Pope Francis has again rejected the possibility of female priests in the Catholic Church, citing a ruling of one of his predecessors. During a press conference on board his flight back to Rome from the US, Francis said St John Paul II had decided “that cannot be done”. “Pope St John Paul II – after Read more
Pope Francis has appointed Cardinal Raymond Burke to a Roman congregation, only days after abuse activists called for the US prelate to be investigated. The Pontiff appointed Cardinal Burke and Cardinal Carlo Caffarra of Bologna as members of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. The two prelates retain their respective positions as Archbishop of Read more
A Green politician has laid a complaint with Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Commissioner over a marriage booklet produced by Australia’s Catholic bishops. Martine Delaney has asked the commissioner’s office to investigate Hobart Archbishop Julian Porteous and the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. At issue is the booklet “Don’t Mess with Marriage”, produced by the bishops earlier this year. Read more
A US Catholic hospital is refusing to perform a tubal ligation on a woman with a brain tumour after she has given birth. Jessica Mann, 33, from Michigan, is due to have her fourth baby this month. Her condition means that she was advised that the birth be by caesarean section, for which she will Read more
Days after St Junipero Serra was canonised by Pope Francis, a statue of him has been defaced in California in what local police say is a hate crime. The vandalism of the statue of St Junipero at Carmel Mission, where he is buried, came three days after the canonisation in Washington, DC. Vandals damaged statues, Read more
Pope Francis spent much of his address to the United Nations in New York connecting environmental destruction with social and economic exclusion. “A selfish and boundless thirst for power and material prosperity leads both to the misuse of available natural resources and to the exclusion of the weak and disadvantaged,” he said on Friday. Francis Read more
Pope Francis met with victims of sexual abuse in Philadelphia on Sunday and told them words could not express his sorrow. The pope met with five adults who had suffered abuse as children. The victims had been abused by the clergy or by members of their families or their teachers. Francis heard their stories and spoke Read more
Hillary Clinton says she will follow Pope Francis’s example and make combating climate change a top priority for any future US administration she leads. Writing in the National Catholic Reporter, Mrs Clinton stated as “a person of faith, a mother, and a grandmother, I am deeply moved by Pope Francis’s recent teachings on climate change Read more
Ahead of the synod on the family, Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney has pointed to African bishops as a sign of hope in confused times. Archbishop Fisher’s comments came after an address by Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah at the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia on September 24. Archbishop Fisher, who attended the address said: Read more
A scientist famous for demographic doom-saying has criticised Pope Francis for not admitting population control is needed to tackle climate change. Paul Ehrlich said Pope Francis is simply wrong in trying to fight climate change without also addressing the strain on global resources from population rise. “That’s raving nonsense,” the scientist said. Ehrlich wrote on Read more