Pope Francis has created a new commission to hear appeals of priests and bishops accused of what the Church considers grave crimes. These crimes include sexual abuse of minors, wrongful use of the sacrament of penance, heresy, apostasy and the attempted ordination of women. An edict approved by Francis establishes a new seven-member “college” inside Read more
Gay civil unions and same-sex marriages are a “Trojan horse” that fundamentally weakens the institution of the family, a senior cardinal has warned. Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, the head of the Italian Bishops Conference, said that civil unions between gay men and women only serve to “confuse people” and undermine traditional family life. This is especially Read more
Defectors from a Catholic community in Austria have described their circumstances there as a living hell. The Vatican has investigated allegations of abuse in The Work (Das Werk) based in Bregenz, but the results are not known. Both nuns and priests belong to the community, as well as non-ordained male and female members. A former Read more
Mormon founder Joseph Smith had as many as 40 wives, including a 14-year-old girl, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has admitted. The church’s teachings had previously portrayed Smith has having been happily married to one woman only. The revelations of Smith’s polygamy came in an essay posted on the LDS church’s Read more
An American pastor has refused a request from his archbishop to cancel or change the venue of a talk by an Irish priest who has been silenced by Rome. Fr Mike Tegeder of St Frances Cabrini parish in Minneapolis was told by Archbishop John Nienstedt that the venue of Fr Tony Flannery’s talk be changed Read more
Pope Francis does not fit into the worn out categories of conservative or liberal, says the cardinal who has been dubbed “the Pope’s theologian”. In a lecture in Washington, D.C. last week, Cardinal Walter Kasper said Francis “cannot be categorised, much less appropriated, by any specific [theological] school”. “He’s not an academic theologian in the Read more
Pope Francis has appointed Cardinal Raymond Burke as Patron of the Order of Malta, in a move which leaves the US prelate out of the Roman Curia. Cardinal Burke, 66, was formerly the prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, the Church’s highest court. His role in the Order of Malta is largely a ceremonial one, without Read more
An American charity worker and two pastors face jail and fines for feeding the homeless at a Florida beachfront park. But 90-year-old Arnold Abbott, who runs the Love Thy Neighbour organisation, has vowed to continue the beachfront feedings at Fort Lauderdale. Fort Lauderdale’s city authority passed a new ordinance last month which tightens restrictions on Read more
Fourteen people, including a priest, have been killed in a bus crash while travelling home from a religious event in Spain. The incident, which saw a bus plunge down a ravine in Murcia in southern Spain, was the worst such accident in the country for 13 years, officials said. The bus was carrying passengers to Read more
Pope Francis is to open a Vatican-sponsored interreligious conference dedicated to traditional marriage. The gathering, on the “Complementarity of Man and Woman”, will take place from November 17-19. It will feature more than 30 speakers, representing 23 countries. Representatives from various Christian churches and Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Taoism and Sikhism will attend. The Read more