Recently, I criticised comments made by Bishop Robert Barron, known for his “Word on Fire” ministry and the bishop of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, in which he complained about the Catholic faith being “dumbed down. I found his comments a-historical and thought they suggested that only very smart, well-informed and well-read Catholics could qualify as good Catholics. Read more
A synodal church is “fundamental” to Pope Francis’ vision for women in the Church, papal biographer Austen Ivereigh says. In such a church, women challenge clericalism without being co-opted by it, Ivereigh told a webinar on the role of women in church leadership. Ivereigh said Francis had indicated the vital need for those women to Read more
Catholic women have clapped back at Pope Francis after he called their struggle for ordination “clericalist” and “disrespectful”. According to Novena News, the women’s response is a reaction to Francis statement that women do not need to be priests in order to lead in the church. Novena News reports that many Catholic women remain unhappy Read more
A number of people close to Francis have been looking forward eagerly to a book out this week in Italy that is sure to lay to rest the myth that somehow, he lacks the philosophical and theological ballast to be pope. Massimo Borghesi’s dazzling ‘intellectual biography’ of Jorge Mario Bergoglio shows that this criticism – Read more
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the former leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, helped to orchestrate a behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign which led to the election of Pope Francis, a new biography claims. The choice of the largely unknown Argentine cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as head of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics came as a Read more
Last Friday morning, as I waited with my wife to greet Pope Francis after the 7 am Mass he says each day at the Santa Marta guesthouse, the strangeness of it all hit me. I was presenting a biography of the Pope to the Pope, and it had the bold title of The Great Reformer. Read more
I’ve covered enough papal trips under Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI to be familiar with the routine. As the press centre fills, the first reports filter out of the Pope’s remarks to journalists accompanying him on the plane. The familiar Alitalia A330 touches down on the airport tarmac flying the Vatican and local Read more
The launching of the Catholic Voices project in Australia has raised the prospect of this media initiative being extended to New Zealand. Catholic Voices, whose aim is to improve the Catholic Church’s representation in the media, began in Britain in 2010 with the training of 24 lay people and a priest in preparation for the Read more