Cardinal George Pell has called for the Vatican’s doctrine office to intervene and reprimand two leading European Catholic churchmen who called for changes in Catholic teaching on sexuality and homosexuality. Pell, who was convicted and then acquitted of sex abuse charges in his native Australia, said he understood the secular pressures in Germany were forcing … Read more
The former bishop of the Diocese of Crookston, Minnesota, Bishop Michael Hoeppner, will not return to do any ministry in the diocese and will have his retirement compensation cut, the diocese’s new shepherd announced on March 7. Hoeppner resigned on April 13, 2021 at the request of Pope Francis following a 20-month-long investigation into claims … Read more
Caving to pressure from abuse survivors, politicians and the media, the Spanish bishops announced on Tuesday that they will conduct a full, nation-wide investigation of clerical sexual abuse. Cardinal Juan José Omella, president of the Spanish bishops’ conference, and lawyer Javier Cremades announced a twelve-month investigation with the necessary historical “breadth” which will include both … Read more
CatholicVote, an independent political advocacy group, has filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration seeking information about how the government and church-affiliated groups, mainly in the Diocese of Brownsville, Texas, have gone about “facilitating a record surge in illegal immigration.” The lawsuit was filed under the Freedom of Information Act Feb. 4 with Judicial Watch. … Read more
As COVID cases continue to rise in Italy due to the new Omicron variant, the Vatican on Thursday imposed a vaccine mandate, issuing a decree requiring all employees to possess a “Green Pass” proving vaccination against the coronavirus. This follows a previous decree from the Vatican in September requiring anyone entering Vatican City State to … Read more
Every leader has stretches he or she probably would like to forget. Mid-August, for instance, was one of those times for US President Joe Biden, as the chaos of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan sent his poll numbers into a death spiral from which he still hasn’t recovered. For Pope Francis, though not quite on … Read more
As the nation’s bishops convene this week for their first in-person general assembly in two years, the in-person conversations on a controversial document on the Eucharist have taken a different tone, according to one committee chairman. U.S. bishops met in private session on Monday; the first day of their fall general assembly from Nov. 15-18 … Read more
President Joe Biden received Communion at St. Patrick’s Church, Rome’s American parish, during Saturday Vigil Mass, a day after saying Pope Francis told him he should continue to partake in the sacrament despite opposition of some conservatives in the U.S. upset with his position on abortion. Biden and his wife, Jill, visited the English-speaking church … Read more
Somewhere out in the ocean right now, a small buoy is measuring wave direction and speed, along with barometric pressure and water temperature, feeding that data back to observatories. Even small upticks or downticks may signal the first stirrings of what could become a devastating storm. You don’t need special equipment, however, to detect warning … Read more
Chilean President Sebastián Piñera, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair have all been named in the exposé of the financial secrets and offshore dealings known as the Pandora Papers. However, there’s only one Catholic institution named: The Legionaries of Christ religious order. The order was founded by Father Marcial … Read more