Pope Francis reportedly cleared his schedule last week to focus on a final revision of his upcoming encyclical on the environment. The document is expected to be released in June or July. According to a Catholic News Service report, the encyclical will build on what Pope Francis’s predecessors have said. The document is expected to Read more
An American cardinal has placed faithful gay couples, unmarried couples and civilly remarried Catholics in the same category as murderers who are kind. In a lengthy interview on Lifesitenews, Cardinal Raymond Burke criticised what he called confusion in the Church. Cardinal Burke was asked about other prelates who had pointed out good qualities in relationships Read more
One of England’s last Catholic kings has been re-interred in an Anglican cathedral 530 years after his death. The mortal remains of King Richard III were re-interred in Leicester Cathedral on March 26, following five days of commemorations. In 2012, the king’s skeleton was discovered under a parking lot near the cathedral. He had been Read more
FIFA president Sepp Blatter has boasted that his organisation is more influential than any country in the world and every religion. The boss of soccer’s governing body told Swiss paper Sonntags Zeitung that FIFA’s influence is because of “the positive emotions it releases”. He said his organisation reaches 1.6 billion people. “FIFA is more influential Read more
Nearly 500 priests in England and Wales have signed a letter calling on the synod on the family to uphold the Church’s “unchanging” moral teaching. The letter also calls on the synod, to be held in October, to resist any moves to allow Communion for the divorced and remarried. A draft text of the letter Read more
Cardinal Walter Kasper hopes this year’s synod on the family will develop the Church’s tradition in the area of pastoral support of divorced people. Cardinal Kasper was speaking at the England launch of his book “Pope Francis’s Revolution of Tenderness and Love”. Bishops attending the synod, scheduled for October 4-25, will be called to discern Read more
The Archbishop of Dublin has condemned intemperate language that is sometimes used about gays and lesbians as “obnoxious” and “unchristian”. Speaking at a meeting of the Iona Institute, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said much of the discussion on marriage and family in Ireland today is polemical. The archbishop referred to some correspondence he has received in the Read more
A German cardinal has blasted his nation’s ecclesiastical apparatus as completely unfit to work against growing secularism. According to the Catholic News Agency, Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes wrote a letter to a German language newspaper objecting to statements by two prelates from his homeland. In February, German bishops’ conference president Cardinal Reinhard Marx said: “We Read more
Scientists believe experiments at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland could prove that the universe had no singular starting point. According to a report in The Telegraph, the detection of miniature black holes by the LHC could show that the Big Bang did not happen. It could also prove the existence of parallel universes. If Read more
Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien from the rights and privileges of being a cardinal. Cardinal O’Brien had previously admitted sexual misconduct towards several men. He will no longer be invited to attend consistories and other gatherings of cardinals, including an eventual conclave for the election of a new pope. Read more