More than a century ago, waves of Catholic immigrants from Ireland, Poland and Quebec settled in Chicopee and other western Massachusetts mill towns, helping build churches, rectories and schools to accommodate their faith. Today the priests leading those churches are under siege due to stresses, challenges and sex abuse scandals complicating their lives and those […]
A new poll jointly conducted by EWTN and RealClear Opinion Research reveals some disturbing problems for American bishops. The poll was conducted during the week of November 15, 2019 and included both Catholic and non-Catholic voters. A total of 1,223 Catholic voters were included in the survey. Here are some of highlights from the poll: […]
After seven years of allegedly allowing priests accused of statutory rape and unwanted touching to remain in ministry, after concealing hundreds of pages of damning litigation documents from the public, after being secretly recorded calling an active parish priest a “sick puppy” and talking about a clerical “love triangle” that could “be the end of […]
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester, N.Y., might have derailed the beatification of Fulton Sheen not once but twice, according to its Peoria counterpart. Salvatore Matano, the bishop of Rochester, provided documents that caused the Vatican to postpone an unofficial beatification date of Sept. 20 for Sheen, a Peoria-area native. Msgr. James Kruse, the director […]
Most U.S. adults who attend religious services express confidence in their clergy’s advice on a range of questions, at least to some degree. But a recent Pew Research Center survey finds that Catholics have considerably less confidence than Protestants – and are less likely to claim a close relationship with their clergy. Among U.S. adults […]
A Philadelphia Catholic priest who was placed on administrative leave in January after being accused of sexually abusing a minor in the 1980s, has been found to be “unsuitable for ministry,” the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced Sunday. Monsignor Joseph L. Logrip, 74, who had last worked as a chaplain at Camilla Hall, a retirement home […]
After the Diocese of Rochester last week confirmed it had requested that the beatification of Venerable Fulton Sheen be delayed, a longtime Peoria diocese official is accusing the Rochester diocese of repeatedly “sabotaging” Sheen’s sainthood cause. “Under the veneer of the Rochester diocese’s call for caution, more than an overwhelming majority of people would conclude […]
Chinese Cardinal Joseph Zen said that Pope Francis is “encouraging a schism” in China by “legitimizing” the Communist-run Chinese catholic independent church. “Recently I learned that the Holy Father, on a flight back from (I don’t remember where) said, ‘Sure, I don’t want to see a schism. But I’m not afraid of a schism.’ And […]
German Catholic bishops met on Thursday to discuss controversial issues in a meeting of ‘experts’ of the Commission for Marriage and Family of the German Bishops’ Conference. The “Expert Consultation” in Berlin was organized in conjunction with the Institute for Christian Ethics and Politics (ICEP) led by Andreas Lob-Hüdepohl. Among the participants were the Berlin Archbishop […]
A fund in which the Vatican’s Secretariat of State has invested tens of millions of euros has links to two Swiss banks investigated or implicated in bribery and money laundering scandals involving more than one billion dollars. The fund is under investigation by Vatican authorities. The fund, Centurion Global Fund, made headlines this week that […]