A priest who had only been ordained for two years was shot and killed during a possible burglary in Phoenix in the United States. Fr Kenneth Walker, 29, died of gunshot wounds on June 11. He was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital. Another priest, Fr Joseph Terra, 56, was badly beaten in the attack Read more
A religious order flew a paedophile out of Australia and he worked as a headmaster in another country, while wanted by police, a royal commission has heard. Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse is holding hearings in Canberra. It has heard about failures by the Marist Brothers to act on repeated Read more
Israel’s Education Ministry has announced that evolution will be taught in its middle school curriculum. Up to now, only the biblical account of the origins of humanity had been taught at this level, to grade eight and nine students. Darwin’s theory was only taught to high school students studying biology. An education sector spokeswoman said Read more
An American archbishop has testified that he is unsure whether he knew in the 1980s that sexual abuse of a child by a priest was a crime. But a statement from St Louis archdiocese has hit out at coverage of Archbishop Robert Carlson’s remarks, saying they were taken out of context. During a court deposition last Read more
A deacon who allegedly killed at least 40 hospital patients in Belgium believes he was acting out of compassion for them, because their suffering was excessive. Although euthanasia is legal in Belgium, Ivo Poppe, 57, is facing charges because there is no evidence patients consented to his actions. Poppe allegedly killed his victims at the Read more
Four Catholic bishops in Eritrea have taken a huge risk in issuing a statement criticising conditions in their nation. A 2014 Human Rights Watch report described the African nation as one of the most closed countries in the world, where human rights conditions are “dismal”. Indefinite military service, torture, arbitrary detention and severe restrictions on Read more
Papers showing voting results during the 1903 conclave that elected Pope St Pius X have sold at auction in London for 4000 pounds. This conclave was notorious for having a leading candidate, Cardinal Mariano Rampolla del Tindaro, ruled out by outside political interference. Cardinal Rampolla, who had been Vatican secretary of state under Pope Leo Read more
The most prominent Protestant seminary in the United States will divest itself of all investments in fossil fuels. “We have sinned . . .”, wrote Union Theological Seminary president Serene Jones in an article in Time magazine. Fossil fuel investments constituted 11 per cent of Union’s US$108 million endowment. Removing such investments is an act Read more
Dominican friars in Britain are trying to raise one million pounds to cover costs following a rise in prospective vocations. The order has launched a training fund to try to accommodate a revival in its popularity. The Dominicans estimate it costs about 115,000 pounds to train each seminarian for seven years. There are 12 men Read more
Pope Francis’s advisors have asked him to take a holiday this year, as he sometimes gets very fatigued. In the first year of his pontificate, amid a hectic schedule, Pope Francis did not have a break and did not even spend time at the traditional papal summer retreat at Castel Gandolfo. Church officials have said Read more