The Pope Might Make Destroying the Earth a Sin. Will Catholics Listen?
Pope Francis leads a special Mass on the occasion of the World Day of Poor in St. Peter’s Basilica, on November 17, 2019 in Vatican City, Vatican.Alessandra Benedetti/Getty This piece originally appeared in Grist and appears here as part of our Climate Desk Partnership. Pope Francis is not your average pope. He’s weighed in on prison reform and women’s…
Mike Pence’s Office Pushed to Reroute Foreign Aid to Favored Christian Groups
Vice President Mike Pence speaks at the Heritage Foundation Honors in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019. AP/Jose Luis Magana This story originally appeared on ProPublica. Last November, a top Trump appointee at the U.S. Agency for International Development wrote a candid email to colleagues about pressure from the White House to reroute Middle East aid to…
What Do Evangelical Christians Really Think About Climate Change?
Education Images/Universal Images Group/Getty This story was originally published by Newsweek and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The vast majority of scientists agree climate change is an existing, growing, and man-made threat to our planet. And yet the topic is a divisive issue in the US—not least among people of faith. White evangelical Christians…
Hundreds of New Child Sex Abuse Cases Are Flooding New York’s Courts
ChiccoDodiFC/Getty When 52-year-old Michael Whalen stood up in front of the St. Louis Roman Catholic Church in downtown Buffalo, New York, in February 2018, to tell his story of being sexually abused by a priest as a teenager, it set off a Spotlight-style chain reaction. The accused priest, the Rev. Norbert F. Orsolits, told a…
Should Clergy Be Required to Report Abusers Who Confess?
Chicetin/Getty Kristy Johnson was 6 years old in 1969, when her father, an educator employed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, began sexually abusing her at their home in Utah. Her mother discovered what was happening and sought help from their local Mormon bishop. But according to a civil lawsuit Johnson filed…
“Beyond My Pay Grade”: When Pete Buttigieg Had a Chance to Stand Firm on Abortion Rights, He Dodged
Mother Jones illustration; Getty; Zuma Mayor Pete Buttigieg was keeping a low profile. It was last spring, and he was in the middle of deliberating what he would later call “one of the hardest decisions” he’s had to make during his tenure in South Bend, Indiana. An abortion clinic—which was hoping to offer service to…