Shrewsbury, England, Oct 19, 2021 / 05:55 am (CNA). A Catholic bishop called on Tuesday for greater recognition of the last rites as an "emergency service" in the wake of the killing of British lawmaker Sir David Amess.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary-general of the Synod of Bishops, said in the process to create a more "synodal church," one where every member contributes and all listen to each other, "we are touching something divine, and prayer is essential."
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The world can no longer ignore the suffering of the people of Haiti, an island that has been exploited and pillaged by wealthier nations for centuries, said Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life.
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CÓRDOBA, Spain (CNS) -- More than 100 victims of Spain's 1936-1939 civil war moved a step closer to sainthood after being beatified as martyrs for the faith. They included two teenage boys as well as an 88-year-old nun who died of bullet wounds after being tied to a window as a human shield.
Read moreBEIJING (CNS) -- Retired Bishop Stephen Yang Xiangtai of Handan, who was persecuted and forced to spend years in labor camps during the Cultural Revolution, died at the age of 98. Ucanews.com reported Oct. 18 that a notice from the state-controlled Bishops' Conference of the Catholic Church in China said he died of complications from old-age diseases Oct. 13.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- An adult survivor of abuse by a priest appealed to the world's seminarians to become good priests and to make sure the "bitter truth" always prevails, not silence about scandals and their cover-up.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis said he knows "it often annoys people" when he promotes Catholic teaching on social issues like poverty, migration and ecology, but he is going to keep doing so because the Gospel demands it.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Jesus showed that greatness comes from serving others, Pope Francis said. Jesus opposes "worldly logic with his own: Instead of exalting yourself over others, get off your pedestal to serve them; instead of rising above others, be immersed in others' lives," he said.
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Denver Newsroom, Oct 15, 2021 / 11:45 am (CNA). A British lawmaker died Friday after suffering multiple stab wounds at a Methodist church in southeast England. Sir David Amess, 69, was a Member of Parliament since 1983 and a member of the Conservative party. He was Catholic, pro-life, and reportedly a strong supporter of Catholic education and animal welfare. Amess was holding a meeting with his constituents at Belfairs Methodist Church when the attack took place.
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ROME (CNS) -- A new academic institute dedicated to training experts in safeguarding and in the care of survivors will be the next step in helping the church stop denying the reality of abuse and improve the way it reacts to allegations, said Jesuit Father Hans Zollner, president of the new institute.
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As she sold dried fish from her stand at the Kimironko market in Kigali, Rwanda, Therese Mukabunane narrated how hundreds of desperate residents in her hometown of Gikongoro died at the hands of priests and nuns during the 1994 genocide in which more than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered by Hutu extremists.
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MANCHESTER, England (CNS) -- A prominent Anglican bishop has joined the Catholic Church and will be ordained as a priest at the end of October. Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Anglican bishop of Rochester, England, was received into the church Sept. 29 by Msgr. Keith Newton, head of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, which was established in 2011 by Pope Benedict XVI for the corporate reception of Anglican communities.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- All health care professionals have a right to conscientious objection, just as they have a right to denounce unjust harm inflicted on innocent and defenseless life, Pope Francis said.
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WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- The president of the Polish bishops' conference said that in meetings with a Vatican official, several church leaders criticized the Vatican's handling of sex abuse cases, particularly "disproportionate punishments" inflicted on bishops accused of cover-ups in comparison with convicted abusers.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis has signed a decree recognizing a miracle attributed to the intercession of Pope John Paul I, clearing the way for his beatification. The Italian pope served only 33 days as pontiff; he died in the papal apartments Sept. 28, 1978, at the age of 65, shocking the world and a church that had just mourned the death of St. Paul VI.
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STRASBOURG, France (CNS) -- The European Court of Human Rights ruled that 24 Belgian, French and Dutch nationals, who were victims of clerical sexual abuse as children, were not denied their rights when a Belgian court refused to allow them to sue the Vatican.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis named Msgr. Diego Giovanni Ravelli, who has served as an official of the papal almoner's office since 2013, as the new master of papal liturgical ceremonies, the Vatican said.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The day after authorities announced her release from kidnappers in Mali, Colombian Sister Gloria Cecilia Narváez Argoti was at the Vatican for a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica and was greeted by Pope Francis.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis will not be going to the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, as he had hoped. The Vatican released a statement Oct. 8 saying the Holy See delegation for the COP26 summit Oct. 31-Nov. 12 would be led by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state.
