A cardinal has said that Pope Francis and Europe’s people have differing views on the migrant crisis because the Pontiff comes from another continent. Cardinal Dominik Duka, the archbishop of Prague, spoke about the crisis in an interview with a Czech newspaper. “The sensitivity of Pope Francis on social issues is different from ours in Read more
An Irish priest who saved thousands of Jews and Allied soldiers during World War II has been honoured at the Vatican. Msgr Hugh O’Flaherty disguised himself from Nazi secret police and set up safe houses in Rome between 1943 and 1944. One of the safe houses was right next to the secret police’s main headquarters Read more
Researchers have broken the record for growing human embryos in a laboratory, prompting a lament in the Vatican’s newspaper. Two teams of researchers in the United Kingdom and the United States grew embryos until they were 13 days old. The embryos were kept alive and active beyond the stage when they would naturally implant in a mother’s Read more
A poll has found that British churchgoers prefer clergy stick to serious topics in sermons rather than jokes or rambling anecdotes. The poll of 1400 regular churchgoing Christians found that they ranked explanations of the Bible as 27 times as important in a sermon as humour and “practical application” 42 times more highly than personal anecdote. Read more
A sex abuse survivor spokesman who accused Cardinal George Pell of bribery has been accused of not being transparent about his own record of abusing. David Ridsdale is the nephew of notorious Australian paedophile priest Fr Gerald Ridsdale. David Ridsdale has repeatedly called for Cardinal Pell and the Church to be transparent about what they Read more
Catholic women religious leaders have been warned against an “entitlement creep” that numbs them from confronting poverty and environmental destruction. St Joseph Sister, Sr Carol Zinn, issued the warning at the triennial assembly of the International Union of Superiors General in Rome The US sister said religious life has widely been a “first-world lifestyle” marked Read more
Pope Francis has appointed a former refugee, who fled war-torn Vietnam by boat in 1979, to lead the Australian diocese of Parramatta. Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen, 54, begins his new role after serving as a Conventual Franciscan since 1989 and as auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne since 2011. Parramatta, in western Sydney, is one of Read more
Echoing Martin Luther King, Pope Francis has offered a vision of a revitalised Europe at a critical moment in its history. On Friday, Francis gave a thunderous speech after accepting the prestigious German Charlemagne Prize, which is for “services of Western European understanding and work for the community”. The Pontiff criticised a “resignation and weariness Read more
A German cardinal has said names of candidates submitted to the Vatican as potential bishops are being vetoed by “unauthorised people” in Rome. Cardinal Karl Lehmann of Mainz said this in a new book, extracts of which were published by the German Catholic news agency KNA. “In the name of the law, these unlawful outside Read more
Australia’s royal commission on child sexual abuse has announced it is to have a wide-ranging extra hearing focusing on the Catholic Church. The Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will hold a final hearing regarding the Catholic Church in February, 2017, the Australian Associated Press reported. The commission is seeking submissions about Read more