Spanish Catholics want Rome to consider the future of the priesthood, including optional celibacy and the ordination of women. A document including the priesthood proposals was unveiled by the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE) that groups Spain’s leading bishops at a 600-strong gathering in Madrid. The document was drawn up after consultations with more than 215,000 Read more
One of the Catholic Church’s leading experts on sex abuse and its prevention has given a major lecture in Paris at the invitation of the French bishops. “I’m going to scandalise you,” Father Hans Zollner SJ warned his audience as he started his talk about the clergy sex abuse crisis. “The Church’ does not exist. Read more
In one historic weekend, the Cardinal Archbishop of Guadalajara, José Francisco Robles Ortega, ordained 70 men to the priesthood in two separate ceremonies held on June 4 and 5 at the Mexican Martyrs Shrine in that city. In the first ordination, 33 priests were ordained and in the second, 37. In addition, the cardinal ordained Read more
His name is Juan Vicente Pérez Mora, he’s Venezuelan, passionate about his faith, prays the rosary twice a day and is in the Guinness World Records as the oldest man in the world. Mora was born on May 27, 1909 and this year he turned 113 years old. In an article published on May 17 Read more
After gunmen attacked a Catholic church in southwest Nigeria killing 40 people and wounding more than 60, Owo town’s chief imam Ahmad Aladesawe has been holding his prayers in a mostly empty mosque. The rare attack in the usually more peaceful southwest has scared away worshippers, the imam said. The tragedy has prompted Aladesawe to Read more
Because of continuing problems with his knee, Pope Francis has postponed his planned trip to the Congo and South Sudan on July 2-7, said the Vatican press office. Matteo Bruni, director of the press office, did not mention whether the pope’s planned trip to Canada in late July was still set. “At the request of Read more
The Catholic Church in Australia will not be the Church that Jesus wants until the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have made a contribution to the life of the Church and until it has been joyfully received by others. This one of the ‘motions’ distributed by the church’s drafting committee and circulated among Council Read more
If you don’t have a relationship with God, there’s no way you can handle something like this, a US mortician said after preparing numerous bodies for burial after a recent school shooting. Catholic mortician Andres “June” Ybarra (pictured with his wife), is a Knight of Columbus at his Catholic Church in Texas and is closely Read more
Two infants are among more than 20 worshippers killed in an attack on a church in southwest Nigeria. Around 50 wounded people are still being treated in hospital following the attack at the St Francis Catholic Church in Owo town in Ondo state, said Kadiri Olanrewaju, head of Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Services in Ondo. Read more
Rumours Pope Francis may be considering retirement have been given added fuel over his plans to attend a feast initiated by a 13th-century pope who himself resigned. Francis announced he would visit the central Italian city of L’Aquila in August. He will attend a feast initiated by Pope Celestine V, one of the few pontiffs Read more