Pope Francis has told a journalist asking about condom use to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa that the question posed is too small. The Pope answered the question during a session with reporters on his plane flying back from the Central African Republic on November 30. The journalist asked if the Church should Read more
An Australian priest broke the seal of Confession to warn a fellow paedophile priest about an altar boy’s abuse complaint. On Monday, during hearings in Melbourne, Australia’s Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard from the victim about the 1968 incident. In the confessional, “BTU” told Fr Wilfred Baker that Fr Ronald Read more
The Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship has made pointed statements about intercommunion, Anglican orders and Eucharist. In an interview with aleteia.org, Cardinal Robert Sarah said intercommunion between Catholics and other Christians is not a matter of following one’s conscience. Rather, intercommunion between Christians not united in faith and doctrine would promote profanation, he Read more
A French priest has been stood down after he compared those killed in the Bataclan concert hall in Paris with the ISIS terrorists who shot them. Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon announced the standing down of Fr Hervé Benoît last Friday. The priest had written a column posted to a traditionalist website in which he Read more
Catholic media pioneer Mother Mary Angelica has been put on a feeding tube as her health had been slowly declining. The founder of the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) is in a stable condition. Her doctors felt it necessary to put her on a feeding tube to ensure that she is receiving proper nutrition. Mother Read more
Pope Francis has become the first Pontiff in recent history to visit a conflict zone when he arrived in the Central African Republic on Sunday. The nation has been embroiled in a civil war between a Muslim minority and a Christian majority since March, 2013. Arriving in the capital, Bangui, Francis declared himself a “pilgrim Read more
Pope Francis has advised Kenyan young people to resist the temptations of corruption which affects all aspects of life, and is present in the Vatican. Francis said corruption is not only present in politics but almost everywhere, including the institution he leads. “Even in the Vatican there are cases of corruption,” he said. Francis’s comments Read more
The former secretary to and biographer of Blessed Oscar Romero has been suspended after an investigation found he had had sex with a minor. El Salvador’s Catholic Church said a preliminary investigation showed Msgr Jesus Delgado had sex with a minor aged between 9 and 17. The female victim, who is now 42, presented the Read more
In a statement from the Vatican, Cardinal George Pell has said the Church’s failure to deal with Melbourne’s paedophile priests was shameful. Cardinal Pell was responding to a television interview of abuse victim Julie Stewart, where she was critical of the cardinal’s testimony to a previous Victorian inquiry. Ms Stewart was abused in the confessional Read more
The Pope’s personal preacher has praised the “theological and spiritual enrichment” of the Reformation. Fr Raniero Cantalamessa also told an Anglican synod in London that what is needed in relations between churches is a “qualitative leap forward”. Fr Cantalamessa, who has been Preacher to the Papal Household since 1980, was preaching at a service at Read more