A three-year programme of Vatican oversight of the main leadership group of United States religious sisters has come to a sudden end. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has accepted a final report of a doctrinal assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. The LCWR represents 80 per cent of US religious Read more
Dozens of prominent Catholics in San Francisco have taken out a full page ad in a major newspaper calling on the Pope to replace the local archbishop. The ad in the San Francisco Chronicle on April 16 stated Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone has “fostered an atmosphere of division and intolerance”. More than 100 signatories to an Read more
Pope Francis has called for much broader involvement from European nations to combat the loss of lives of African refugees crossing the Mediterranean. In the latest incident, hundreds are feared dead after a boat carrying an estimated 700 people capsized off the Italian island of Lampedusa. Nearly 200,000 people have been rescued at sea by Read more
Student leaders at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, want students to be able to carry guns on campus. The representative Student Association General Assembly voted 16-11 in favour of a motion supporting students carrying legal firearms. The vote came in the wake of fierce debate following the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007, Read more
Pope Francis has warned religious orders against letting low numbers of new vocations influence whom they accept into religious life. The Pope was speaking to a conference of religious formation directors in Rome on Saturday. He told the 1200 directors that they must be “gravely attentive” to those they are guiding. This is so that Read more
A German cardinal has said that those who insistently demand changes in the Church’s teaching on marriage are heretics, even if they are bishops. Cardinal Walter Brandmüller said this in an interview with LifesiteNews last month. The cardinal discussed the issue of Communion for those whose marriages are not recognised by the Church. He was Read more
A Jesuit academic has been barred from teaching theology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. Late last month, the university’s chancellor Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati Andrello removed Professor Jorge Costadoat, SJ, from the role. In a letter to the university’s council, Cardinal Ezzati stated Fr Costadoat’s academic path “included unwise affirmations that blurred the magisterial Read more
Ireland’s Catholic bishops have warned that the Church may no longer perform the civil aspects of weddings if same-sex marriage is legalised. Ireland is to have a referendum on legal same-sex marriage next month. If the bishops’ warning comes to pass, it would mean couples married in the Catholic Church in Ireland would have to Read more
Conservative Anglican leaders have been meeting this week to discuss whether to back a parallel Anglican Church in the United Kingdom. The Global Anglican Futures Conference in the London this week was expected to discuss divisions in the worldwide Anglican Communion over women’s ordination and homosexuality. Gafcon was launched at a meeting in Jerusalem in Read more
In a formal act, Pope Francis has called on the Church to refashion itself as a place, not of judgment or condemnation, but of pardon and merciful love. The Pope did this in an official Bull of Indiction convoking the extraordinary jubilee Year of Mercy, which will run from December 8, 2015, to November 20, Read more