One of Canada’s best known Catholics has become an Anglican, saying he could no longer worship with integrity in the Catholic Church. Broadcaster and author Michael Coren, whose books include “Why Catholics are Right”, was formally welcomed into the Anglican Church of Canada in Toronto recently. Mr Coren had been worshipping privately in an Anglican Read more
The number of men studying for the priesthood at Corpus Christi College in Melbourne has more than doubled since 1999. There are now 59 men in training at Corpus Christi, the highest number since the 1970s. They come from at least nine Australian archdioceses and dioceses. In 1999, the number at Corpus Christi was 28. Read more
An Australian theologian has asked Pope Francis to ditch the 10-minute “interventions” made by bishops at the upcoming synod on the family. In a wide-ranging open letter to the Pope, Fr Paul McGavin said such interventions lead to “bald and combative declarations”. Rather, Fr McGavin proposed a process oriented to “dialogue and learning”. He suggested Read more
Pope Francis is likely to touch on several topics that could well cause discomfort to US politicians when he speaks there later this year. In September, the Pope will address a joint session of the US Congress and Senate, being the first Roman pontiff to do so. What Francis might say on that occasion was Read more
The Pope’s encyclical on the environment is now finalised and is being translated into different languages, with an anticipated release in June. Vatican officials made this announcement on April 28 at a one-day Rome summit on climate change. According to a report on the Crux website, the President of the Pontifical Academy for Sciences, Bishop Read more
A conference in Rome has seen searching questions posed about unnecessary restrictions on women in the Catholic Church. The Pontifical “Antonianum” University and four embassies to the Holy See sponsored the conference held on Tuesday. It came after Pope Francis’s invitation to seek a “more widespread and incisive female presence” in the Church. According to Read more
Pope Francis has ordered the Vatican to open its files on Argentina’s military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983. The Pope’s order came after a meeting he had last week with Lita Boitano, 83, whose two sons “disappeared” during the dictatorship. They were among the 20,000 people who were made to “disappear” by the Argentinian authorities, Read more
Poland’s Catholic Church has called for a fitting tribute to hundreds of its priests who died in the Nazi concentration camp of Dachau. Commemorations of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Dachau, near Munich, in 1945 run from April 30 to May 3. A spokesman for the Polish bishops, Msgr Józef Kloch, said Dachau Read more
A leading German philosopher has criticised what he called Pope Francis’s cult of spontaneity and his favouring of deeds over ideas. In an interview in German Catholic journal Herder Korrespondenz, Professor Robert Spaemann said the Pope’s cult of spontaneity is not helpful. “In the Vatican, some people are already sighing: ‘Today, he has already again Read more
A former priest in Ireland has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a seven-year-old girl during her first Confession. John Calnan, 76, was sentenced in Cork to three years in jail, with the final year suspended. He had pleaded guilty to the offending which happened in 1989. Police told the court the girl was preparing for Read more