Suspicious activity “sharply” reduced and Vatican financial transactions became more transparent in 2016, says the Vatican financial watchdog. The Vatican Financial Information Authority (AIF) says over the past year it has entered “growing number of agreements” involving international cooperation and information exchange. These allow information to be shared with other foreign financial intelligence authorities. While Read more
Only some of the Medjugorje apparitions are likely to be authentic, Pope Francis said during an in-flight interview after canonising Saints Jacinta and Francisco last weekend. He was referring to alleged apparitions of Our Lady who is said to have appeared 35 years ago to six children in Medjugorje. Since then, three of the “children” Read more
A priest stabbed in the neck while he was saying Mass at Mexico City’s cathedral is in a critical condition. The attacker tried to slit Father Miguel Angel Machorro’s throat, a witness said. The suspect, who identified himself as John Rock Schild, told authorities that he is an American artist and invoked his right to Read more
A Pittsburgh Catholic church has had what may be a more unusual history than most. St. Elizabeth’s church originally served a Slovak congregation for much of the 20th century. During a church property downsizing programme in 2001, the building was sold and the congregation merged into other parishes. For 15 years the church was a Read more
The head of Victoria Police has indicated a decision is likely in the next few weeks on whether to charge Catholic Cardinal George Pell in relation to sexual abuse allegations dating back to the late 1970s. Key Points A decision on possible charges would be made based on the evidence, the likelihood of conviction The Read more
American Cardinal Joseph Tobin has criticised President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. He has called on American Catholic leaders to resist the Trump administration’s views. He says “you really have to believe in inflicting cruelty on innocent people to choose to support the policies we’ve seen in recent months.” Read more
President Donald Trump says he will be nominating Callista Gingrich to be the next ambassador to the Vatican. Gingrich is the president of Gingrich Productions. She has produced a number of documentaries, including one about Pope St John Paul II. Her husband Newt Gingrich is the US former Speaker of the House. Read more
The Vatican says the complete and unexplained recovery of severely injured Lucas Batista is the miracle needed to canonise Franciso and Jacinta Marto. They say doctors, some of them non-believers, said Lucas’s recovery could not be explained. Pope Francis canonised the siblings on Saturday at Fátima. Lucas was five when he fell 6.5 metres out of a Read more
The Bolivian President Evo Morales asked for Pope Francis to help with nine Bolivians who have been imprisoned in Chile. Morales has asked for a papal envoy to help calm “rising tensions and a miscarriage of justice”. “I beg you to intervene in the best possible way to quickly resolve this case,” he wrote to Read more
Over six million people in Somalia are likely to starve to death this year. That is nearly half of Somalia’s population in urgent need of humanitarian help. In addition, about 275,000 malnourished children are at risk of starvation, according to aid and development agencies, says Bishop Giorgio Bertin of Djibouti. He says Caritas Somalia is Read more