1+ week, 4+ day ago (455+ words) Wicked seems to have cast a spell of attraction on audiences, from the 1995 bestselling novel to the Tony-nominated Broadway musical to the wildly popular movie adaptation, which opened its first installment as one of last year's biggest blockbusters. The second part, Wicked: For Good is widely expected to work similar magic when it opens this weekend. But what do actual self-identified witches think of Wicked? It's a tale that gives a sympathetic spin to the backstory of the Wicked Witch of the West, a character who terrified generations of children, in The Wizard of Oz. "Oh my God, I love Wicked!" announced Tiffany Walker, who owns a metaphysical boutique called Moonlit Mystic in Wayne, Mich., where she also organizes an annual occult-themed block party called Witches Be Witchin'. "I would consider myself an eclectic witch," she said, explaining that people…...

2+ week, 18+ hour ago (602+ words) VATICAN CITY " The Vatican on Saturday returned 62 artifacts to Indigenous peoples from Canada, a historic restitution that is part of the Catholic Church's reckoning with its role in helping suppress Indigenous culture in the Americas. Pope Leo XIV gave the artifacts, including an iconic Inuit kayak, and supporting documentation to a delegation of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, which is expected to return them to individual Indigenous communities. A joint statement from the Vatican and Canadian church described the pieces as a "gift" and a "concrete sign of dialogue, respect and fraternity." The items were part of the Vatican Museum's ethnographic collection, known as the Anima Mundi museum. The collection has been a source of controversy for the Vatican amid the broader museum debate over the restitution of cultural goods taken from Indigenous peoples during colonial periods. Most of…...

2+ week, 3+ day ago (776+ words) U.S. Catholic bishops voted Wednesday to make official a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender patients at Catholic hospitals. The step formalizes a yearslong process for the U.S. church to address transgender health care. From a Baltimore hotel ballroom, the bishops overwhelmingly approved revisions to their ethical and religious directives that guide the nation's thousands of Catholic health care institutions and providers. More than one in seven patients in the U.S. are treated each day at Catholic hospitals, according to the Catholic Health Association. Catholic hospitals are the only medical center in some communities. Most Catholic health care institutions have taken a conservative approach and not offered gender-affirming care, which may involve hormonal, psychological and surgical treatments. The new directives will formalize that mandate. Bishops will have autonomy in making the directives into law for their dioceses. "With regard to the gender ideology,…...

3+ week, 4+ day ago (1386+ words) SALZBURG, Austria " Morning Mass is underway at the chapel of Schloss Goldenstein, a convent in Elsbethen, an Austrian parish nestled between the church spires of Salzburg and the arresting backdrop of the Alps. Sister Rita is delighted to see so many people in attendance. As Catholic congregation numbers dwindle in Austria, Sister Rita says you'd expect the church to be equally thrilled by such tightly packed pews, but 82-year-old Rita and fellow Sisters Regina, 86, and Bernadette, 88, are in their superior's bad books. "People are calling us the rebellious sisters!" Rita says with a giggle and a glint in her eye. The three Augustinian sisters " who use only their religious names " recently ran away from a nursing home and, with the help of a local locksmith, broke back into the convent that used to be their home. Rita jokes that they…...