Photos of a migrant father and young daughter who drowned while trying to cross the Rio Grande from Mexico to enter the United States without legal permission have struck the hearts of many world leaders. The photos show the bodies of Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez and his 23-month-old daughter Valeria, who were fleeing from El Read more
Pope Francis has handed the leadership of the Archdiocese of Lyon to a retired bishop after removing Cardinal Philippe Barbarin from the post. Bishop Michel Dubost, 77, now has executive responsibility for governing Lyon, whose archbishop is traditionally known as the “Primate of the Gauls”. He has been appointed as administrator “sede plena et ad Read more
California’s Catholic bishops have released an ecological pastoral statement about threats to the state’s many ecosystems. The bishops, who lead nearly 11 million Catholics, 28% of the population, are inviting the church community and all Californians to contribute to the state’s “ecological well-being”. Their 19-page pastoral statement, entitled “God Calls Us All to Care for Read more
The Vatican has officially thrown open the question of the Catholic Church ordaining married men. It is the most direct mention ever by the Vatican of the possibility of married priests. The proposal, released around 10 pm Monday, NZ time, comes in a working document prepared for the Synod of Bishops in the Pan-Amazon. In Read more
A new Chilean archbishop-elect has resigned after making contentious comments about Jews in a CNN interview last month. Pope Francis has accepted Fr Carlos Eugenio Irarrázaval Errazuriz’s resignation. The Santiago diocese says Errazuriz’s resignation “was the fruit of dialogue and joint discernment”, in which Francis valued Errazuriz’s “spirit of faith and humility … in favor Read more
Lay advisers to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) want the Holy See to be more open about former archbishop Theodore McCarrick. They want the USCCB to ask for all the relevant documents and the results of diocesan and archdiocesan investigations about McCarrick to be released. Both the National Advisory Council to the US Read more
The Vatican’s new gender education document “Male and female he created them” seeks to tackle what it calls “an educational crisis”. The Holy See’s Congregation for Catholic Education says the document is intended to help guide Catholic contributions to the ongoing debate about human sexuality and to address the challenges that emerge from gender ideology. Read more
Dissident retired archbishop Carlo Vigano has accused Pope Francis of “blatantly lying” in saying he had no knowledge of sexual abuse allegations against ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. In a series of emails from an undisclosed location, Vigano told the Washington Post that Francis and Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI must come clean about what they knew of McCarrick’s Read more
Until now, church officials have always said theological agreement between the various Christian churches is needed before Christian unity or Eucharistic sharing could be possible. That may have changed during an in-flight press conference on Sunday as Pope Francis returned to Rome after visiting Romania. Asked what advice he could offer Romanians about the relationship Read more
Married priests could be a possibility if prelates ask Pope Francis to allow it, German Cardinal Walter Kasper says. Kasper, who is considered one of Francis’s close theological advisers, says such a change could be made during this year’s Synod of Bishops on the Amazon set for this October, if the prelates were to ask Read more