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4 weeks ago | 
religionnews.com | Paul O'Donnell |Phyllis Zagano
(RNS) — Yes, our new pope said something about women deacons. He said it is under study. Anyone looking for a quick answer from Pope Leo XIV, a canon lawyer, former diocesan bishop in Peru, former head of the Vatican department responsible for choosing bishops and member of seven other Vatican dicasteries, a mathematics major at Villanova University and Chicago White Sox fan, will have to wait. He is very much a synodal man. On Oct.
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1 month ago | 
religionnews.com | Paul O'Donnell |Phyllis Zagano
(RNS) — Pope Francis is dead. Will a new pope make any difference for women? Of course, we do not know who the new pope will be, but he will most certainly be chosen from the cardinals set to gather in Rome to elect the next successor to St. Peter.
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1 month ago | 
religionnews.com | Paul O'Donnell |Phyllis Zagano
(RNS) — The New Yorker magazine has just managed to insult Christians and Jews alike with a cartoon depicting the Last Supper. In the drawing, by Adam Sacks, Jesus, sitting at what we take to be the Last Supper, says to the apostles, “So this is my body, the wine is my blood, and the chocolate bunny is a fun springtime treat.” A loaf of bread, a chalice and a large chocolate bunny are in the middle of the table. It’s tone-deaf. It’s outrageous. It probably earned Sacks a pretty penny. It’s not funny.
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2 months ago | 
religionnews.com | Paul O'Donnell |Paul Brandeis Raushenbush
(RNS) — In the few weeks since the inauguration of President Donald Trump, there have been a distressing number of American institutions and corporations that have “obeyed in advance,” to borrow a phrase from the historian Timothy Snyder. Target, Pepsi, Google and McDonald’s, to name just a few corporations, have agreed to halt efforts at increasing diversity and equity and inclusion.
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2 months ago | 
religionnews.com | Paul O'Donnell |Phyllis Zagano
(RNS) — Just when it looked like the anti-Francis forces would have their chance to “fix” the Catholic Church, Pope Francis left Gemelli Hospital. It was a close call, but Francis’ reforms will outlast him. That includes his major reform, the Synod on Synodality, the worldwide program of prayer and conversation about how the church can live its mission going forward.
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Feb 21, 2025 | 
religionnews.com | Paul O'Donnell |Phyllis Zagano
(RNS) — President Donald Trump, who spent two college years at a Jesuit school, seems to have an affinity for hiring Catholics. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are cradle Catholics, as is Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. Education Secretary Linda McMahon is a convert, as is Vice President JD Vance. The notable exception is Elon Musk, baptized in the Anglican Church of South Africa.
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Jan 27, 2025 | 
religionnews.com | Paul O'Donnell |Phyllis Zagano
(RNS) — Noting that women are better managers than men, Pope Francis announced he is adding another woman to his administrative staff, naming Franciscan Sister Raffaella Petrini to succeed retiring Spanish Cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga as president of the Governatorate of Vatican City State. She will be the second woman to head a curial office, joining Sister Simona Bambilla, the new prefect of the Dicastery for Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
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Jan 22, 2025 | 
religionnews.com | Paul O'Donnell |Paul Brandeis Raushenbush
(RNS) — “The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today” by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, published in 1873, gave the period from the late 19th to early 20th century its most lasting metaphor — a thin veneer of gold that hid layers of poverty, corruption and suffering beneath. On Monday (Jan. 20), Donald Trump launched his inaugural speech with a promise that “The golden age of America begins right now,” but it was hard not to hear “gilded” rather than “golden” and to take Trump’s promise as a threat.
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Nov 22, 2024 | 
religionnews.com | Paul O'Donnell |Phyllis Zagano
(RNS) — Winston Churchill famously said, “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.” If the Catholic Church forgets history, it is simply doomed. Pope Francis recently issued a letter “On the renewal of the study of the history of the Church.” No matter: Francis himself seems to have forgotten the history of women ordained as deacons. When he spoke with CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell in an interview last spring, she asked if young girls would be able to become deacons someday.
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Oct 31, 2024 | 
religionnews.com | Paul O'Donnell |Phyllis Zagano
(RNS) — As the U.S. presidential election draws near, a booming “fake news” business is targeting Catholics, especially those inclined to vote for Kamala Harris. Self-proclaimed “Catholic” websites and emailed “news” briefs push pro-Trump spins on news stories, often veering outside the margins of responsible reporting.
