The Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy ordered an Argentine seminary to close, says Argentine bishop Eduardo Maria Taussig of San Rafael. Taussig (pictured) says the closure of the seminary in his diocese was ordered after a controversy surrounding the reception of the Eucharist during the coronavirus (COVID19) pandemic. He also noted the Congregation said that due Read more
The new parish instructions could the the subject of a discussion at the Vatican, if German bishops want to air their views about them, says Cardinal Beniamino Stella, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy. Stella (pictured), whose congregation issued the new parish instructions last month, says he would be pleased to receive the bishops Read more
A German archdiocese plans to convert 1,000 parishes into 40 mega parishes. The move by Archbishop Stephan Burger of Freiburg comes in the face of the Vatican blocking a similar plan in another German diocese. Burger says creating the mega parishes is an adequate response to the challenges facing our archdiocese. “At the moment, I Read more
Lay support could contribute to priests’ “essential human formation” and provide their lives with the “necessary spiritual solidarity,” Cardinal Beniamino Stella says. Stella, who is the prefect of the Congregation for Clergy, believes if the laity were more involved in priestly formation, the crisis facing the church would not be so grave. In his view, Read more
A former high ranking official at the Congregation for Clergy has been forced to return objects of value to churches in Turin. During Msgr Giovanni Carrù’s 20 years as pastor in a Turin parish, many paintings, statues, furniture and other objects were lost and then found in private homes. Two candelabra ended up being among Read more
Pope Francis has warned bishops not to accept priests just because there is a shortage of them in a diocese. In an address to the Congregation for Clergy on October 3, Pope Francis asked bishops to think of the good of the people of God and to study the itinerary of vocations carefully. Vocations are Read more
In the 1990s, a Vatican congregation consistently discouraged bishops from acting against priests accused of child abuse, an Australian archbishop says. Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide was giving evidence at Sydney hearings by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Archbishop Wilson said the Congregation for Clergy had a history of hindering Read more