On a spring day about five years ago, when I was rector of Mundelein Seminary, Francis Cardinal George spoke to the assembled student body. He congratulated those proudly orthodox seminarians for their devotion to the dogmatic and moral truths proposed by the Church, but he also offered some pointed pastoral advice. He said that it Read more
Four Kiwis who went to last year’s synod on the family have welcomed Pope Francis’s wide-ranging new apostolic exhortation on marriage and the family. In a statement released through the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference, Cardinal John Dew, Bishop Charles Drennan, Dr John Kleinsman and Sharon Cole spoke on Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love). Read more
No one doubts Pope Francis’ pulling power, whether in St Peter’s Square or on Instagram. But the fact that people want to see and hear Francis doesn’t tell you much about the impact he is having on them, or on the wider Church. To assess the success of a pope, you have to first identify Read more
Pope Francis’s exhortation “Amoris Laetitia; On Love in the Family,” which is scheduled to be released on April 8, will be a call to “dialogue,” according to a “reading guide” released by the Vatican. The guide, issued by the Vatican’s office for the Synod of Bishops, says that the exhortation will be “first and foremost Read more
Pope Francis will meet with refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos on April 16 to show his support and solidarity for the migrants. Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press office, said the invitation for the pope to visit the island came from Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, and Greek president Read more
If Pope Francis wanted a single image to illustrate the special Year of Mercy that is the current focus of his ministry and, indeed, the theme at the heart of his pontificate, he could do no better than choosing an underappreciated masterpiece by the thrilling Italian artist known as Caravaggio. In fact, the 400-year-old canvas, Read more
Pope Francis has called on parishes across Europe on Sunday to give donations to the victims of the conflict in Ukraine. The pontiff on Sunday announced that there will be special collections on April 24 in all European Catholic churches to “alleviate the material needs” of all who are suffering “the consequences of the violence” Read more
The Vatican’s new anti-abuse expert says Pope Francis is “not wavering” in his efforts to formulate anti-sex abuse policies for the Catholic Church. “If the pope was wavering, I don’t think he’d give the commission the support he’s been giving it,” said Teresa Kettelkamp, referring to the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. Read more
Concerns have been raised over the appointments by Pope Francis of cardinals from very small nations like Tonga. In an article in the National Catholic Register, Rome correspondent Edward Pentin wrote that Francis’s choice of cardinals is among the indicators of his pontificate’s direction. Pentin noted that Francis has chosen not to award “so many Read more
The Vatican announced that Pope Francis will release the much-anticipated document on Catholic family life on April 8. The document, the result of two back-to-back synods of Catholic bishops in 2014 and 2015, will be titled “Amoris laetitia, On Love in the Family.” Cardinals Lorenzo Baldisseri and Christoph Schonborn, alongside Italian lay people Francesco and Read more