Free Republic

Church leaders urged governments around the world to ramp up their climate action efforts on Friday (26 October), calling for “ambitious implementation” of the Paris Agreement. In a joint appeal, the presidents of the Catholic continental bishops’ conference, which represents church leaders from five continents, insisted that the international community has a “moral duty” to meet the targets of the landmark climate accord. According to the appeal, launched today in Rome, the six presidents said that the upcoming UN climate change summit in Poland this December should act as a “milestone on the path set out in 2015 in Paris”....

A marriage counselling service could be forced to close unless it accepts same-sex spousesThe Irish government has threatened to stop funding the bishops’ marriage counselling agency unless it changes its policy to accept gay couples. Accord, an agency of the Irish bishops’ conference, received £1.4 million in state funding last year and could potentially be forced to close if such funding is withdrawn. said that Tusla, the government’s childcare agency, has said that any agency it funds must make its services “accessible to everyone”. A new agreement has been sent to state-funded counselling services including Accord. In England and Wales...

The German Catholic Church called for a reduction in the influx of refugees arriving in Germany, saying the country cannot take in "all the world's needy," according to an interview published on Saturday. Germany has been struggling to cope with 1.1 million asylum seekers that arrived in 2015 and Berlin has not yet given an official estimate for how many it expects this year. "As a church, we say that we need a reduction in the number of refugees," Cardinal Reinhard Marx, chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, told the Passauer Neue Presse daily. ...

The decadent German Church once again finds itself on the crossroads: will the Bishops finally obey the Pope or will they regard him as a fool? [Kreuz.net, Fulda] Today the President of the German Bishops Conference, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg, held the findings of the complete assembly of the Bishops Conference, which took place this week in Fulda. A press text from the website of the German Bishops Conference was published. The Bishops turn everything to sex According to the Bishops, future dialogue will be directed to the supposedly "bulky themes". As an example, they will address the relentless...

Ads Urge a Rethinking of AbortionWASHINGTON, D.C., JAN. 27, 2005 (Zenit.org).- An advertising campaign aimed at dispelling myths about abortion is under way. The U.S. bishops' Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities has launched the campaign in the Washington metropolitan area and in national news media outlets. The campaign, called the Second Look Project, presents basic facts about legal abortion that much of the public does not understand. The program encourages people to take a "second look" at their views on abortion. "Three decades after Roe v. Wade, many people still do not understand basic facts about legal abortion -- like the...

  Presidential AddressBishop Wilton D. Gregory,Bishop of Belleville Washington D.C. – November 11, 2002The Bishop as God's Agentof Genuine Comfort"Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God" My Brother Bishops, My Sisters and Brothers in Christ, In a few short weeks during the Season of Advent, we shall listen again to the opening words of the 40th Chapter of the Book of Isaiah. The prophet is speaking in the name of God to the people of Israel who have long been in exile in Babylon. The Israelites are broken and afraid; they are dispirited and uncertain of their...

Attention, North Texas Catholic Freepers and others: Catholics United for the Faith, St. Stephen the Martyr Chapter, will be sponsoring a panel discussion on the topic "The State of Catholicism in the United States and the Bishops' Conference in Dallas" on Friday, 14 June 2002 at 7:00 p.m. The panel, which will be held in the auditorium of St. Therese Academy in Irving, Texas, features the following distinguished speakers: Russell Shaw, author and frequent contributor to Crisis Magazine Philip Lawler, editor of Catholic World ReportHelen Hull Hitchcock, Editor, AdoremusLeon Suprenant, National President, Catholics United for the FaithMichael Rose, noted author...