A fake news report has convinced several media outlets that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is dying. In fact, he isn’t dying. The report is “pure invention,” Benedict’s personal secretary Archbishop Georg Ganswein says. Ganswein is also alleged to have said Benedict was “like a candle that fades slowly”. “He is serene, at peace with God, Read more
Callista Gingrich is the United States’ new ambassador-designate to Rome, according to a statement from the US Embassy to the Holy See. The Senate confirmed her election with a vote of 70-23. News sources say Gingrich is a practising Catholic. She is the third wife of former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich who is Read more
The Archbishop of Brisbane, Mark Coleridge, who is Vice President of the Australian Bishops’ Conference, says Australia is facing the biggest crisis in its history. Coleridge has just returned from Rome where he and other bishops have been discussing how to address the fallout resulting from Australia’s clerical sexual abuse crisis. Of particular importance in Read more
There are now 108 million people suffering from hunger and 800 million without basic food, says Archbishop Bernardito Auza, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations (UN). Auza was speaking during a UN Committee debate on “Agricultural Development, Food Security and Nutrition”. Quoting Pope Francis, he told the Committee the solution can Read more
Priests who join Poland’s anti-migrant demonstrations may want to think twice. The country’s primate, Archbishop Wojciech Polak, says if he hears of a protest against refugees “where my priests participate, I will have a swift response: each priest who joins in will be suspended. “There’s no other path to take. I am responsible for my Read more
The persecution of Christians is now “worse than at any time in history” according to a report by the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need. Persecuted and Forgotten? has been published by the UK office of Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need. Some of the report’s findings are: Persecution of Christians reached Read more
Two of the 20 prisoners from a drug rehabilitation facility invited to lunch with Pope Francis took the opportunity to escape disappeared during the lunch break. Read more
Mercy Sister Marilyn Lacey has received a major award for her work in South Sudan and Haiti. Regis University in Denver presented Lacey the Opus Prize. The prize includes a cash award of one million dollars. Lacey’s organisation, called “Mercy Beyond Borders,” provides educational and economic help as well as job training to over 1,400 Read more
Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation changed the institution of the papacy forever, says Italian journalist and scholar Fabrizio Grasso. In his opinion “it’s not hard to imagine a possible near future with more than one emeritus pope and, consequentially, an exclusive papal club, which could be no other than a proto-parliament of the Vatican State.” Read Read more
The former president of the Vatican children’s hospital has been convicted of abuse of office for diverting money from the hospital to pay for renovations to Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone’s apartment. Bertone is the Vatican’s former secretary of state. A Vatican court has convicted the former president of the Pope’s children’s hospital of diverting about NZ$676,000 Read more