Experts are drafting proposed new laws on the status of a retired pope. In the 728 years that have passed since St Celestine established this legal precedent, the right of a pope to resign remains ensured in church law. The law is not very detailed, saying only that the decision must be made freely and Read more
The Vatican needs clear rules to govern the status of popes who resign in the future, according to Cardinal George Pell, a leading Roman Catholic conservative. Pell is one of the highest-ranking Church figures to speak publicly on the need for these new rules. The situation became an issue in 2013 when Pope Benedict, 93, Read more
Cardinal George Pell has spoken of his surprise at the apparent extent of ‘criminality’ involved in recent Vatican financial scandals. “I didn’t know that there was so much criminality involved,” Pell said. He was speaking to the AP before the Dec. 15 release of the first volume of his jailhouse memoir, ‘Prison Journal.’ The book Read more