A victim of clergy sexual abuse has offered to lead the Vatican’s child protection commission in Rome. Peter Saunders, a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, told The Tablet he would like to see the commission have wider powers. He would like to see the commission’s remit extended so it is Read more
Priests in England and Wales are being urged to sign a letter calling on the family synod to resist any move to allow Communion for the civilly remarried. The letter also calls on the synod to proclaim the Church’s “unchanging” moral teaching. The initiative comes from a group of dozen priests, dubbed by The Tablet Read more
An Italian journalist has been blasted for reporting in newspapers the answers by several priests she misled in confessionals. Laura Alari, who writes for Quotidiano Nazionale, invented stories about herself that she told priests during the sacrament of Confession. She pretended to be a lesbian mother asking to baptise her daughter, a woman who lives Read more
The gang rape of an elderly nun in West Bengal has intensified anger over sexual violence in India. A 74-year-old nun was attacked by six men during a burglary at the Convent of Jesus and Mary, which was attached to a school in eastern West Bengal. The woman is in a stable condition in a Read more
A distinguished Jesuit theologian has asked the world’s English-speaking bishops to dump the “clunky and Latinised” 2011 translation of the Missal. Fr Gerald O’Collins, who taught at the Gregorian University in Rome for 33 years and who holds several doctorates in theology, sent The Tablet an open letter to the bishops. In the letter, he called Read more
Pope Francis has said that if he is assassinated or attacked, he has asked God to spare him physical pain. In an interview with Buenos Aires favela publication La Carcova News, the Pope said he had asked the Lord to take care of him. “But if your will is that I die or that they Read more
Jean Vanier, the founder of the L’Arche communities, has won the 2015 Templeton Prize, which is worth US$1.7million. L’Arche is a global network of communities where those with and without developmental disabilities live side by side. The network was begun in northern France in 1964 when Mr Vanier invited two intellectually disabled men to live Read more
A philosopher’s idea that there are faith “seekers” and “dwellers” is sparking debate about how the Church engages with the world. The idea is that of Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor, who was one of the main speakers at an international conference on Church renewal in Rome this month. According to a Catholic News Service report, Read more
Pope Francis has called on theologians not to settle for the “theology of the desk”, but to “smell of the people and of the road”. In a letter to the theological faculty of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina, the Pope used language he had previously applied to pastors. According to an article in the National Read more
A drift into consumerism and a preoccupation with money and finance are key reasons for the stagnation of religious orders in England, says an historian. Dom Aidan Bellenger, former Abbot of Downside Abbey and a leading historian of the monastic life, made this assertion in an article in The Tablet. He suggested that communities had Read more