The archbishop of Munich, Germany is pledging €500,000 (NZD860,000) of his personal finances to establish a foundation for victims of child abuse. Cardinal Reinhard Marx said the not-for-profit organization Spes et Salus (Hope and Healing) would see the Catholic Church engaged in helping victims process their experiences. Marx said his contribution constituted “by far the Read more
The Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, in collaboration with the Dicastery for Communication, has launched a website dedicated to Pope Francis’ latest Encyclical: ‘Fratelli tutti’. The site is currently developed in three languages: English, Spanish and Italian. Further languages will be available soon. It contains numerous resources in other languages, including French, Portuguese, Read more
Bishops in France have welcomed new government measures that will allow more people to attend public Masses during Advent. Gérald Darmanin, French Minister of the Interior, announced Dec. 2 a change to a previously proposed 30-person limit on attendance of public Masses. The change followed France’s highest administrative court overturning the restriction in response to Read more
Italians will not be able to attend midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, with top health officials cracking down on any conditions that could lead to a potential resurgence in coronavirus cases — a step that Catholic clergy has supported. Italy managed to reduce a fall resurgence of cases but is currently suffering record fatalities from Read more
A first-time fundraising effort by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has raised more than $1 million for over 100 beneficiaries – all in a single day. As part of the #GivingTuesday effort Dec. 1, area faithful were urged to direct their contributions to the #iGiveCatholic campaign. The initiative – in which more than 40 dioceses and Read more
It is just on year since Francis offered an inculturated Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica for Congolese immigrants. The Mass marked the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the Congolese Catholic Chaplaincy of Rome. The Mass included traditional Congolese music and the Zaire Use of the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite (Zaire Use). An Read more
Pope Francis is confident Catholics and Orthodox Christians will attain full communion. In a message to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I on Monday, Francis praised Bartholomew’s efforts to promote Christian unity. “We can thank God that relations between the Catholic Church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate have grown much over the past century, even Read more
One of the Pope’s key advisors on clerical child sexual abuse has written to survivors recognising the suffering and distress they have endured. Fr Hans Zollner is president of the Centre for Child Protection at Rome’s Gregorian University and a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. He wrote in response after Read more
Cardinal George Pell has spoken of his surprise at the apparent extent of ‘criminality’ involved in recent Vatican financial scandals. “I didn’t know that there was so much criminality involved,” Pell said. He was speaking to the AP before the Dec. 15 release of the first volume of his jailhouse memoir, ‘Prison Journal.’ The book Read more
The UK government has ordered one of England’s most prestigious Catholic boarding schools to stop admitting new pupils as a result of “very serious” failings. Ampleforth College is a £36,000-a-year Catholic boarding school. It claims to be “the world’s foremost co-educational Catholic boarding and day school for students aged 11 to 18”. Scandal has surrounded Read more