It’s all Pope Francis’ fault (or merit). Those who fiercely criticize the Synodal Path that the Catholic Church in Germany embarked upon in 2019 — and even those who enthusiastically support it — cannot deny that the Jesuit pope is responsible. The only reason the Germans have been able to spend the past three years Read more
As Pope Francis beging the thirty-second trip of his pontificate Nov. 19 to Thailand and Japan, he will once again be visiting nations where Catholics are a small minority. In both countries, there’s one Catholic for every 200 people, as opposed to roughly one for five in the United States. The Nov. 19-26 trip will Read more
Pope Francis, Sunday, marked the Church’s World Day of the Poor by hosting 1,500 homeless and disadvantaged people for lunch. The menu included lasagna, chicken in a cream of mushroom sauce, potatoes, sweets, fruit and coffee. Some 150 tables were set up in a Vatican hall where Francis normally holds his weekly indoor audiences with Read more
Dunedin’s Bishop, Michael Dooley met with Pope Francis in Rome on Saturday. Bishop Dooley (top left) is among the 74 newly-appointed bishops from 34 countries in Africa, Asia, Oceania and Latin America including those as diverse as Algeria, Myanmar, Cameroon and Indonesia attending a 12-day seminar learning about the roles and responsibilities of bishops. Bishop Read more
The Roman Catholic Church’s clergy sex abuse crisis has come roaring back to life as if it were the worst days of 2002, when the scandal tsunami out of Boston seemed to inundate the entire church. The shock waves this time came from substantiated sex abuse allegations that a well-known cardinal, Theodore McCarrick, a retired Read more
In the past four decades Ireland has become a different country, but you wouldn’t know it in Knock. In the small west of Ireland town that is home to the huge Marian shrine complex, it was hard to find a space on the tightly packed pews at 11am mass last week. The rows of the Read more
Loving wealth destroys the soul, and cheating workers of their just wages and benefits is a mortal sin, Pope Francis said. Jesus did not mince words when he said, “Woe to you who are rich,” after listing the Beatitudes as written according to St. Luke, the pope said in a morning homily. If anyone today Read more
The Vatican felt obliged this week to reaffirm that Pope Francis believes in a central tenet of Catholicism, that there is a hell. That odd declaration came after the newspaper La Repubblica published a front-page article on Thursday by an atheist, left-wing and anticlerical giant of Italian journalism, who reported that during a recent meeting Read more
There was a time in life when I wanted change and wanted it now. I still want things done now, but over the course of the years, I discovered that, at least where the church is concerned, I was looking for action in the wrong places. As Sean Freyne, the Irish theologian and Scripture scholar, Read more
Just how well informed is Pope Francis about the goings-on in his 1.2-billion strong Catholic Church? That question is making the rounds after the pope seemed completely unaware of the details of a Chilean sex abuse scandal, a failing that soured his recent trip there and forced him to do an about-face. It also came Read more