On a pilgrimage to Assisi, Pope Francis has called on all Christians and the whole Church to imitate St Francis by embracing poverty and stripping away worldly attitudes. “A Christian cannot coexist with the spirit of the world,” he said, speaking in a room of the Assisi archbishop’s residence where St Francis shed himself of Read more
The Catholic Church in New South Wales believed it had a secrecy deal with police that allowed it to withhold information about paedophile priests, newly released documents show. Church leaders thought they had struck a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with police about what information would be handed over. The unsigned draft memorandum said: “Church authorities Read more
Rebel theologian Hans Kung, who at the age of 85 is suffering from Parkinson’s disease, has revealed he is considering seeking help to take his own life. In the final volume of his three-part memoirs, he says he has macular degeneration as well as Parkinson’s disease. He will soon be blind, and can hardly manage Read more
Novelist William Peter Blatty, author of The Exorcist, has sent a canon-law petition to the Vatican, asking it to require Georgetown University in Washington, DC, to live up to its Catholic identity. The Jesuit university is Blatty’s alma mater, and his best-selling book and the 1973 blockbuster film The Exorcist were set in Georgetown. His Read more
The Catholic Church in Australia has said it will allow an independent board to monitor how it handles clerical sex abuse and publicly report on its compliance. This step is part of a reform agenda described as potentially “the most significant overhaul of the Church’s approach to clerical sexual abuse in its more than 200-year Read more
In a wide-ranging interview with a left-leaning Italian newspaper, Pope Francis has lamented a “Vatican-centric” view prevailing within the Roman Curia and said “I’ll do everything I can to change it”. On the subject of Church leaders, he said: “You know what I think about this? Heads of the Church have often been narcissists, flattered Read more
The reform of the Roman Curia, the function of the Vatican Secretariat of State and the role of the Synod of Bishops have occupied Pope Francis and his advisory council of cardinals during their first meeting. The three-day meeting opened with a talk by the Pope on the ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council. This Read more
As the Vatican Bank took the unusual step of publishing an annual report for the first time in its 125-year history, its president said the most surprising thing was “how unsurprising it is”. “You see a rather conservatively managed financial institution safeguarding assets, investing in very conservative investments like government bonds and bank deposits,” said Read more
Matthew Riedlinger’s text messages read as if they’ve been ripped from a pornographic novel. He quizzed his texting partner about sex videos, pressed for details about intimate liaisons, described sexual acts and encouraged mutual masturbation. He also repeatedly asked to meet. “Promise me you will never breath (sic) a word of this to anyone — ok?” Read more
Pope Francis and eight cardinals are set to meet at the Vatican this week to revise the Church’s constitution, news reports said. The Telegraph quoted Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga of Honduras saying the cardinal have received suggestions on Vatican reform from around the world. The current Church constitution was drawn up in 1988 by Pope Read more