“Bishop Bling-Bling” – moniker of suspended bishop of LimburgFranz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, is just the tip of the iceberg according to Christian Weisner, spokesman for the German branch of “We Are Church”. “There is a real clash of cultures between Germany’s current cardinals and bishops, nominated under John Paul II or Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis,” Read more
The Church only has a future when it tries to follow Jesus and is as a servant Church, according to Cardinal Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga. Delivering the keynote address at Friday’s opening of the University of Dallas Ministry Conference in Las Colinas, the Honduran archbishop and chairman of Pope Francis’ circle of advisors, told the conference the Read more
As more than 100 new complaints of sexual abuse by Victorian clergy flood in, a leading lawyer warns the Catholic Church in Australia will not win back public trust and confidence until its current “tainted” leaders have gone. The baton needs to be passed on to another generation, one untainted by what has gone on, Read more
Four Iranian men are due to get 80 lashes each for drinking communion wine during a “house church” service. House churches are a way for Iranian Christians to gather in unofficial buildings to conduct Church services. The Independent reports the four men, Behzad Taalipasand, Mehdi Reza Omidi, Mehdi Dadkakh and Amir Hatemi, were originally arrested Read more
The murders of more than 100 Catholics during the Troubles in Northern Ireland involved members of the security forces, according to a new book that draws on recently declassified official documents. The book, Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland, concludes that systematic collusion existed between the security forces and loyalist assassins during the 1970s. It Read more
The prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has strongly affirmed the Catholic Church’s teaching that Communion for remarried divorcees is forbidden. But Archbishop Gerhard L. Muller acknowledged that many Catholics’ first marriages might be invalid, and thus eligible for annulment, if spouses had been influenced by prevailing contemporary conceptions of marriage Read more
A German bishop who has been criticised for his allegedly luxurious lifestyle has suspended from his episcopal ministry and instructed to live outside his diocese for an unspecified time. Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst of Limburg had travelled to Rome to see Pope Francis after the head of the German bishops’ conference, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, had Read more
A Catholic bishop has blocked plans by gay activists to pray the Rosary in his cathedral to ask the Virgin Mary to intercede on their behalf to pass legislation for same-sex marriage. The Rainbow Sash Movement called off the same-sex marriage Rosary after Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, denounced it as “blasphemous”. The movement Read more
After an internal inquiry found members of the Catholic Theological Society of America sideline theologians with conservative or traditional views, the society has committed itself to work for greater inclusivity. The society, which counts some 1400 academics among its ranks, has adopted a set of new guidelines to help members better respect “diverse theological and Read more
A Christian who chooses to follow his own moralistic ideology “has lost the faith” and is no longer a disciple of Jesus, Pope Francis has declared. Worse still, the attitude of ideological Christians frightens other people and chases them away from the Church, he said. “When a Christian becomes a disciple of an ideology, he Read more