The Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales has distanced itself from comments on gay adoptions made by the head of Marriage Care.

Terry Prendergast, head of Marriage Care, a marriage-counselling agency sponsored by the Catholic bishops of England, has claimed that same-sex couples can be as successful as heterosexual married couples in raising children.

He said: "statistically, children do best in a family where the adult relationship is steady, stable and loving. Note that I stress adult, not married, since there is no evidence that suggests that children do best with heterosexual couples."

The Bishops said "the views expressed by Terry Prendergast about the definition of family and marriage are clearly not a reflection of the Church's teaching, nor those of the Bishops' Conference."

Buttiglione on abortion

Rocco Buttiglione, a noted Italian Catholic politician has said that pro-life activists should join in efforts to make abortion rare, rather than concentrate exclusively on making it illegal.

Buttiglione told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera that Catholic politicial activists should be more attuned to the needs of pregnant women.

Zambian bishops defend freedom of the press

Zambian bishops have defended the freedom of the press following the arrest of a journalist who photographed a mother giving birth on a city street, thus illustrating the consequences of a strike by healthcare workers.

"The government must clamp down on violence against the media. Furthermore, the government must itself desist from the harassment, persecution and prosecution of individual journalists, media institutions and ordinary citizens perceived to hold different views from those favoured by the government," the bishops said in a July 19 statement.

No Mass against Madonna concert

The Archdiocese of Warsaw rejected a request by Catholic protesters to hold an open-air Mass as part of a 'public prayer crusade' against a Madonna concert scheduled for August 15, the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Fr Henryk Malecki, spokesman for the archdiocese, said the request was rejected because "Mass can't be treated as a form of protest."

The Mass request, made by Marian Brudzynski, head of the Committee for the Protection of Faith and National Traditions, asked for permission to stage an open-air Mass and rosary service outside Warsaw's city government offices to protest against the scheduled concert.

Basque bishops apologise

Catholic bishops from Spain's Basque region have apologised for keeping quiet about the killing of 14 priests by Franco's forces during the Spanish Civil War.

Bishop Miguel Asurmendi Aramendia of Vitoria said it was not justifiable or acceptable for the Church's official media to remain silent about these deaths. "We believe such a long silence was not only a wrongful omission, but also a lack of truth and an act against justice and charity..."

Mgr Asurmendi said the priests were denied public burial rites, and most of their deaths were not recorded in diocesan registers.

(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)