A former Catholic priest has been chosen to serve as interim bishop of Uruguay, the most secular country in South America. Daniel Genovesi was consecrated in Buenos Aires Cathedral last Saturday. He and his wife Mercedes, a former nun, will start their new ministry on 1 April. Difficulties involving personnel, finances and a gradual reduction Read more
Pope Francis may have to replace the cleric he recently appointed to the key position of prelate of the Vatican Bank, according to a veteran journalist who writes of a “scandal near the point of exploding”. Monsignor Battista Mario Salvatore Ricca was described as a “trusted cleric” when the Pope’s appointment was announced on June Read more
Pope Francis has expressed pleasure at meeting “a wise man” after a private audience with the Uruguayan president, Jose Mujica, an atheist. Mujica, a former guerilla fighter, has been described as “the world’s ‘poorest’ president”. He donates 90 per cent of his salary to charities, lives with his wife in a modest farmhouse instead of Read more
The Catholic bishops of Uruguay have backed away from a statement that Catholic legislators were subject to excommunication if they voted in favor of legal abortion. Bishop Heriberto Bodeant Fernández of Melo, the secretary-general of the bishops’ conference, told a Radio Carve interviewer that the penalty of automatic excommunication applies to those who are directly Read more
By a vote of 50-49, the Uruguayan congress passed a law during a late-night session on Sept. 25 legalizing abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy. The legislation now goes to the senate for approval and must be signed by President Jose Mujica, who has already voiced his support for the measure. It passed Read more