Roman Catholic Church

Catholic and Reformed: continuity and development

January 13, 2020
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Toward the end of his ministry as Archbishop of Canterbury (though it may have been just after the end), Rowan Williams was interviewed about his beliefs, and in particular his understanding of the nature and purpose of the Church of…

Clergy sexual abuse: why can’t the Church cleanse its own temple?

August 18, 2019
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"The gross evil of child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy would have gone unexposed had it not been for three principal agencies, all secular." That's the damning opening sentence of…

Boris Johnson becomes the first baptised Catholic to made Prime Minister

July 24, 2019
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Today is the Feast Day of St Boris (really). And today Boris Johnson kisses hands with the Queen (not the hand of the Queen) to become the 55th person to…

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Church of England guidance used against Christian in court

July 22, 2019
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There's something ever so slightly disquieting about this, but not for the reasons permeating the websites and chat-threads of Evangelical Christendom. Dr David Mackereth, who said in a Department of…

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Imposition or liberation? Abortion and same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland

July 16, 2019
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"If I was a Northern Ireland MLA I’d vote for equal marriage, just as I did in Westminster," tweeted former LibDem leader and committed Christian Tim Farron. "But I support…

Child sexual abuse: the Blackburn Pastoral Letter is game-changer for the Church of England

June 21, 2019
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When St Paul began writing his letters I doubt he expected them to become as copied, shared, dissected and analysed as they are today. He wrote to help and support…

Is a diocesan bishop about to break ranks over historic child abuse in the Church of England?

May 13, 2019
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The past few weeks have seen a huge escalation in the accumulation of evidence and opinion on the tragic story of the Church’s safeguarding failures. I write in the context…

‘General Synod has no confidence in the Church of England’s capacity to regulate its own safeguarding culture’

February 20, 2019
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The laicisation of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick by the Roman Catholic Church was one more step on the long journey towards cleansing that institution of sexual abuse, much of it…

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Anglican Ambassador to Rome denies the Resurrection of Christ

January 11, 2019
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The Anglican Centre in Rome is the Embassy of the Worldwide Anglican Communion to the Roman Catholic Church. Its Director is effectively the Archbishop of Canterbury's Ambassador to the Vatican;…

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Catholic Herald calls for disestablishment of the Church of England

October 4, 2018
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The Catholic Herald has long held a certain antipathy toward the term 'Protestant', with occasional blurts of 'bigot' aimed at anyone so obtuse as to be duped by its theology…

Bishop blocked by Twitter – for telling the truth about sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Church

October 1, 2018
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That notorious purveyor of hate and guile, the Rt Rev'd Dr Gavin Ashenden, has been blocked by Twitter. Actually, the tense is wrong: he was blocked by Twitter, but recanted…

Death penalty: Pope Francis hasn’t changed the teaching; he just ‘developed doctrine’

August 5, 2018
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One of the more curious aspects of Roman Catholic apologetics is its inability to answer certain specific questions to which it should have ready answers: 1. What is the content…

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Ofsted chief says they have ‘no anti-faith bias’, but does she have anti-Protestant leanings?

July 10, 2018
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Ofsted Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman gave a speech yesterday evening entitled 'The Ties that Bind', which concerned the need for a little more 'muscular liberalism' in education. She spoke at…

If Irish Catholic hospitals are forced to perform abortions, the Roman Catholic Church should close every one of them

June 14, 2018
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Well, that didn't take long, did it? ‘Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has hit out at socialist parties and groups in the Dáil, accusing them of wanting to “turn religious people into…

Pope Francis: “There is no hell; there is the disappearance of sinful souls”

April 2, 2018
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In the continuing assessment of whether or not the Pope is Catholic, the latest doctrinal confusion comes (again) from a statement reported by Eugenio Scalfari in La Repubblica. When asked…

The Church of England should welcome Methodists into the fold of the historic episcopacy

February 8, 2018
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This is a guest post by the Rev'd Marcus Walker, who was Deputy Director of the Anglican Centre in Rome until January 2018. He is to be Rector of the…

If the Pope can honour a pro-abortion activist, why not bless Durex?

January 15, 2018
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It is being widely reported that Pope Francis has bestowed the title of Commander in the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great upon pro-abortion activist Lilianne Ploumen, sometime…

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Reformation 500: Vatican postage stamp commemorates Luther and Melanchthon

November 24, 2017
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The Vatican has issued a postage stamp to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. At the foot of the cross, Martin Luther holds the Bible (the fons et origo…

Reformation 500: we are all Protestants now

October 31, 2017
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‘Reformation’ is an awkward word; so, of course, is ‘Protestant’. Both terms convey a sense of theological unity or ecclesial uniformity wrapped in a righteous evangelical zeal, when, in fact,…

COMECE: Roman Catholics should support EU integration

October 18, 2017
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COMECE is the Roman Catholic Church in the European Union (the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community). Its mission is to explore strange new worlds, to seek…