The Irish state was directly involved in the incarceration of young women in the notorious Magdalene laundries, an official report has found. The Irish government has previously denied direct involvement in the system, which was run by four religious congregations: the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the Good Shepherd Sisters, the Sisters of Mercy Read more
The new promoter of justice at the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has said the news media did the Church a service by uncovering the clerical abuse scandal. “I think that certainly those who continued to put before us that we need to confront this problem did a service,” Father Robert Oliver Read more
An Irish Redemptorist priest at odds with the Vatican over his views on the nature of the priesthood has broken a period of silence imposed a year ago to claim he has been threatened with excommunication. At a press conference in Dublin, Fr Tony Flannery, 66, said he was “threatened with excommunication from the Catholic Read more
After the House of Commons voted 400-175 to legalise same-sex marriages, Britain’s Catholic bishops warned the move would have profoundly negative effects on society. “The proposed change will have catastrophic consequences for marriage as an institution, for family life in Britain, and for all human relationships, not least among our young,” said Bishop Philip A. Egan Read more
Following a meeting with Colorado’s three bishops, a Catholic hospital group has apologised for arguing in a wrongful-death lawsuit that a fetus is not a person. Catholic Health Initiatives acknowledged it was “morally wrong” for lawyers representing one of its hospitals to cite the state’s Wrongful Death Act in defence of a lawsuit brought by Read more
The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has defeated the prominent atheist Richard Dawkins in a debate on religion at the University of Cambridge in England. Students voted 324-136 against Dawkins’ argument that religion has no place in the 21st century. “Religion has always been a matter of community building, a matter of building Read more
The greatest work of charity is evangelisation, Pope Benedict XVI declares in his Lenten message for 2013, in which he cautions against the tendency to reduce the term “charity” to solidarity or simply humanitarian aid. Preaching the Gospel, the Pope says, is actually the greatest act of charity, since it involves “the highest and the Read more
Catholic agencies in the United States are cautious about a new “accommodation” for religious institutions that object to covering contraception and abortion services in their employees’ insurance plans. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops declined to comment on the Obama administration’s latest modification to the Health and Human Services mandate that many Catholic employers are Read more
Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles has taken the unusual step of relieving his predecessor, Cardinal Roger Mahony, from all public duties for failing to protect children from clergy sex abuse. At the same time, Archbishop Gomez complied with a court order by releasing 12,000 pages of documents containing the personnel files of clergy accused Read more
The Vatican has dismissed a claim by Mehmet Ali Agca that his assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II in 1983 was ordered by the late Iranian Islamic leader Ayatollah Khomeini. In an autobiography, the would-be assassin claims he was trained by Iranian forces and given the mission to kill the Pontiff by the ayatollah Read more