When Pope Francis insisted that the lives of the unborn and of the poor are “equally sacred,” he was not trying to shift the focus of Catholics from fighting abortion to fighting poverty, he was trying to show they are part of the same battle, said Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Read more
When the monsignor reached out and tenderly held the little boy’s face, I lost it. And it only got worse. When Pope Francis called the reluctant Emanuele up to whisper his question about where his beloved father went after death, I was crying so obviously that the other customers in line at Starbucks looked up Read more
Intercommunion – enabling non-Catholics to receive the Eucharist – is to be discussed in Rome. Although several news sources say Francis has already rejected a draft plan to allow non-Catholics who are married to Catholics to receive Communion in certain circumstances, it seems this is not the case. German Bishops’ Conference president, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Read more
Chilean Bishop Juan Barros should resign because he covered up clerical sex abuse. Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati says Barros, who allegedly covered up abuse of minors, should ‘without a doubt’ resign. He also says he would not judge whether Barros actually had covered up abuse by Fr Fernando Karadima. “I’m not a judge” who can say Read more
A child has asked Pope Francis if his atheist father is in heaven. Francis was visiting a parish on the outskirts of Rome when the child put the question to him. Francis routinely holds question-and-answer sessions with young people when he visits parishes. The child (whose name is Emanuele) was in tears when he asked Read more
Church leaders including Pope Francis and the Syrian Patriarchs are condemning last weekend’s airstrikes by the United States (US), Britain and France. War planes and ships launched over 100 missiles at three chemical weapons storage and research facilities near Damascus and Homs. The airstrikes sought to punish President Bashar al-Assad for a suspected chemical attack Read more
A synod on women’s role in the life and mission of the Church has been proposed. The proposal is contained in a statement approved by the Pontifical Commission for Latin America’s plenary assembly. The Commission, which includes 22 Latin American cardinals and bishops, said it was both possible and “urgent” to increase opportunities for women Read more
Pope Francis has included a quotation from a 30-year-old statement of the New Zealand Bishops in his latest Apostolic Exhortation, Gaudete et Exsultate: on the call to holiness in today’s world. The quotation is taken from the New Zealand Bishops’s statement Healing Love – In support of Married People and Divorced Catholics, which the New Zealand bishops Read more
The first thing that jumped out at me in Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation on holiness, Gaudete et exsultate, is how much he has put women in the foreground. Women are usually in the background of papal statements, if they appear at all. Not here. They are upfront and visible. Right at the outset (para 3), Read more
Pope Francis has asked forgiveness from the victims of clerical sexual abuse in Chile after receiving a report by the papal envoy, Bishop Charles Scicluna. “I have made serious mistakes in the assessment and my perception of the situation, especially due to a lack of truthful and balanced information,” the Pope said in a letter Read more