Aborting sick and disabled children reflects a Nazi eugenics mentality, says Pope Francis. Speaking to members of the Forum of Family Associations on Saturday, Francis decried the “fashion” for prenatal testing of an unborn child’s health with a view to aborting those that are sick or disabled. He told the Forum this practice is “the Read more
God shows his love, not with great speeches, but with simple, tender acts of charity, Pope Francis said. “When Jesus wants to teach us how a Christian should be, he tells us very little,” the pope said, but he shows people by feeding the hungry and welcoming the stranger. Celebrating Mass in the chapel of Read more
Pope Francis has accepted Bishop Juan Barros’s resignation. Anti-abuse activists called the move the Vatican’s first concrete step in Chile to purge a corrupt church hierarchy implicated in decades of sexual mistreatment and ignoring victims. Barros of Osorno, Chile, has been at the centre of a sex abuse scandal for several years, having been accused Read more
Pope Francis has written a letter to Catholics in Chile about the church’s response to clergy sex abuse victims. Addressing the eight-page letter to the “People of God” in Chile, Francis thanked survivors for their “courageous perseverance” for speaking out. He said he is ashamed of the Church’s failure to listen to victims, and urged Read more
The Presbyterian Church in Ireland has agreed its moderator should meet Pope Francis when he visits Ireland. At the Presbyterian General Assembly which met in Belfast last week, delegates voted to allow moderator Rev. Dr Charles McMullen to meet the pope when he attends World Meeting of Families events in Dublin on August 25th and 26th. Read more
Pope Francis told world oil executives meeting at a two-day conference at the Vatican that transiting to less-polluting energy sources “is a challenge of epochal proportions”. The two-day conference was a follow-up to Francis’s 2015 encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si’. The encyclical calls for an energy policy “aimed at averting disastrous climate changes that Read more
A letter to the German bishops from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith says Pope Francis has asked the German Catholic bishops’ conference not to publish nationwide guidelines for allowing Protestants married to Catholics to receive Communion at Mass. The letter signed by Congregation’s prefect, Cardinal-designate Luis Ladaria, says Pope Francis has concluded Read more
World-leading oil company executives will be attending a conference at the Vatican on Friday and Saturday this week. The executives are from companies such as Exxon Mobil, Eni, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Pemex. The executives have been invited to the “Energy Transition and Care for Our Common Home” conference because the oil and gas Read more
Male-only priesthood should be held as an unchanging and “definitive” part of the Catholic faith says the head of Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal-designate Luis Ladaria. He says maleness is “an indispensable element” of the priesthood and the Church is “bound” by Christ’s decision only to choose male apostles. Ladaria’s opinion reflects Read more
An apostolic administrator will run the Australian archdiocese of Adelaide, as Archbishop Philip Wilson has been found guilty of neglecting to report clergy sexual abuse as a priest in the 1970s. Pope Francis says Bishop Gregory O’Kelly of the neighboring diocese of Port Pirie has been selected as the administrator. Read more