The Vatican has placed its former ambassador to the Dominican Republic under house arrest, after opening a criminal trial against him. Former Archbishop Josef Wesolowski is the first high-ranking official to face Vatican criminal charges for sexually abusing young people. He had already been laicised in June after a canonical trial. On Tuesday, the Vatican Read more
A prominent American cardinal in the Roman Curia has accused the media of attempting to hijack next month’s synod on the family. Cardinal Raymond Burke, who heads the Apostolic Signatura, said the media has created an expectation of changes to Church teaching that can’t happen. The Apostolic Signatura is the highest judicial body in the Read more
Britain’s most senior Catholic has said that the Church has forgotten the importance of mercy during the past few decades. Ahead of next month’s synod on the family, Cardinal Vincent Nichols told a press conference that he grew up in a “Church that understood itself as a Church of sinners”. “[But] I don’t think it’s Read more
Prince William, the second in line to the British throne, has attended his first public Catholic Mass in an official capacity, during a visit to Malta. The Duke of Cambridge was in the Mediterranean nation representing Queen Elizabeth II at the 50th anniversary of Malta’s independence. He went to a Thanksgiving Mass at St John’s Read more
The new Catholic Archbishop of Sydney has expressed shame and sorrow at child abuse by clergy and at the Church’s abandonment of victims. In his first news conference last week, Archbishop-elect Anthony Fisher, OP, said he was determined to do everything he could to make sure the abuse didn’t happen again. To the survivors of Read more
Pope Francis has ordered a review aimed at simplifying the Church’s procedures for marriage annulments. An 11-member commission, announced on Saturday, will seek to “simplify the (annulment) procedure, making it more streamlined, while safeguarding the principle of the indissolubility of marriage”, the Vatican said. The commission is made up of canon lawyers and theologians and Read more
Cardinal Walter Kasper says hardliners opposed to his proposals for Communion for the divorced and remarried really have Pope Francis as a target. The German cardinal told the Italian daily Il Mattino that some of his fellow cardinals “. . . claim to know on their own what truth is, but Catholic doctrine is not a Read more
Pope Francis has asked new bishops not to be deceived by the temptation to change their people, but to love them as they are. The Pope said this in a written address on September 18 to 138 recently appointed bishops from around the world, including two from Australia. “Though jealously safeguarding the passion for truth, Read more
Scotland’s Catholic bishops have said a resounding “no” to a bill that would introduce an “opt-out” system for organ donation. Responding to a proposed Organ and Tissue Donation bill, the Church’s parliamentary office called an opt-out system “intrinsically discriminatory”. This is because “it denies the integrity of the person by overriding the requirement for consent Read more
Belgium’s legal system has granted the wish of a long incarcerated Mass-going prisoner to die by assisted suicide. Frank Van Den Bleeken, 50, had been in prison for decades after being convicted of murder, rape and other sexual crimes. He had argued that he had no prospect of release, since he could not overcome his violent Read more