DALLAS, Texas – Citing legal and community changes, the Boy Scouts of America have said self-declared gender identity now determines youth eligibility for its scouting programs. The move could add new difficulties for Catholic sponsors of scout troops trying to adapt to the organization’s relatively new policy on homosexuality.

VATICAN CITY – The updated version of the Vatican's document on priestly formation, released Wednesday, deals with issues of clericalism, homosexuality, and the protection of minors, among other things.

TORONTO – Canada’s Anglican Church has provisionally voted to amend its rules to allow clergy to celebrate same-sex marriages, a day after it narrowly defeated the measure.

ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT FROM ARMENIA – Catholics and other Christians not only must apologize to the gay community, they must ask forgiveness of God for ways they have discriminated against homosexual persons or fostered hostility toward them, Pope Francis said.

For years, seminaries and monasteries around France sent students and novices to Monsignor Tony Anatrella, a prominent French priest and therapist who has written disparagingly of gays, if their superiors decided the young men were struggling with homosexuality.

ROME – The Italian government's approval of a controversial bill that grants legal recognition to non-married heterosexual and homosexual couples is a defeat for democracy and family life, an Italian bishop said.

In light of the debates at the Synod on the Family in Rome, it is relevant to reflect on marriage from an African Christian perspective at a time when many Catholic homosexuals are suffering due to disagreement on their place in the  Church.

WARSAW, Poland - Poland's Catholic bishops pledged to resist changes to Catholic teaching on marriage and family life at October's synod on the family at the Vatican and rejected demands for reform by German-speaking Catholics.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis used his weekly audience Dec. 10 to challenge media reports of “clashes between factions” at the recent bishops’ Synod on family issues.

VATICAN CITY - When Pope Francis told reporters July 28, "Who am I to judge" a homosexual person, he was emphasizing a part of Catholic teaching often overlooked by the media and misunderstood by many people.

EDMONTON - While theology professor Paul Flaman has received positive feedback to his new book Homosexuality and Following Jesus, he expects the ultimate reaction will be mixed.

A priest-psychologist once told him, “It’s practically impossible to say anything significant about homosexuality without getting somebody mad at you.”

Nevertheless, Flaman is out to sow understanding, not division, all the while making the Catholic teaching clear to his readers.