When Pope Francis announced Tuesday (Dec. 17) that he had abolished pontifical secrecy for cases of clerical sexual abuse, some observers compared the move to a regime opening its secret files, bringing to light years of testimony and documents.
The new protocol will transform legal proceedings and the lives of abuse victims, those accused of abusing them and bishops in charge of exercising oversight.
“This is a tremendous step forward in transparency and the right of victims’ participation” in canonical trials and “also the rights of the accused,” Dutch canon lawyer Myriam Wijlens told Religion News Service in a phone interview Wednesday.

During Thursday night’s debate in Los Angeles, Democratic presidential contender Elizabeth Warren called on lawmakers in Mitch McConnell’s Senate to stop pledging loyalty to Donald Trump and instead uphold the oath they took to the U.S. Constitution.

“Everyone now in the Senate has taken a constitutional oath to uphold our Constitution, and that doesn’t mean loyalty to an individual. It doesn’t mean loyalty to a political party,” Warren said. “It means loyalty to our country. ”

Pence said, “Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats are having their say tonight.”
Some in the crowd try to start a lock her up chant, which ended about as well as the four more years chant that the crowd tried to start for Trump later on.

Half of active-duty military personnel contacted in the poll held an unfavorable view of President Trump, showing a continued decline in his approval rating since he was elected in 2016.
Trump’s 42 percent approval in the latest poll, conducted from Oct. 23 to Dec. 2, sets his lowest mark in the survey since being elected president. Some 50 percent of troops said they had an unfavorable view of him. By comparison, just a few weeks after his electoral victory in November 2016, 46 percent of troops surveyed had a positive view of the businessman-turned-politician, and 37 percent had a negative opinion.

Caring for God's Creation is an inherent part of religious life. From mountaintops to forests, green pastures to still waters, stars in the sky to lilies of the field, we experience the gift of Creation. With God's Earth experiencing environmental problems, many religious Americans are seeking to respond through their faith.

The National Religious Partnership for the Environment brings together a diverse alliance of faith institutions and leaders in order to bring voice and action on behalf of caring for God's Creation. Through NRPE's four partners we bring together 160,000 congregations in the U.S. to protect God's creation through worship, education, stewardship and public witness.
Mission Statement
Guided by biblical teaching, the Partnership seeks to encourage people of faith to weave values and programs of care for God's creation throughout the
entire fabric of religious life:
• Liturgy, worship and prayer;
• Theological study, the education of future clergy, and of the young;
• The stewardship of our homes, lands and resources;
• Protecting the lives of our communities and health of our children;
• Our social ministry to the poor and vulnerable who have first and preferential claim on our conscience; and
• Bringing the perspectives of moral values and social justice before public policymakers.

Community Christian Church’s annual Christmas pageant includes all the classics.
There’s “O Little Town of Bethlehem” and “Away in a Manger.”
And everyone's favorite sing-a-long: “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”
The church's annual “Let It Be Christmas: The Gospel according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, George and Ringo” sets the story of Jesus’ birth, which Christians celebrate at Christmas, to the music of the Beatles.
It mixes Scripture, songs and dance into what Community calls a “magical mystery tour through the gospels to tell the greatest story of all time, with the greatest music of all time!”

Trump has lied about his health from the moment that he became a candidate. Nothing that Trump or his representatives have said about his health is true. It is troubling that the country doesn’t know if the President Of The United States is healthy.

The Nativity scene at Claremont United Methodist Church is striking.
Mannequins of Jesus, Mary and Joseph are separated in individual cages topped with barbed wire. A baby Jesus is wrapped in what resembles a Mylar blanket, similar to the sheets migrants have been given in holding cells.

On a podium, a message reads: “What if this family sought refuge in our country today?”
The Rev. Martha Morales said the church's intention was not to be controversial or political. Instead, she said, the church is trying to be faithful to its calling to do God's work.
“Our purpose is to say, ‘This is what we believe that God is calling us to do.' You’ve got to call out evil and lift up justice,” said Morales, associate pastor at Claremont United Methodist.

Even before Democrats finish drafting bills to create a single-payer health care system, the health care and insurance industries have assembled a small army of lobbyists to kill “Medicare for all,” an idea that is mocked publicly but is being greeted privately with increasing seriousness.
Doctors, hospitals, drug companies and insurers are intent on strangling Medicare for all before it advances from an aspirational slogan to a legislative agenda item. They have hired a top lieutenant in Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign to spearhead the effort. And their tactics will show Democrats what they are up against as the party drifts to the left on health care.