Some planned parish closures and mergers in the US St Louis archdiocese have ground to a halt following appeals and a Vatican directive. Pastoral planning The proposed parish closures and mergers were part of a major archdiocesan pastoral planning initiative. Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski announced the parish closures and mergers a year ago in a plan Read more
Grassroots synodality needs priests to inform it. Pope Francis knows this. He wants more synodality in the universal church. He wants clericalism replaced with pastoral care and equality, a katholisch.de article says. That has led the Pope to rethink his ways too. Francis has decided not to admonish or exhort priests any more. Those aren’t Read more
The United States Catholic bishops’ (USCCB) investment strategies are at odds with its passionate climate advocacy. In a statement at COP28, the USCCB committee called decarbonisation of the economy the “preeminent environmental challenge faced by all nations” that must be addressed without burdening middle-and low-income citizens with increased costs. However, according to Reuters, the US Read more
High-ranking Catholics from across the globe have converged on the Vatican, where a landmark initiative is underway that will shape the future of the Catholic Church. Cardinals, bishops, priests and lay Catholics, both men and women, are meeting Oct. 4-29, 2023, as part of the Synod on Synodality: an effort Pope Francis launched in 2021 Read more
The first female president-delegate has presided at a Synod of Bishops assembly. Sister Maria de los Dolores Valencia Gomez (pictured) says her inclusion in the role at the Synod on Synodality shows the Church “has… something that places all of us at the same level”. Gomez led the Synod on Synodality assembly Friday morning in Read more
A well-worn jest about Ireland goes like this: A lost tourist in Limerick asks for directions to Dublin, and the convoluted directions leave the tourist utterly bewildered. Finally, the tourist gazes into the distance, resigned to the fact that reaching Dublin is impossible. At this point, the local utters the famous words, “Well, if I Read more
The Vatican is lobbying for nations to adopt the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The Convention aims to prohibit the use of such munitions, their production, transfer and stockpiling. “Any additional State Party to the Convention represents a renewed impulse to achieve universality, further ensuring that there will be fewer victims in the future and that Read more
A Vatican plan is underway to reunite Ukrainian children with their families, a senior Vatican official says. The Ukrainian children were taken to Russia during the war. The plan The Holy See’s plan to reunite the children followed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s explicit request for its help, when he met Pope Francis at the Vatican Read more
The Vatican and Vietnam are finalising a deal that will help improve their long strained relations. Sources say the new deal will allow the Holy See to have a resident representative in communist-run Vietnam. Both sources, a senior Vatican official and a Hanoi-based diplomat, say they think the deal’s formal announcement will take place later Read more
The Vatican is inviting New Zealanders to give public feedback to The Vatican’s Child Protection Commission on the Church safeguarding principles. Aimed at creating updated diocesan guidelines, the move opens up the consultation process, historically limited to bishops and church leaders, to a broader base of stakeholders. To collect the feedback, the commission has established Read more