Pope Francis said he supports the idea of setting a fixed date for Easter Sunday, which for centuries has moved back and forth according to the lunar calendar.

Easter and the Holy Week that precedes it is rooted in the Jewish Passover and fixed on the first full moon, which falls on the first Sunday after the spring equinox, March 21. MORE

OSLO, Norway, July 1 (UPI) — The Catholic Church is appealing a claim from government officials in Oslo, Norway that the church pay $5.1 million in compensation for participating in fraudulent practices.

The Oslo diocese, its bishop and its financial officer are accused of fraudulently registering thousands of people on its membership lists as to receive greater subsidies from the government. MORE

Hey, the protestants are wising up.

The United Church of Christ has voted to divest from companies with business in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.

The U.S.-based denomination endorsed the action on a vote of 508-124, with 38 abstentions, during a national meeting. MORE

At lunch recently, a dear Catholic friend of mine talked to me about the practice of abstaining from meat at Lent and on other occasions. He said that a priest reminded people that if they were busy judging others for not having the same self-will or piety they had themselves, then they should “Eat a Cheeseburger and Save Your Soul.”

I thought it was such a wonderful idea, I immediately wanted to apply it to Mormonism. MORE

I’ll explain this in detail on the four things Catholics need to do in these immoral and Apocalyptic Times.

I. Prayer daily of any kind of Catholic prayers. Rosary preferred.

2. Read the readings and Gospel in your Missal for each day of the week. If you don’t have a daily missal then read a passage or two in the New Testament. Go through the whole book, over and over again untill the end. Continue reading →

A Ten Commandments monument on the Oklahoma Capitol grounds is a religious symbol and must be removed because it violates the state’s constitutional ban on using public property to benefit a religion, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

The court said the Ten Commandments chiseled into the 6-foot-tall granite monument, which was privately funded by a Republican legislator, are “obviously religious in nature and are an integral part of the Jewish and Christian faiths.” MORE

President Barack Obama announced Wednesday that the United States and Cuba have struck a deal to open embassies in each other’s capitals and re-establish diplomatic relations between them for the first time in half a century.

“The progress we make today is another demonstration we don’t have to be imprisoned by the past, the president said.

In making the announcement, the president acknowledged that while there are some shared interest, such as anti-terrorism, there remain serious and profound differences on such issues as human rights and freedom of speech that the two nations continue to have “very serious differences” on, the president said. MORE

The Newport-Inglewood Fault Zone in the Los Angeles Basin is leaking helium leaving researchers to believe the fault zone is not only much deeper, but that it could leave a far more devastating quake in its path then they had originally intended. Just prior to this breaking news the U.S. Geological Survey upped their warning in the California area stating that the risk of ‘the big one’ has just increased.

“We’re not looking to make an app to get you a latte faster,” reads the slogan of Biology Is Technology, the Pentagon’s research symposium held this week in New York City. “We’re looking to solve problems that matter.”

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency had tasked the best and brightest startups, major industry players and universities to create the Next Big Thing in science — no easy feat. (One big ask: As Mic reported Wednesday, DARPA expressed interest in controlling human adrenal responses, lowering anxiety and fear in U.S. soldiers.) MORE

I remember once while on a trip to Arizona asking a long-time resident of Phoenix why anyone would want to live in such a godforsaken place. I wasn’t at all fooled by the green lawns and the swimming pools and knew that we were standing in the middle of a desert over the bones of the Hohokam Indians whose civilization had shriveled up under the brutality of the Sonora sun. The person I was speaking to had a quick retort to my east coast skepticism. MORE

In a time of reality shows and endless attempts to out-outrage people, now we have a new twist and, a new low: abortion extortion.

According to a report by Headline News, a 26-year-old woman who says she is seven weeks pregnant is threatening to abort her unborn child unless she is paid $1 million to “save” it.

Beginning July 7, individuals will have 72 hours to come up with the money, presumably via crowdfunding, according to her ProlifeAntiwoman.com website, where she posted her threat. MORE

The negative reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court’s creation of a right to same-sex “marriage” is surging, with clerks quitting, judges dropping their license procedures and even one U.S. senator telling people it should be ignored.

By a 5-4 majority, including two justices who publicly had advocated for same-sex marriage and possibly violated ethics standards by participating in the case, the Supreme Court on Friday ordered that states could not refuse to grant same-sex duos marriage licenses or recognize such licenses from other states. MORE

Tonight, two astronomical objects are destined to meet: The planet named after the Goddess of love, Venus, and the planet named after the God of Thunder, Jupiter. On Earth, they will appear so close together that they will look like a dramatic “double star.”

These two planets have been gradually approaching each other for the last few weeks, creeping toward their closest point: 1/3° apart. That’s close enough to be able to cover them with the tip of your pinky finger with an outstretched arm. In reality, they will be around 670 million kilometers (416 million miles) apart in space.

The planets will also look like they’re of a similar size, but Jupiter is actually the largest planet in our solar system and Venus is smaller than Earth. It is thanks to their relative distances that they appear to be of a similar size when peered at from Earth. MORE

The nanny state is at it again this week. A mother in Maine was arrested and charged with child endangerment, after letting her young daughter play in a park near her house. Because of course we can’t have kids playing in a park right? That simply won’t do. MORE

After sunset on Decision Day, the White House is awash in rainbow light tonight, and the rainbow revolution has spread to the other coast and overseas.

And, cue the camera phones! Here’s a roundup of what Twitter users have so far found being illuminated in rainbow spirit after today’s marriage ruling. (Update: Other Twitter users point out that some of these photos being shared in celebration are from previous times when the landmarks were lit up.)