What happened to Catholic vote?

Despite the efforts of the Catholic Church to sway the electorate into supporting senatorial candidates it deemed good for the country, some of its leaders ended up disappointed with the results of the elections. Lipa Archbishop Ramon Arguelles, who had publicly endorsed candidates  who fought against the reproductive health (RH) law, on Tuesday said he [...]

Catholic growth rates widen between Asia and Europe

Catholicism is spreading faster in Asia and Africa than anywhere else in the world, according to comparative data released yesterday by the Vatican that shows it stagnating and even declining in the Americas, Europe and Oceania. Statistics show that the growth of Catholics in Asia greatly outpaces that of the general population. Between 2010 and [...]

Cardinal Tagle: ‘Save our elections’

The country’s top churchman called on the public to ‘save’ the upcoming local and national elections, which he said had been marred by controversies in the past. Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle said people should help each other “to save our country” against efforts to kill clean elections on May 13. “It has to [...]

Clergy complain about a club called The Church and a DJ called Jesus

A row has erupted between a town’s churchgoers and a nightclub owner after he opened a venue called The Church which depicts Jesus as a disc jockey. Church leaders were left disgruntled at the sight of a crucified Jesus silhouetted as a DJ outside the nightclub in Botchergate, Carlisle. The club’s landlord has further enraged [...]

Philippines’ Roman Catholic Church’s influence wanes

In cathedrals around the Philippines, huge black-and-red banners are asking the faithful to choose between “Team Life” and “Team Death,” with priests warning the nation’s soul is at stake. The signs are part of efforts by the Catholic church to assert influence in the coming week’s midterm elections, with politicians who supported a birth-control law [...]

What real Mission requires, Bishop Jin had in spades

I first met Bishop Aloysius Jin Luxian in 1987 in Shanghai. Then 71, he had been back in his native city since 1982 after 27 years in jail or custody of one kind or another. Locked up with hundreds of other Catholics in Shanghai in 1955, he came back in 1982 to one of the [...]

Church flexes poll clout

“Junk the RH law! Junk the RH law!” the brave 6,000 chanted. Rain failed to stop them from converging on the public plaza here on Saturday to demand the repeal of the reproductive health (RH) law. The ralliers, all drenched, promised to support in next month’s elections candidates who voted against the RH bill in [...]

Has Pope Francis made it OK for priests to hug children?

“I make sure,” said my friend, “that I am never alone with my nephews and nieces.” That comment came from a priest. We were talking about the most sensitive topic imaginable: the fallout from the clerical sexual abuse scandals and the way that has affected our priesthood. It is something that many priests often discuss [...]

Church senior signals shift in attitude to gay couples

“It is necessary to recognize the union of persons of the same sex, because there are many couples that suffer because their civil rights aren’t recognized. What can’t be recognized is that this union is equivalent to marriage”. Archbishop Piero Marini, delegate for Eucharistic congresses, said this yesterday in an interview given during the IV National [...]

Pope Francis urged to appoint more women and fewer Europeans

Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras said he was backing more posts for women after the Pope named him this month to lead a task force of eight cardinals from around the world to reform the Roman Curia, an alleged hotbed of intrigue, infighting and corruption. The cardinal’s comments, made to The Sunday Times, [...]

Dwindling Catholic church membership

From reader MarPatalinjug@aol.com: Catholic priests blame boring sermons, second collections, explain why many Filipino Catholics now do not bother to go to church. Where c. 64 percent bother to go to church in 1991, now only around 37 percent bother to do so! What must be more alarming to the CBCP–Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines–as [...]

Facebook and TV are killing church numbers, says youth commission head

The head of the bishop’s conference youth commission has said that the distracting influence of the internet, sites like Facebook and too much television are to blame for declining church attendances in the Philippines. Father Kunegundo Garganta said that the internet has become a “virtual world” where the youth cannot find Mass or the Church. “[Young [...]

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