(RNS) As he wraps up a Vatican meeting marked by sharp debates over sex and morality, Pope Francis on Sunday will honour one of his most controversial predecessors by beatifying Pope Paul VI, who is most famous for reaffirming the Catholic Church’s ban on artificial contraception. Beatification puts Paul one step shy of formal sainthood. The move Read more
ROME – True old-timers in the Vatican press corps still love to reminisce about how much fun it was covering the Second Vatican Council, a gathering of the world’s Catholic bishops from 1962 to 1965 that launched the Church on a course of modernisation and reform. It was a gripping story, filled with colorful characters. Read more
Are science and religion fundamentally at odds? Many well-known astronomers and astrophysicists think so, including Stephen Hawking, who in a recent interview said, “Before we understood science, it was natural to believe that God created the universe, but now science offers a more convincing explanation… I’m an atheist.” Other astronomers see no fundamental incompatibility between Read more
In the mid 1990s my husband and I lived together before we were married. In the interest of family peace we kept our living arrangement secret from my devoutly Catholic grandparents who would not have approved. I wonder what my grandparents, who died a few years ago, would have thought about Pope Francis’ decision last Read more
The Vatican has accused a United Nations committee of sowing confusion in its report on the Holy See’s record on child abuse. The Vatican released its formal response to a February report by the UN committee on the rights of the child. The committee concluded that the Vatican maintained a “code of silence” that enabled Read more
The Extraordinary Synod for the Family that will be held in Rome next month has attracted more attention than any synod since their introduction following Vatican II. The media are focused on the possibility that changes may be made in such matters as birth control and reception of the Eucharist by Catholics who have divorced Read more
In bureaucracies everywhere, when someone’s interests are threatened by a cycle of reform, one time-honoured resistance strategy is to dig up dirt on the reformers. For maximum effectiveness, the dirt should be related to a brewing crisis in which people are tempted to shoot first and ask questions later. Whatever its supernatural claims may be, Read more
The Vatican is red-faced after illegal drugs were found in a car bearing diplomatic plates associated with the Holy See. French authorities found 4kgs of cocaine and 200 grams of cannabis on board. The car belongs to retired Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Maria Mejia, 91, emeritus librarian at the Holy See, who retired in 2003 and Read more
At 64, Cardinal Timothy Dolan is poised to be a force in Catholic life for a long time. In late August, he sat down for a wide-ranging interview about Pope Francis, anti-Christian persecution, the Obama administration, the Church’s sexual abuse scandals, hard choices in New York, and more. In Part 1 of Crux’s exclusive interview, Read more
A more powerful air-conditioning system is being installed in the Sistine Chapel as breath and sweat from visitors threaten to damage artworks. Since Pope Francis was elected in March, 2013, more than 5.5 million people have been through the chapel. This amounts to 20,000 a day and 30,000 on Sundays, when entrance is free. But Read more