, who has been in a committed relationship with another woman since 1988, from a field of six candidates. She is a canon, or senior assistant, to the Diocese of Maryland bishops. Glasspool's...

I don't envy Archbishop Rowan Williams. The leader of the global Anglican communion has had a busy couple of months -- on one hand, dealing with the news of the Vatican's offer of a personal ordinariate within the Catholic Church for Anglicans looking to convert... and now, on the other, with the Episcopal Church in the United States electing an openly lesbian bishop to the Los Angeles diocese. If confirmed, the Rev. Canon Mary D. Glasspool would be the first lesbian bishop in the Anglican communion.But the global communion is still struggling with the question of whether practicing homosexuals should...

The future of the worldwide Anglican Communion was in jeopardy last night after the Archbishop of Canterbury said that the election of a lesbian bishop in the United States raised “very serious questions”. Dr Rowan Williams added that the choice of Canon Mary Glasspool to be a suffragan bishop in Los Angeles had “important implications”. The election of Canon Glasspool, who has lived with the same female partner since 1988, is the second appointment of an openly homosexual bishop in the US Episcopal Church

The worldwide Anglican Church has been plunged into a fresh crisis after a lesbian was chosen as its second gay bishop. In a move that will dismay the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, Canon Mary Glasspool was elected as an assistant bishop for the diocese of Los Angeles. The Rev Rod Thomas, the leader of the conservative evangelical group Reform and a member of the General Synod, said: ‘I feel deeply ashamed that this is happening in the Anglican Church. ‘I think a schism is absolutely inevitable.’