A Sydney Catholic priest has been found guilty of common assault after he smacked a child in a church. Fr Terrence Millard of St John Vianney and St Thomas More parish in Greenacre was found guilty in Bankstown Local Court, but no conviction was recorded against him. The priest denied having hit eight-year-old “Peter” (not his Read more
A 91-year-old man diagnosed with cancer has confessed to killing a woman nearly 70 years ago. The elderly man, living in a care home in Canada, told police he had shot a prostitute called Margaret Cook, aged 26, in Carnaby Street in London in 1946, after a dispute about money. It is believed the man Read more
Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini played a decisive role in the 2005 conclave that elected Benedict XVI in order to prevent the election of a “curial candidate”. This is among the recollections of Jesuit Fr Silvio Fausti who was the late Cardinal Martini’s confessor and spiritual guide. Fr Fausti died on June 24, but his views Read more
One of Britain’s leading lay Catholics has called on the Catholic Church to allow Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried. Lord Patten of Barnes cited the example of parents unable to receive the Eucharist when their children made their first Holy Communion. “I’ve been thinking about that recently because one of my grandsons is Read more
An American archbishop has categorised people who come to Mass and has spelled out to clergy how best to speak to them. In a letter to priests and deacons, Archbishop Allen Vigneron of Detroit stated: “Many people have been sacramentalised, but never evangelised.” Such people “knew about God, but they didn’t know him”. Another group Read more
Pope Francis has acknowledged that he has neglected the middle class and its problems. On a plane on his return to Europe from a three-nation South American visit, Pope Francis was asked by a reporter why he had hardly ever spoken about the problems of the “working, tax-paying” middle class. Francis offered a rare papal Read more
A French theologian has proposed an updated version of an ancient penitential tradition as a way forward for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics. Dominican Thomas Michelet has suggested an updating of the ancient order of penitents (ordo paenitentium) for people who find themselves in a persistent condition of discrepancy from Chruch teaching. For several reasons, Read more
Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of a Brazilian archbishop in a move reminiscent of the demise of Germany’s Bishop of Bling. The resignation of Archbishop Antonio Carlos Altieri, 63, of Passo Fundo, Brazil, came after a Vatican-ordered apostolic visitation of his archdiocese. The investigation was conducted by Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes. According to a Read more
A survey by a UK group committed to the reforms of Vatican II has highlighted issues its authors say are strangling the Church. A survey of 342 people, mostly Catholic, earlier this year by A Call To Action describes a widening gap between Church teaching on sexual and family ethics and the opinion and practice Read more
The chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences says the United Nations is not the devil, and the academy is free to collaborate with it. Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo said the Church will continue to collaborate with the United Nations on any joint project that “does not go against the doctrine of the Church”. The Read more