The Vatican has announced that Pope Francis has accepted resignations from Bishop Alejandro Goic Karmelic of Rancagua and Bishop Horacio del Carmen Valenzuela Abarca of Talca. The Chilean bishops failed to protect children from paedophile priests. Goic has served as head of the Chilean church’s child protection commission. The extent of clerical paedophilia in Chile Read more
Pope Francis made an unexpected change Tuesday in the structure of the College of Cardinals, adding some curial officials to the rank of “cardinal bishops,” the highest rank within the college. The College of Cardinals is structured in three orders, or ranks: the order of “cardinal deacons,” the order of “cardinal priests,” and the order Read more
A ‘Say Nope to the Pope’ Facebook page is encouraging people to protest against Pope Francis’s visit to Ireland in August. The campaign aims to ensure a low turnout at planned events at the triennial World Meeting of Families. So far over 1,000 people have clicked “attending” the protest and another 4,000 say they are Read more
Torturing people is a mortal sin, a grave sin, says Pope Francis. In a Tuesday message for the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, Francis said that torture didn’t end in Auschwitz-Birkenau. “Today people are being tortured. Many prisoners are tortured. Today in many places where there is war the same thing happens. Read more
France’s President Emmanuel Macron has been given an honorary title by Pope Francis. Macron visited the Vatican to accept an inherited title of the “First and Only Honorary Canon” of the Basilica of St. John Lateran. St John Lateran is the pope’s cathedral in his capacity as bishop of Rome. Under a tradition that began Read more
Pope Francis has signed a rescript adding four more members to the group of cardinal bishops in the College of Cardinals. They are: Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, 63, Vatican secretary of state; Argentine Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, 74, prefect of the Congregation for Eastern Churches; Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, 74, prefect of the Congregation for Italian Read more
Papal reforms will result in several changes being made at the Vatican during the coming months. Pope Francis says the Office of Papal Charities, otherwise known as the pope’s almoner, will now be headed by a cardinal. The Office oversees help for the poor. The current Papal Charities chief, Archbishop Konrad Krajewski, will be promoted. Read more
In an in-flight news conference following his one-day trip to the World Council of Christian Churches (WCCC) meeting last Thursday, Pope Francis touched on several world-headline issues of recent weeks. One of these concerns a proposal from some German bishops about communion for Protestants married to Catholics; the bishops want to know whether Protestants should Read more
Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli has been tipped to sing before Pope Francis at the World Meeting of Families (WMOF) in Dublin later this year. Negotiations are ongoing to secure the singer, who has sold more than 80 million records worldwide. If he does sign up for the concert, Bocelli will sing at the Festival of Read more
Lutheran bishop, Gerhard Ulrich, who is the leading bishop of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany, has praised Pope Francis for his dedication to ecumenism. He says the relationship between Protestants and Catholics worldwide has reached an unprecedentedly positive level. He says a “historic milestone for Lutheran-Catholic ecumenism,” resulted from Francis’s joint leadership of Read more