German Chancellor Angela Merkel says Europe needs to push back against the far right, amid a political crisis that has claimed Austria’s government. Merkel made the remarks when asked about a scandal engulfing Austria’s anti-immigrant Freedom Party, whose leader Heinz-Christian Strache quit on Saturday as the government’s vice-chancellor. Strache was secretly recorded reportedly promising a Read more
World
Fallout follows nun’s same sex marriage letter
Thursday, May 16th, 2019
The Gospel commandment to love has led a Catholic school to change its policy on same-sex marriage announcements. Where the prestigious school’s alumnae magazine had never allowed same sex union announcements, the policy has been re-examined and changed recently. Visitation Sister Mary Berchmans, the school’s president emerita, wrote a letter announcing the change. The letter Read more
Vatican Cardinal nips down manhole, restores electricity
Thursday, May 16th, 2019
Opposing state authorities, a Rome-based cardinal has restored electricity at a disused, state-owned property being used by over 400 homeless people including 100 children. The building has been occupied since 2013 after being taken over by activists, who are using it to provide shelter for the homeless and to host several workspaces. Its power had Read more
Reputation valued over abuse victims’ needs
Thursday, May 16th, 2019
The Church of England put its reputation above the needs of sexual abuse victims, UK’s Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) has found. The IICSA says there was a serious failure of leadership by the former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey (1991-2002) in the church’s handling of the case of a bishop who eventually went Read more
Etsy refuses to sell consecrated hosts
Thursday, May 16th, 2019
Selling consecrated hosts violates Etsy’s policies, a representative from the e-commerce website confirms. The representative was responding to a petition asking for Etsy’s clarification on the matter, after a 7 May posting claimed to be selling “Real Catholic Hosts, consecrated by a priest.” The package of nine hosts said to have been consecrated in Germany Read more
Abuse victims suing Vatican
Thursday, May 16th, 2019
Five sexual abuse victims of priests will sue the Vatican to get names and details of the priests involved, an attorney for the group says. The lawsuit in the US federal court aims to compel the Vatican to open its archives and “release all the identities of thousands of offenders known exclusively by the Vatican Read more
Children rescued from Libya hitch a lift with Pope Francis
Thursday, May 16th, 2019Pope Francis took eight children rescued from crisis-hit Libya for a ride in his popemobile Wednesday, the youngsters grinning and snapping photos as they whizzed round Saint Peter’s Square. The children, wearing T-shirts reading “Welcome, Protect, Promote, Integrate”, hailed from Syria, Nigeria and the Congo, and were airlifted out of Libya along with their families Read more
Cardinal condemns de-canonisation of St John Paul II
Thursday, May 16th, 2019Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz of Poland has condemned attempts to damage the status of his former superior, St John Paul II, and rejected calls for his de-canonisation for ignoring sex abuse in the Catholic Church. “John Paul II was a man of the Second Vatican Council, which shaped his thinking about the Church and contemporary world”, Read more
Scott Morrison is ‘running for Prime Minister not Pope’
Thursday, May 16th, 2019Scott Morrison has hit back at a series of uncomfortable questions about whether he believes God will decide the election outcome by saying he is running for Prime Minister not Pope in the 2019 Federal Election. Speaking with ABC Adelaide on Tuesday, Mr Morrison was pressed on whether he thought the outcome of Saturday’s election Read more
The church’s systemic problem of paedophilia
Monday, May 13th, 2019
Paedophilia is a systemic problem and the Church’s efforts to ensure the “accompaniment” of the victims were ‘insufficient,’ says French Archbishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort. The president elect of the Conference of Bishops of France says the need to shed light on the Church’s sex abuse scandals “cannot be considered purely marginal. “It’s a systemic problem Read more