Pope Francis has released a new law making it mandatory for all clerics and members of religious orders to report cases of clerical sexual abuse to Church authorities. It also includes actions or omissions of bishops and religious superiors that in any way interfere with or fail to investigate abuse. “The crimes of sexual abuse Read more
The Vatican commission exploring the possibility of female deacons has not been able to agree on whether women in the early Christian church were ordained as deacons in the same way men were. Pope Francis says each of the 12 commission members (six men and six women) have quite different positions on the issue, and Read more
Encouraging Catholic minorities during his apostolic visit to small Catholic communities in Bulgaria and North Macedonia earlier this week, Pope Francis urged them never to doubt the importance of their gifts in the face of the big problems in the church and the world. He compared their gifts to the tiny bit of yeast that Read more
Pope Francis phoned Jean Vanier a week before his death. He told reporters he wanted to express his gratitude for his witness. “Simply put, I want to thank him and thank God for having given us this man with such a great witness,” the pope said. Jean Vanier, whose charity work helped improve conditions for Read more
Pope Francis has been known to make off-color or politically incorrect jokes from time to time. For example, he has provoked sighs and raised eyebrows with stereotypical mother-in-law asides and occasional references to women as strawberries on the cake. Then there’s his constant harping about modern-day Pharisees, as he frequently labels those Catholic priests and Read more
Over the past six years, the profile of women at Vatican events, especially women religious, has risen sharply. Since Pope Francis’s election, more women have been taking centre stage with the “parrhesia” or boldness he encourages. Today Members of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) – who lead about 450,000 women religious around the Read more
The re-emergence of nationalism that manifests in aggressive feelings against foreigners, especially immigrants, is of serious concern says Pope Francis. Nationalism that compromises international cooperation, mutual respect and the sustainable development goals of the United Nations is part of the growing problem. In addition, nationalism that neglects the common good and the growing threat of Read more
A group of priests and scholars from around the world have signed an open letter accusing Pope Francis of heresy. Dissatisfied with Francis’s reform agenda, the 19 Catholic priests and academics sent the 20-page letter to the College of Bishops, asking for the college to investigate Francis for the “canonical delict of heresy”. The appeal Read more
Pope Francis seems set to name a lay woman to replace Cardinal George Pell as the head of the Vatican finance dicastery. A Tweet by Pope Francis’ biographer, Austen Ivereigh alerted the English-speaking world that Claudia Ciocca, currently a director of the Control and Surveillance section of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy, will soon Read more
The cardinals who voted in conclave to elect Pope Francis did so hoping he would reform the scandal-plagued Vatican Curia and make it more responsive to the concerns of the universal church. Six years later, his Curia reform proposals are reportedly to be promulgated at the end of June, although they will probably be leaked Read more