Sainthood causes Pope Francis advanced this week included that of Sister Leonella Sgorbati. Sgorbati was an Italian missionary nun shot to death in Somalia in 2006 along with her Muslim driver and bodyguard, Mohamed Osman Mahamud after Pope benedict XVI’s Regensburg lecture. Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Pope Benedict XVI’
Medjugorje apparitions – yes, no says Pope
Thursday, May 18th, 2017
Only some of the Medjugorje apparitions are likely to be authentic, Pope Francis said during an in-flight interview after canonising Saints Jacinta and Francisco last weekend. He was referring to alleged apparitions of Our Lady who is said to have appeared 35 years ago to six children in Medjugorje. Since then, three of the “children” Read more
Vatican resolving sexual abuse caseloads
Thursday, April 6th, 2017
Pope Francis has appointed two new officials to oversee the Vatican office responsible for looking after clerical sexual abuse cases. A backlog of unresolved abuse cases has prompted the new appointments. Attention has focused on the Vatican’s response to the clerical sexual abuse crisis since the beginning of last month. That was when abuse survivor Read more
Emeritus Pope Benedict wasn’t pressured to step down
Thursday, March 16th, 2017
Emeritus Pope Benedict wasn’t pressured to step down, says Father Federico Lombardi. Lombardi, who was Benedict’s spokesman, denied Italian Archbishop Luigi Negri’s claim that Benedict was forced to resign. However according to Negri, Benedict’s resignation was as a result of “tremendous pressure” being put upon him. The Obama administration has been implicated in the pressures Read more
Vatican’s first female-only association gets the nod
Tuesday, December 13th, 2016
The Vatican’s first female-only association has been formally approved as a Vatican association. Donne in Vaticano (“Women in the Vatican”) is open to all 750 women working for the Holy See and its attached institutions. So far about 50 women have joined. Women make up about a fifth of the Vatican workforce. Most of them Read more
Global warming now part of seminary teaching
Tuesday, December 13th, 2016
Global warming and the Catholic church do not seem to have any connection, on the face of it. However, priests are going to be learning about environmental concerns during their formation period at seminaries. Later, they’ll be expected to preach about the environment at Mass. How did this topic come to be included in the Read more
What relationship did Castro have with the church?
Tuesday, November 29th, 2016
The relationship Fidel Castro had with the Church has often often speculated about Pope Francis’s condolence message to Raul Castro expressed his “sentiments of grief”. He promised to pray for Fidel. Jesuit-educated, Fidel Castro followed a Marxist-Leninist ideology. Believing the Church was a state enemy, he declared Cuba an atheist state. He seized all Cuba’s Read more
Pope Benedict the Green
Tuesday, November 29th, 2016Pope Benedict is often forgotten when the call for Catholics to be better stewards of God’s creation is made. Even though Pope Francis usually gets the credit, Benedict was behind the changes the Vatican has made to becoming a “green” carbon-neutral state. Read more
Ageing brings intense prayer, awareness of judgment says Benedict
Tuesday, October 18th, 2016Ageing brings intense prayer and awareness of judgement, says 89 year-old Emeritus Pope Benedict. He says retirement has given him the gift of silence to enter more deeply into prayer, especially with the Psalms and the writings of early Church theologians. He also says the approach of death makes his failings and God’s judgment a Read more
Retired Pope Benedict says it was his ‘duty’ to resign from papacy
Friday, September 2nd, 2016
Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI felt he had a “duty” to resign from the papacy because of his declining health and the rigorous demands of papal travel. While his heart was set on completing the Year of Faith, the retired pope told Italian journalist Elio Guerriero that after his visit to Mexico and Cuba in March Read more