Biden is not the first public figure to whom the Catholic Church wants to deny Communion. Over the centuries, the Church has often come under criticism for either denying or giving Communion.
Scrutiny of the Catholic Church’s accountability for systemic harms and abuses perpetrated by and in residential schools has also turned attention on how the church has responded to wider calls to prevent and respond to sexual abuse.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/David Rossiter
Research on how the Catholic Church has responded to sexual abuse shows it’s not only time for the church to walk the talk, but to change the talk away from a defensive legalistic approach.
People across Canada, including this scene in Edmonton, have left shoes and candles at public displays in recognition of the discovery of children’s remains at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson
Ground-penetrating radar located the remains of 215 First Nations children in a mass unmarked grave, revealing a macabre part of Canada’s hidden history.
A mural depicting Pope Francis on a concrete wall around the Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad, in preparation for the pontiff’s visit,
AP/Photo/Khalid Mohammed
The events that followed the 2003 US invasion of Iraq started a cycle of violence against the country’s minority Christian population. The pope’s visit is meant to bring some ‘healing and comfort.’
Rihanna at the Met Gala in 2018 in a gender-bending pope outfit.
Justin Lane/EPA
The annual pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City will instead be held online due to the pandemic. A scholar explains its history and its connection to Mexican people.
The push to tighten Poland’s restrictive abortion laws has proved a lightning bolt moment for protesters.
Wojtek Raadwanski/AFP via Getty Images
Brian Grodsky, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Tens of thousands of people have defied bans on gatherings to protest abortion restrictions. A scholar of democracy says the policy push during a pandemic has echoes elsewhere.
The ceremony for the beatification of Carlo Acutis, an Italian boy who died in 2006 of leukemia, is held Oct. 10 in front of the St. Francis Basilica in Assisi, Italy.
AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia
Italian teenager Carlo Acutis, who died at the age of 15, is on the path to becoming a saint. A scholar explains the long history of child saints in the Catholic Church.
There are new calls for an inquiry into the suicide of whistleblower priest Glen Walsh. The Catholic church argues the events are ‘historical’ and have been addressed by previous inquiries.
Church leaders have raised concerns over a COVID-19 vaccine produced using cells derived from aborted foetuses. But the Vatican has already ruled such vaccines ‘morally separate’ from the abortions.
The abbey of St Genevieve in Paris was destroyed during the French revolution.
Nicolas Ransonnette (1745-1810). Dessinateur (illustrator) - Bibliothèque nationale de France
Narratives throughout history illustrate how pandemics make people grapple with their faith, leading them to deepen religious beliefs or reject them altogether.
Woodcut, circa 1400. A witch, a demon and a warlock fly toward a peasant woman.
Hulton Archive /Handout via Getty Images
The idea of organized satanic witchcraft was invented in 15th-century Europe by church and state authorities, who at first had a hard time convincing regular folks it was real.
Bob Santamaria knew four Australian prime ministers. Is he the most significant figure in Australian politics never to have held office?
A funeral director calls relatives of a COVID-19 victim for a virtual viewing before cremation on May 22, 2020 in New York City.
Misha Friedman/Getty Images
Religious scholars and faith leaders reflect on the death rites cultures have developed to honor the deceased, comfort the living and share the burden of mourning.
Pell said after his acquittal he would ‘be very surprised if there’s any bad findings’ in the redacted portions of the royal commission report. This is not the case.
He may be praying, but so far the Pope has declined to intervene in Venezuela’s crisis to aid a unified coronavirus response.
LUIS ACOSTA/AFP via Getty Images
If anyone can convince the Maduro government and the Venezuelan opposition to come together to fight COVID-19, it’s the Pope. But the Church’s power to negotiate an emergency deal is limited.
This High Court appeal did not ask whether Pell committed the offences. It asked whether the two majority judges in the Victorian Court of Appeal, in dismissing Pell’s earlier appeal, made an error.
Despite recommendations from the Child Abuse Royal Commission that church leaders develop measures to increase women’s participation and status in the church, the opposite is occurring.