BERLIN — Cheers rang out in the City Hall of Berlin’s Schöneberg district on Sunday as two men, who met 38 years ago, when the German capital was a divided city, became the country’s first same-sex couple to legally marry.

The couple, Bodo Mende, 60, and Karl Kreile, 59, were wed in a civil ceremony, surrounded by a crush of photographers and television cameras eager to capture the historic moment.

Not even the crying of a child among the relatives and friends who attended the event interrupted their joy as the couple exchanged a long kiss after they were pronounced husband and husband.  continue reading

A day after evangelical leaders released a manifesto railing against same-sex marriage and the LGBTQ community, hundreds of Christian leaders and thousands of other concerned citizens have come forward with strong messages of inclusion.  continue reading

Shazia Ashraf watched from a boat as her mattress floated in six feet of water in her Houston home. Underneath the murky depths she could see her washer and dryer. Her fridge had somehow migrated to the living room.

As she pulled away from her flooded home, grateful that she had managed to save her kittens, her immediate thoughts turned to helping others. It was instinct. In the days after Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas, displacing tens of thousands of people, hundreds of Muslims like Ashraf put aside their own suffering to come to the aid of those in need.

For Ashraf, who is the chairwoman of a committee for the Islamic Society of Greater Houston, that involved helping turn at least five area mosques into shelters. As the storm hit and the flooding ensued, the mosques have been providing cots and food to displaced people who may have otherwise never stepped foot inside.  continue reading

​Dear Senator:

We, Catholic Sisters in the United States, write to urge you to cast a life-affirming “no” vote against the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA). We have many concerns with this bill, but we are most troubled by the cuts it would make to Medicaid by ending the Medicaid expansion and instituting a per capita cap. Our faith urges us to care for all people and all of creation, especially the most vulnerable. The BCRA would be the most harmful legislation for American families in our lifetimes, and it goes against our Catholic faith teaching.

As Pope Francis teaches, “health is not a consumer good, but a universal right, so access to health services cannot be a privilege.” Responding to this integral part of our faith, many of our religious congregations founded hospitals and hospital systems in the United States. Other congregations sponsor clinics and various services for people on the economic margins. The passage of this bill would cause far more suffering than we could possibly attend to through charity. For this reason we are speaking out.

As Catholic women religious, we have witnessed firsthand the moral crisis of lack of quality, affordable healthcare in this country. We have seen early and avoidable deaths because of lack of insurance, prohibitive costs, and lack of access to quality care. We fought for the expansion of coverage in the Affordable Care Act because we saw the life-giving value of crucial healthcare programs such as Medicaid. This program covers over 70 million Americans, including children, pregnant women (and nearly half of all births in this country), people with disabilities, people struggling to get by, and senior citizens. Further, some of our fellow women religious rely on Medicaid in nursing homes when we can no longer care for our sisters at home.

The BCRA would end the Medicaid program as we know it by taking lifesaving healthcare away from millions. The BCRA takes hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid and gives it to the very wealthiest individuals and corporations in the form of tax breaks. This is simply immoral and contrary to the teachings of our Catholic faith. Jesus teaches that “whatever you did for one of the least of my brothers and sisters, you did for me.” Our response should not be to take healthcare away from the most vulnerable by cutting and capping Medicaid.

To cut Medicaid and take healthcare from millions of people is not a pro-life stance. We urge you to be mindful of the needs of all of our people and the call to the common good. Vote no on the BCRA.

​From Huffington Post World’s Top Religious Leaders Issue Rare Joint Appeal “Our advice is to make friends to followers of all religions.” By Carol Kuruvilla

​Religion is often viewed as a force that sows divisions between people. But the world’s most prominent religious leaders have come together to present a different vision of how faith can work in the world. 

In a rare move, major religious leaders ― from Pope Francis to the Dalai Lama ― issued a joint appeal Wednesday asking people to follow a simple bit of advice: Make friends with people of other faiths.  continue reading

Last year, a gunman stormed into the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, a place frequented by many in the gay community, and killed 49 people. It was the largest mass murder in US history. In response, many religious leaders expressed sympathy for the people of Orlando, as well as for the LGBTQ community.

Many Catholic leaders did the same. But of the over 250 Catholic bishops in this country, only a handful mentioned the words gay or LGBTQ. It was as if speaking those words would signal a tacit approval of a group that the Catholic Church has long held at arm’s length.

To me, it was a confirmation of what many Catholics already knew: There is no group more marginalized in the church today than the LGBTQ community. Even in death they remained invisible.  Continue reading.

Here’s who Mary Magdalene was: one of Jesus Christ’s original followers, the last to stay with him while he was nailed to the cross and, Christians believe, the first to see his empty tomb and his resurrection.

Here’s who she wasn’t: a reformed or forgiven prostitute.

Yet on Easter Sunday, Christianity’s holiest day, that’s exactly how she will be described in some sermons and how she continues to be portrayed in much of popular culture.  continue reading