The killing of nine people at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, has horrified US Catholics. On June 17, a gunman shot and killed nine people, including the pastor, during a Bible study class at the historic black church. Dylann Roof, 21, was later charged with nine counts of murder and one count Read more
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is expected to spend two weeks at the papal summer residence Castel Gandolfo during the Italian summer. Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi said Pope Francis invited Benedict to spend some time at Castel Gandolfo and Benedict accepted. The dates for Benedict’s visit have not been set. But he is scheduled to Read more
English Cardinal Vincent Nichols has said that people should not regard the Pope’s encyclical “Laudato Si’” as puritanical in its message. At a press conference following the release of Laudato Si’, the cardinal was asked about the encyclical’s appeal for “sobriety and self-denial”. Cardinal Nichols said that people needed to go beyond reading the encyclical Read more
An American academic has proposed Catholic social activist Dorothy Day as the perfect patron of the upcoming Year of Mercy. Dr Lance Richey has edited a recent edition of Day’s journal from the early years of the Catholic Worker Movement. He also organises an annual Dorothy Day conference. “I do think that it’s a very Read more
Who should be included in the definition of the faithful and who of these are “absent” were among questions put at a recent US theological conference. Earlier this month, the annual meeting of the Catholic Theological Society of America grappled with the issue of the “sensus fidelium” or “sense of the faithful” of the whole Read more
An American bishop has launched a broadside against the way some people turn up at Mass wearing very casual dress. Writing in his diocesan newspaper, Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island complained of “an habitual lack of reverence . . .”. Bishop Tobin wrote that he had seen and received complaints about “the sloppy Read more
A Catholic high school in Wales has threatened Jamie Oliver’s production company with legal action after it secretly filmed a student being bullied. The footage shot at Corpus Christi High RC School in Cardiff aimed to show what it is like walking in the shoes of a bullied child. The filming was done for a Read more
The presidents of Africa’s bishops’ conferences have stated they will not adopt the language of movements fighting for the destruction of the family. In a preparatory meeting in Accra, Ghana ahead of October’s synod on the family, the bishops stated “we must begin from the faith, reaffirm it and live it for the sake of Read more
An archbishop and an auxiliary bishop of the same US archdiocese have both resigned after the archdiocese became mired in sex abuse controversy. The resignations of Archbishop John Nienstedt, 68, and Bishop Lee Piché, 57, of St Paul-Minneapolis were announced by the Vatican on Monday. The move came 10 days after prosecutors brought criminal charges Read more
Bishops and priests have performed a “great exorcism” of the entire nation of Mexico, in a ceremony called an “Exorcismo Magno”. On May 20, the ceremony was carried out behind closed doors at the cathedral of San Luis Potosí. The Archbishop Emeritus of Guadalajara, Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iñiguez, presided. Also participating were Archbishop Jesús Carlos Read more