Hundreds of Catholic schools in Australia have been asked not to help children undertake gender transition. In a rare intervention, Australia’s Catholic bishops told the schools that sex is not a social construct but a “physical, biological reality.” Society has “widely adopted the belief that each person’s innermost concept of themselves determines their gender identity,” Read more
A German archdiocese is selecting lay people to help to choose its next archbishop. The incumbent, Archbishop Hans-Josef Becker, turns 75 next June and has submitted his resignation to Pope Francis. The Archdiocese of Paderborn says it is drawing lots to choose a 14-member lay group made up of men and women. Paderborn’s cathedral chapter Read more
A Swiss Catholic laywoman has allegedly concelebrated Mass to mark her retirement as a pastoral worker. Monika Schmid, who who has been de facto administrator at a parish in the Swiss Catholic diocese of Chur in German-speaking Switzerland “presided” at the August 28 farewell Mass, preached the homily and concelebrated the Eucharist. “As diocesan bishop, Read more
Pope Francis says he has taken it on himself to rid the Catholic Church of sexual abuse, telling CNN Portugal that he was “responsible that it doesn’t happen anymore”. In a wide-ranging interview in Rome last month, the Pontiff said the church had “zero tolerance” for abuse and said that “a priest cannot remain a Read more
The director of the Benedict XVI Institute in Regensburg, Germany, says a “healthy defence of the faith” is necessary if Catholics are to credibly spread the Gospel in contemporary societies. Evangelisation draws on “the beauty and radiance of faith,” Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer (pictured) of Regensburg told CNA Deutsch in an interview published 1 September. “However, Read more
Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster congratulated the United Kingdom’s new prime minister, Liz Truss, and urged her to focus on the poor by immediately halting the country’s declining living standards. The cardinal, president of the English and Welsh bishops’ conference, said many people in the UK would be facing the choice between “heating and eating” Read more
In a new interview, Pope Francis laid to rest rumours that a papal visit to Kyiv could happen before his visit to Kazakhstan next week, saying he has been forbidden by doctors from travelling before that due to his ongoing knee troubles. Speaking to CNN Portugal, the pope said he has spoken to both Ukrainian Read more
Catholic doctors and medical scholars from across the world will meet in Rome in mid-September to discuss and get training on “Christian humanism” in the medical context. The 26th World Congress of Catholic Physicians will be held from 15 to 17 September. It is being organised by the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations (FIAMC), Read more
Britney Spears said in an Instagram audio story yesterday that she now considers herself an atheist. Her explanation, however, feeds right into flawed stereotypes Christians often have about why people stop believing in God. Most atheists have a story about why they stopped believing in God. Perhaps something caused them to begin questioning their faith. Read more
Pope Francis has selected Luis Herrera Tejedor, a Catholic layman from Spain, to be the director of the Holy See’s newly-created “Human Resources Department”. The position is stipulated in Praedicate evangelium, the apostolic constitution on the Roman Curia, which was published last March and went into effect on June 5. The 62-year-old Herrera, a lawyer Read more