Ultra-conservative Catholics who stole and dumped “pagan”statues in Rome’s Tiber River and published videos of the theft on social media are guilty of fomenting hate. Vatican editorial director Andrea Tornielli says the wooden figures of nude pregnant women were on display along with other Amazon artifacts at a church near the Vatican. Although some people Read more
Ordination of married men will probably be the subject of further post-Amazon synod study. Cardinal Peter Turkson, who is the Prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development, says the study would aim to ensure “the Church can take a consistent position, not only in view of the Amazon, but in Read more
The need to recognize the ministry of Catholic women deacons has become a key topic at the Amazon synod. Many of the 185 prelates at the synod approve of ordaining women as deacons to address a lack of ministers in the region. Bishop Derek Byrne, who is from a Brazilian diocese, says the support is Read more
Forty bishops at the Amazon synod pledged to work for a prophetic Church dedicated to serving the poor during a ceremony on the burial site of some of Rome’s early Christian martyrs. Last Sunday, the prelates, including two cardinals, went to the Catacombs of Domitilla, on the outskirts of the Eternal City, to sign the Read more
Father Paul Njokikang, the director of Caritas in Cameroon, has been released from detention. Yesterday, Independent Catholic News (ICN) reported his arrest following Mass on Sunday. He was held by Cameroonian security services at a military base, and freed on Monday night. It is believed that the Yaounde regime of President Paul Biya came under Read more
The Apostolic Administrator of Hong Kong, Cardinal John Tong Hon, has urged increasingly-violent demonstrators to regain their inner peace and carry out protests peacefully. Cardinal Tong sent his appeal in an open letter to local citizens last Friday. The Cardinal said he was deeply pained by the worsening situation in the city. He acknowledges he Read more
The head of the Vatican’s sovereign asset management body has insisted that the Holy See is not headed for financial “collapse.” Bishop Nunzio Galantino made the comments in response to a book published on Monday by Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, which claims that the Holy See is facing a serious cash shortage, and may soon Read more
A Colombian gangster claims he was present in 1978 when Pope John Paul I was poisoned with cyanide. In a tell-all new book “When the Bullet Hits the Bone,” Anthony Raimondi (69) opens up about John Paul’s death after just 33 days in office. Raimondi says his co-conspirators killed the pope because John Paul I Read more
The Vatican has dismissed an Indian Catholic nun’s appeal to have her expulsion from her congregation in Kerala state revoked. Sister Lucy Kalapura was expelled from her Franciscan Clarist Congregation (FCC) at the beginning of August. Her congregation accused her of willful disobedience, defying the laws of the congregation and “following a lifestyle that does Read more
A Vatican congregation says an allegation of abuse made against a bishop from Texas is ‘manifestly unfounded’. The bishop concerned, Auxiliary Bishop George A. Sheltz (73) of Galveston-Houston has returned to public ministry. He had stepped aside from public priestly duties after being accused with a “false allegation” of sexual abuse from 1971. The Texas Read more