In churches mandating a sponsor only one godparent is required; two (in most churches, of different sex) are permitted.
In December, lawmakers in the Philippines passed a reproductive health law — despite vocal opposition by the Roman Catholic Church — that mandates sex education in schools, provides free or subsidized contraceptives for poor women and puts government family planning officers in remote parts of the country.
From the outset of his papacy in March, Francis, who is 76, has chosen to use the global spotlight to focus on the church's mandate to serve the poor and oppressed.
The radical Reformation almost always restored the sense of an apostolate (missionary outreach), whereas some earlier Reformers neglected the importance of missionary activity, and some had even excluded it from the contemporary church's mandate.
At least 1,000 workers nationwide are employed in carrying out the charter's mandates, church officials say.
Over the years, several judges around the country have mandated church attendance as part of sentences, sometimes stirring criticism.
The remarks by Mr. Ashcroft could be read to abrogate the bounds of separation of church and state mandated by the Constitution, at least rhetorically.
There's no criticism of any particular church doctrine or mandate; rather, Moretti takes on the church as an institution, suggesting that it's grotesquely hypocritical, even a betrayal of Christian faith, to run a church without being in the habit walking in the street and getting dog shit on your shoes.
But an intemperate reaction to a particular way of framing church-state issues is not exactly the same thing as a call to mandate church attendance, or to deny Jews and agnostics the right to hold public office, or to behead Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris for their offenses against theism.
Some local officials attempted to force conversions to Protestantism by mandating church attendance and persecuting Catholics, but Rainilaiarivony quickly responded to quell these overzealous practices.