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Vatican City, Oct 7, 2021 / 06:50 am (CNA). Pope Francis said on Thursday that he plans to declare St. Irenaeus of Lyon a Doctor of the Church with the title "Doctor unitatis," meaning "Doctor of Unity."
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Vatican City, Oct 7, 2021 / 04:00 am (CNA). The Vatican Library has a ninth-century manuscript currently on display at the Dubai Expo. Three original manuscripts from the Vatican Apostolic Library are part of a Holy See exhibit on display until March 31, 2022, at the world's fair in the United Arab Emirates.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- From Australia's Plenary Council, Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane tweeted, "Our small group facilitator was for years a midwife, and she says the process is like giving birth: slow, painful, messy, but in the end fruitful and joyful."
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- After meeting privately with Pope Francis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters that one of the issues they discussed was the importance of the church addressing the clerical sexual abuse scandal.
Read moreROME (CNS) -- The coronavirus pandemic has not only shed light on the issues and societal ills plaguing the world, it also has provided a unique opportunity for humanity to band together for the common good, said Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis said he intends to declare as a doctor of the church St. Irenaeus of Lyon, the second-century theologian known for his defense of orthodoxy amid the rise of gnostic sects.
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Rome Newsroom, Oct 5, 2021 / 07:00 am (CNA). The dates of the next World Youth Day (WYD) in Lisbon, Portugal, have been announced. The world's largest gathering of Catholic young people will take place on Aug. 1-6, 2023.
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SYDNEY (CNS) -- As the first assembly of Australia's Plenary Council neared the halfway point, Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher urged people to make the church a "powerhouse of prayer." His message came as Plenary Council members met online, in small groups, to discuss and discern questions, including how the church can engage people to pray, particularly when people feel disconnected due to COVID-19.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A Vatican court cleared two priests involved in a controversial sex abuse case at a minor seminary once located at the Vatican. Handing down the verdicts Oct. 6, Giuseppe Pignatone, president of the Vatican City State criminal court, said the court acquitted Father Gabriele Martinelli, who was accused of abusing another student from 2007 to 2012 when he studied at the St. Pius X Pre-Seminary, because "he was younger than 16" when most of the alleged abuse occurred.
Read moreVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A Vatican court ruled that prosecutors must hand over video of the deposition of their main witness to lawyers representing 10 defendants, including Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who are all on trial on charges related to financial malfeasance and corruption.
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A network of offshore trusts and subsidiaries established by priests and businessmen close to the Legionaries of Christ moved as much as $295 million around four continents, according to a trove of leaked documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and published by the Spanish newspaper El País.
Read moreVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A request by Vatican prosecutors to withdraw testimony in a megatrial regarding financial malfeasance prompted defense lawyers to call for the case to be thrown out. At the second session of the Vatican trial involving alleged embezzlement, money laundering and abuse of office, Vatican deputy prosecutor Alessandro Diddi said that his office decided to make the "surprise" request after "a long period of reflection."
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PARIS (CNS) -- More than 3,000 pedophiles have operated within the Catholic Church in France since the 1950s, an official investigation found. Speaking two days before the publication of a report into clerical sex abuse in the French church, Jean-Marc Sauvé, the head of the investigating commission, said the inquiry found evidence of between 2,900 and 3,200 abusers.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Three members of the Pontifical Swiss Guard have hung up their halberds rather than be vaccinated against COVID-19, and three others were temporarily suspended in early October as they were completing the vaccination cycle, the spokesman for the guards told a Swiss newspaper.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Everyone, but especially the least and most fragile, is loved by God and has a place in the church and the world, Pope Francis told a Catholic movement that works with individuals with intellectual disabilities and their families.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis asked members of the Plenary Council of the Catholic Church in Australia to listen to one another carefully and prayerfully discern God's call, always in communion with him and the entire Catholic Church.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- With a sense of responsibility, commitment and concern for the environment and for the poor, people who are young adults today may be the last generation able to ensure a healthy future for all the Earth's inhabitants, Pope Francis said.
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BERLIN (CNS) -- The second Synodal Assembly of German Catholics ended Oct. 2 with overwhelming support for a range of proposals that, if adopted, would bring widespread reform to the church. The assembly -- 230 members including laity, academics, clergy and bishops -- wrestled for three days in Frankfurt with decisions on which direction the church should take in future. The German Catholic Church has been struggling to regain its credibility and trust after a decade in which it was rocked by sexual abuse scandals and saw Catholics in large numbers turn their backs on the church.
