The US supreme court’s ruling on landmark abortion case will be felt most keenly by women
The court found former gynaecologist Eduardo Vela guilty of taking Ines Madrigal, now 49, away from her mother as a newborn in 1969
Organised religion, which tells us to believe in invisible things, does not tackle real suffering
The nun was beatified in 2003 after the procedure to establish her case for sainthood was started two years after her death instead of the usual five.
Twenty-five years ago in Venda, a man died for his beliefs at the hands of a vicious mob. Now he is poised to become South Africa’s first saint.
Pope Benedict arrived in Mexico this weekend promising to "unmask the evil" of drug trafficking in a country ravaged by gang violence.
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/ 24 November 2010
The pope’s view that condoms can sometimes be used to fight Aids has kindled a lively debate among Roman Catholic theologians and commentators.
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/ 2 February 2009
Attacks on the pope’s decision to lift the excommunication of a Holocaust denier escalated on Monday, with a theologian calling on him to step down.
”I am not a monster. I’m also not a God. In the best case I’m an angel,” muses a doctor in a Dutch play about euthanasia, before delivering a lethal injection to an old friend, a cancer patient. The Good Death is playing to packed houses across The Netherlands, which became the first country to legalise euthanasia in 2002.
Zimbabwe’s ruling party has said that a second round of presidential elections could be delayed by up to a year in a move that would extend Robert Mugabe’s rule even though he admits to having lost the first round of voting five weeks ago. The election commission is expected to meet soon to set a date for the run-off vote between Mugabe and the opposition candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai.
Kidnappers of a Chaldean Catholic archbishop found dead in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul had demanded a -million ransom, a senior police official said on Friday. Paulos Faraj Rahho, the archbishop of Mosul, 390km north of Baghdad, was abducted on February 29 after gunmen attacked his car and killed his driver and two guards.
Northern Ireland’s largest Protestant party scrambled on Wednesday to secure a seamless transfer of power after its firebrand leader, Ian Paisley, announced his departure, drawing tributes from all sides. Paisley said on Tuesday he would step down as Democratic Unionist Party head in May.
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/ 31 January 2008
The head of the Orthodox Church of Greece, Archbishop Christodoulos, who died on January 28 aged 69 after a seven-month battle with liver cancer, was a charismatic orator who captivated and divided Greek society with his strong views on nationalism and church-state relations.
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/ 29 January 2008
A Carnival float with a pile of model dead bodies commemorating the Holocaust is causing unease before the lavish parades in Rio de Janeiro this weekend. The Viradouro samba organisation plans to feature the display when it marches in the Sambadrome parade strip on Sunday, despite objections from a local Jewish group.
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/ 24 December 2007
Gloom was banished from Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem for the first time in years on Monday as Christian pilgrims from all over the world flocked here to celebrate the birth of Jesus in an atmosphere of renewed tranquillity. In the Gaza Strip, however, the mood was much more somber than in Bethlehem.
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/ 19 December 2007
The Vatican newspaper <i>L’Osservatore Romano</i> has criticised the children’s film <i>The Golden Compass</i> starring Nicole Kidman, calling it "anti-Christmas". Co-starring British actor Daniel Craig, the film is a "fantasy saga with 1960s sauce," the paper said in its Tuesday evening edition.
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/ 30 November 2007
Humanity will not be saved by progress, science or political revolution, but only in the collective hope offered by Christianity, Pope Benedict XVI said on Friday in a theological letter setting out his views on faith. The ”Spe Salvi [Saved by Hope]” encyclical is the second of his papacy and intended as a guidance for the worldwide Roman Catholic flock.
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/ 20 November 2007
Hoping you’ll pardon the familiarity, taking liberties with your first name and all. But in my business, as you know, everyone is on a first name basis. You know, "Leonardo", "Angelina", "Paris". Though I haven’t yet been graced with the pleasure of having you on my couch, I feel like we really know each other. For one, we have more in common than you’d believe …
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/ 13 October 2007
Yes, said Claudio Amicucci, some of the other fans were having some difficulty coming to grips with the idea. ”It’s such a big and original project.” Amicucci had turned up early to watch his team, AC Ancona, play their first game since learning that they were in effect being taken over by the Roman Catholic Church.