Irish missionary in the Philippines and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Fr Shay Cullen SSC, is warning that children made orphans by Typhoon Haiyan are in danger of becoming victims of human trafficking. Wandering children become “the main victims of jackals who seize them for child abuse or human trafficking,” he told the Fides news agency. “It Read more
News that the Chinese government is easing its one-child policy is “very misleading” says Reggie Littlejohn, president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers. On Friday, Reuters reported China was going to ease family planning restrictions allowing millions of families to have two children. Ruters called it the country’s most significant liberalisation of its strict one-child policy Read more
Visions of Mary, if taken in the wrong spirit, can sow confusion and distance people from the Gospel, Pope Francis has said. “The spirit of curiosity generates confusion and distances a person from the Spirit of wisdom, which brings peace”, said Pope Francis in his homily at morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta. Curiosity, the Read more
The Archbishop of Westminister, Vincent Nichols is urging Catholics in England and Wales to complete ‘the pope’s survey’. So far around 5,000 people from England and Wales have filled in the survey. Elizabeth Davies, marriage and family life project officer, told the Catholic Herald that 15,000 people had accessed the survey so far but only Read more
One of Italy’s best known anti-mob prosecutors is warning the Mafia is considering Pope Francis as a target. Nicola Gratteri says the Mafia is upset by the Pope’s efforts to make the Church more financially transparent. For years the Mafia has laundered money and made investments, taking advantage of the connivance of the Church, he said. Gratteri’s comments Read more
“Unimaginable,” is how the head of Caritas in the Philippines, is describing the devastation brought on by super typhoon Haiyan. Father Edwin Gariguez, S.J., told Catholic News Service by phone from Cebu that the destruction “is beyond our capacity”. He also expressed gratitude for the help of his international counterparts from the Netherlands and Germany, and Read more
Pope Francis is the most talked about name of 2013, and his twitter handle @Pontifex ranks in the top-five “top words” on the Web. The results are revealed in a study conducted by the Global Language Monitor’s 14th annual global survey of the English language. The Texas-based group determines the top terms, words, phrases, and names Read more
Leaders of the Australian Catholic Church have been accused of trivialising sex abuse as a “short-term embarrassment. The accusation comes in the Victorian state government’s report on child sex abuse. Launching the report in the Victoria State Parliament, inquiry chairwoman, Georgie Crozier spoke of “a betrayal beyond comprehension” and of children suffering “unimaginable harm”. The Read more
Archbishop of Naples Crescenzio Sepe didn’t mince words when speaking about the issue of pollution on Wednesday, going so far as to say, “Those who pollute are not in the grace of God and can not take communion.” His remarks came in the wake of revelations that local mafia had buried cancer-causing toxic waste around Read more
Germany’s bishops are distancing themselves from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith head, Archbishop Gerhard Muller’s defence of Catholic teaching on marriage. “We are going to see that the issue is completely discussed”, Archbishop of Munich, Cardinal Reinhard Marx told Germany Spiegal News. “The Prefect of the Congregation cannot end the discussion”, the Cardinal Archbishop Read more