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PERTH, Australia (CNS) -- In their Plenary Council process, the Catholics of Australia have been called, like the biblical patriarch Abraham, "to step into a future which he could not control and which he did not fully understand," said Archbishop Timothy Costelloe of Perth.
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MADRID (CNS) -- Spain's Catholic bishops condemned government-backed legislation to criminalize prayers and protests outside abortion clinics, as well as plans for a register of doctors refusing to carry out abortions.
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BERLIN (CNS) -- Against the background of lay Catholics' anger about a Vatican decision not to censure Cologne clergy for mishandling abuse cases, German Catholics -- bishops, clergy and laity -- gathered in Frankfurt for the start of the three-day Synodal Path Assembly.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Christian mission of proclaiming the Gospel of salvation and defending the God-given dignity of every human person has led popes over the past 130 years to build a body of theological reflection known as Catholic social teaching or social doctrine.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis appointed a dozen new members to the International Theological Commission, including two professors from The Catholic University of America, the Vatican announced.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory of Washington ordained 21 men from the Pontifical North American College to the diaconate Sept. 30 in St. Peter's Basilica. Hundreds of family members, friends and students attended the Mass at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter's, watching the joy-filled liturgy rich in symbolic tradition.
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DUBLIN (CNS) -- Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh, Northern Ireland, has joined other Christian leaders in appealing for "prayerful support" from congregations for a service to mark the centenary of the division of the Island of Ireland.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Of the many momentous or menial tasks women religious perform, one of the better-kept secrets has been the role of four Sisters of the Holy Child Mary who were part of a global effort to make a complete map and catalog of the starry skies.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Even the greatest sinners can become just in God's eyes if they allow the grace offered by Jesus' death and resurrection to give them the strength to be holy, Pope Francis said.
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BERLIN (CNS) -- As German Catholics prepare for their second Synodal Assembly, Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, president of German bishops' conference, called for courageous change in church and society.
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Vatican City, Sep 27, 2021 / 09:00 am (CNA). Pope Francis decried abortion and euthanasia in a speech Monday in which he said that today's "throwaway culture" leads to the killing of children and discarding of the elderly.
Read moreVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis said the Second Vatican Council so shaped his theological and pastoral vision that perhaps he has not been as explicit as he should have been in highlighting those ties, especially when it comes to his contributions to Catholic social teaching.
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Pope Francis called on Mexicans to focus on the present and look to the future rather than dwelling on the past as the country celebrates the bicentennial of its independence. In a letter to Archbishop Rogelio Cabrera López of Monterrey, president of the Mexican bishops' conference, the pope said: "The anniversary you are celebrating invites not only looking to the past to strengthen your roots, but to also continue living in the present and building a future with hope and joy, reaffirming the values that have been constructed and identify you as people ... such as independence, unity and religion."
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne will take a "spiritual sabbatical" after a Vatican investigation found he did nothing illegal in his handling of clerical sex abuse allegations, but he did contribute to a "crisis of trust" in his archdiocese.
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LONDON (CNS) -- Two women who challenged the U.K. government over a law that allows abortion up to birth for disabled babies have vowed to take their case to appeal after it was dismissed by the High Court.
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WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- Catholic leaders from Eastern Europe pledged closer cooperation against sexual abuse by clergy, despite different levels of preparedness, at the region's first international child protection conference.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Instead of shouting down or shutting out people who support the latest conspiracy theory, deny scientific evidence or believe in "fake" news, a number of scholars are urging people to reach out, listen and talk to others in healthier ways.
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MANCHESTER, England (CNS) -- Catholic bishops of England and Wales are planning a novena to St. John Paul in the nine days before the second reading of an assisted suicide bill in the House of Lords, because the legislation will be considered Oct. 22, the saint's feast day.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A living faith draws strength from remembering the past while continuing to grow in love of God and service to others, Pope Francis said. The pope said he saw that kind of faith on display Sept. 12-15 as he visited Hungary and Slovakia.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Jesus' death on the cross calls Christians to focus on helping the vulnerable rather than defending contentious agendas, Pope Francis said. In a letter to participants at a congress hosted by the Passionist Fathers, the pope said the saving power "unleashed by the weakness of the cross reveals to theology the importance of an approach that knows how to combine the loftiness of reason with the humility of the heart."
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