Pope Francis on Saturday effectively demoted a highly conservative Italian cardinal who led theVatican’s department on clergy, while keeping in place a German prelate who wages the Catholic church’s crackdown on liberal U.S. nuns and helps craft its sex-abuse response. After six months on the job to study the workings of the Vatican’s curia, or Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Curia’
Big papal pow-wow with the curia
Tuesday, September 10th, 2013Today the Vatican’s weekly schedule announced Pope Francis has called together all heads of the Roman Curia for an early morning meeting tomorrow. Though the pope always meets with them at the end of the year to look back on the last 12 months, this gathering mid-year is highly unusual. Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi Read more
Pope jokes about fear of being ‘robbed’ in Vatican
Friday, September 6th, 2013
Newspaper reports from Argentina quoted an archbishop claiming that Pope Francis jokingly said he chose to live in a simple Vatican residence to avoid getting robbed in the more regal papal palace. A story posted on the website of the Catholic news agency of Argentina AICA quoted Archbishop Mario Poli, who replaced Pope Francis as Read more
Church leaders apologise for leak of ‘gay lobby’ notes
Friday, June 14th, 2013
The President of the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious Men and Women (CLAR) has apologised to Pope Francis for the leaked notes of a private conversation with the Holy Father over the weekend. In a statement released on the CLAR website, Sr Mercedes Homes Leticia Sanches said there was no record of the conversation Read more
Pope provisionally re-confirms Vatican Curia
Monday, March 18th, 2013
Pope Francis has decided that all top administrators in the Vatican bureaucracy will keep their posts while he reflects on any necessary changes, the Vatican said on Saturday. There had been speculation that the new pope could make swift changes to the Curia, the Vatican bureaucracy that has been at the center of allegations of Read more
Opinion: Reform dominates Conclave agenda
Monday, March 4th, 2013It would be entirely understandable if Benedict XVI wanted “business as usual” signs to go up at the Vatican as soon as possible after his retirement, and for the new man in charge to carry on the good work of the old though perhaps with extra energy. What is emerging is something rather different – Read more
Opinion: The face of the Church marred by divisions and rivalry
Tuesday, February 19th, 2013
As days pass since the announcement of Benedict XVI’s resignation, it becomes clear that his decision is one whose profound significance will only gradually become clear. Benedict is a teacher, a writer, a scholar, for whom words are never trivialized. Vatican observers are listening carefully to each of his speeches, and watching every gesture and Read more
The Vatican’s very own revolution
Friday, September 14th, 2012
The Vatican II council, which began 50 years ago next month, was the most momentous religious event in 450 years. On January 25, 1959, the newly elected Pope John XXIII invited 18 cardinals from the Vatican bureaucracy to attend a service at the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls in Rome. He told them Read more
Questioning Church’s multicultural nature
Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
US-dominated globalization is not compatible with cultures of the south. Among the 22 new cardinals receiving a biretta on February 18 from Pope Benedict XVI, 10 hold positions in the Roman Curia. Italians comprise seven of the 22, making them the largest group. Only three are from outside Europe or North America. So this consistory Read more
Religious life under Vatican spotlight at special meeting
Friday, June 17th, 2011
A special “no agenda” meeting called by Pope Benedict at the Vatican on June 13 discussed several concerns about Religious Life. Respected Vatican journalist, Andrea Tornielli reports that while there was no public agenda, the meeting involved the leaders of the Roman Curia and covered the importance of maintaining separation between men’s and women’s religious communities the need Read more