UPDATE: Bishop Strickland issues statement regarding his decision not to sign the Texas Bishops’ Statement on Scarce Healthcare Resources.” A Texas prelate is breaking with fellow Lone Star State bishops, refusing to sign a statement that would strip hospital patients of their protections. His act has exposed a growing rift within the U.S. hierarchy over fundamental Catholic … Read more
Concerns over Pachamama are overblown, according to a leading Vatican official. “I don’t know the Amazonian culture well enough to say what the scope of these symbols is, but they didn’t bother me,” Cdl. Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, told a Spanish website last week. “To say that it was idol worship … Read more
The Venezuelan hierarchy is circling the wagons around the country’s highest-ranking prelate, Abp. Edgar Peña Parra, who was accused last month of sexually abusing seminarians. In a June 10 interview with The Washington Post, Abp. Carlo Maria Viganò revealed that decades ago, Peña Parra had been accused of sexual deviancy and abuse. The allegations, he noted, had not been properly investigated by Church … Read more
A priest of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter has been excommunicated, and his parish permanently closed, months after he criticized certain actions of various popes both during and after the Second Vatican Council. On April 1, Bp. Steven J. Lopes announced he had issued a decree of excommunication against Fr. Vaughn Treco, pastor … Read more
Chile’s top Catholic prelate is being sued for covering up homosexual rape inside his cathedral. Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati of Santiago, former head of the Chilean bishops’ conference, has been slapped with a half-million dollar lawsuit for concealing an assault by gay priest Fr. Tito Rivera. The complaint alleges that in 2015, Rivera drugged and raped 40-year-old Daniel Rojas, who … Read more
The rector of a troubled Massachusetts seminary has been forced out of the archdiocese of Boston. Monsignor James P. Moroney, former head of scandal-ridden St. John’s Seminary in Brighton in the archdiocese of Boston, is being recalled to his home diocese of Worcester. Announcing the transfer Friday, Worcester authorities explained that beginning January 1, Msgr. Moroney will serve in the diocesan … Read more
An African prelate is warning his people that it’s better to starve than to embrace homosexuality. In an appeal to Tanzanian lawmakers last month, Cdl. Polycarp Pengo of Dar es Salaam lashed out at Western aid programs that force poor countries to promote LGBT ideology in exchange for development aid. At a thanksgiving Mass celebrating … Read more
The Vatican’s prefect for the Congregation for Bishops has confirmed that, in response to Theodore McCarrick’s serial sexual predation of young men and boys, Pope Benedict XVI imposed punitive measures against the former Washington, D.C. cardinal — and that Pope Francis lifted them. In an open letter published Sunday, Cdl. Marc Ouellet slammed Vatican whistleblower … Read more