It’s time to farewell Monte Cecilia’s outgoing CEO Bernie Smith. Smith told CathNew he is leaving on Wednesday. The Catholic housing trust has been flooded with messages since Smith announced his resignation last month. It’s clear he’ll be missed. Big time. Smith is modest about his involvement with the Trust. “Empowering the disempowered, housing the Read more
Should a hypothetical investigator from an alien race descend upon earth to study humanity, without any preconceptions or biases, here’s what I suspect would be the conclusion about the Catholic Church: At its core, it’s more a sociological than an ideological reality. That is to say, Catholicism is more a family than a political party. Read more
Pope Francis’ six-day pastoral visit to Canada was a great success. It wasn’t until the news conference on the plane back to Rome that it became clear he wasn’t properly briefed for his visit. Francis, in Canada on what he called a penitential pilgrimage, apologized to the Indigenous peoples of the country for the Catholic Church’s Read more
Watching local television news is not something I often do. Last week I decided I’d give it a go. Collective Noun What is the collective noun for banality presenters? Is it a “glut of banalisers” or a “nonsense of news readers”? Whatever the collective noun, NZ television news has cornered the banality market and raised Read more
Pope Francis is preparing the public for his stepping down in 2025, by constantly talking about his ill health and possible resignation, according to a Vatican expert. Robert Mickens is the editor of the Roman Catholic newspaper La Croix International. He has lived, studied and worked in Rome for 30 years. Mickens told inews he Read more
“Could the Church teaching on contraception change?” a journalist asked Pope Francis on Saturday during his return flight to Rome from Canada. “This is very timely,” Francis replied. “But know that dogma, morality, is always in a path of development, but development in the same direction.” Tradition can really be preserved and handed down only Read more
The Doctrine of Discovery is making headlines, especially in Canada. Numerous individuals and groups want it gone. The Doctrine is a collection of papal teachings beginning in the 14th century. The teachings (called papal bulls) blessed explorers’ efforts to colonise and claim the lands of any people who were not Christian. The explorers would then Read more
In part II, Bishop Peter Cullinane clarifies some of the areas in Pope Francis’ Decree Traditionis Custodes, where there is potential for misunderstandings and superficiality. Liturgical misunderstandings and superficiality develops Part I: Like charity, Christian unity begins at home. Wasn’t the Traditional Latin Mass the “Mass of the ages”? Yes, which is why it adapts Read more
The civil proceedings against Cardinal George Pell are for the same allegations of which he was acquitted by the High Court; “They’re going to hunt him down until he dies.” That was the response of someone close to me upon reading the news that Cardinal George Pell is now the subject of civil proceedings in Read more
The Vatican has warned the German Catholic Church of the potential for a schism if it pursues new moral or doctrinal norms during its Synodal Way process. Members of the Synodal Way, a group made up of equal numbers of German bishops and lay Catholics, meet regularly. In February, they called on the Catholic Church Read more