Pope Francis has delivered a strong message to contemplative religious orders, saying nostalgia won’t save monasteries from closure or shifts in vocations. Addressing superiors and delegates from Discalced Carmelite monasteries in Rome, the pontiff stressed the need for adaptation to modern times. “Defensive strategies are the fruit of a nostalgic return to the past; this Read more
Is John Paul II really a saint? It may sound like a strange question, given that he was canonized in 2014. But it is one that some people are asking after a Polish television broadcast an investigative report that criticized the late pope for his alleged mishandling of clergy sex abuse cases from 1964-1978 when Read more
The president of Poland’s Bishops’ Conference has said the Vatican rejected his request to have St John Paul II declared a Doctor of the Church and patron saint of Europe. Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki of Poznan said most bishops worldwide also ignored the proposal. He said: “The title of Doctor of the Church is reserved for Read more
Australia’s Catholic Church has completed the first phase of plans for the Plenary Council scheduled for 2020-2021. Plenary Councils are rare, with only two held during the past 130 years or so – one in the Philippines and the other in Poland. Lay-people’s opinions have been sought regarding the topics to be debated at the Read more
Spokesman of 22 years for St. John Paul II, Dr. Joaquin Navarro-Valls, has died. He was 80. Navarro-Valls is said to have been a legend in the Vatican – for his keen professional abilities and insight into the Pope’s mind, and his genuine kindness and deep spiritual life. Read more
A chair was especially constructed for St John Paul to use during his visit to New Zealand in 1986. The fact that a Protestant was the first person to use it is a source of quiet amusement for the man who constructed it. Upholsterer Colin Loach tells how he put the very large chair in Read more
Pope Francis made a pilgrimage to Fátima on Saturday to canonise two of the three shepherd children Our Lady appeared to 100 years ago. Jacinta and Francisco Marto, who died in 1919 are now “Saint Jacinta and Saint Francisco”. (The third “child”, their cousin Lucia, died in 2005.) Thousands of pilgrims lined Francis’s route and Read more
Bob Dylan, who once sang for Saint John Paul II, has received the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature. The Nobel citation says he is honored “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.” Commentators say he deserves to share the stage with “a charismatic pope who understood the power of the arts Read more
A Polish archbishop who molested seminarians has been warned by the Vatican to stay away from public church celebrations, including World Youth Day. Media reports had stated Archbishop Juliusz Paetz, formerly of Poznan, saw no reason he could not participate in commemorations of the foundation of Christianity in Poland. The commemorations, from April 14-16, will Read more
The Vatican has distanced itself from a BBC documentary expected to examine the relationship between St John Paul II and a married woman. The Secret Letters of Pope John Paul II was due to be aired on Monday on the BBC’s Panorama programme. Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, a Polish-born American philosopher, worked on a translation of one Read more