Pope Francis has described some Catholic priests as so scary and neurotic that he keeps away from them. At a conference on Friday marking 50 years since Vatican II’s declarations on priestly ministry and training, the Pontiff said he is instinctively suspicious of overly pious candidates for ordination. “I will tell you sincerely, I’m scared Read more
An Irish theologian has slated US bishops for making “Humanae Vitae” into a “fetish” by which the Catholic Church is publicly known. Augustinian Fr Gabriel Daly said the 1968 encyclical by Pope Paul VI which banned contraception had never been accepted by the Church at large. The priest, 88, said this is in a lecture Read more
The beginning of the renewal of the Church begins in Confession, Pope Francis has told Germany’s bishops. Pope Francis spoke to the German bishops in audience on November 20 and offered a blunt assessment of their nation’s church. The Pontiff said he hoped the Jubilee Year of Mercy might revive the sacraments of Confession and Read more
Pope Francis has suggested a Lutheran spouse of a Catholic should “talk to the Lord” in discerning whether or not to receive Communion with her husband. Francis made the remark during a Q&A at a visit to Rome’s Evangelical Lutheran church on Sunday. A Lutheran woman said she is married to a Catholic man and Read more
Pope Francis’s personal security detail was nearly doubled at his general audience on Wednesday in the wake of the Paris terror attacks. Francis was surrounded by nearly 20 dark-suited bodyguards during his tour through St Peter’s Square aboard his open-sided popemobile, more than the normal 12 who usually jog alongside him. At each of the Read more
Although the October 4-24 synod on the family was the best-run synod of bishops since its institution by Pope Paul VI after the Second Vatican Council, there are still ways that the synod process could be improved. First, what went well? The most important improvement instituted by Pope Francis was open and free debate. Earlier synods were Read more
Pope Francis has condemned any religious justification for the terrorist attacks in Paris last week as “blasphemy”. Speaking at his Sunday Angelus address at St Peter’s Square, the Pope expressed his pain at the violence and offered his condolences to France’s president and people. “Such barbarity leaves us bewildered and makes us ask ourselves how Read more
Former Irish president Mary McAleese has raised the issue of the Church’s attitude to corporal punishment of children with Pope Francis. Ms McAleese’s revelation that she did this came as Ireland’s parliament last week removed the common law defence of “reasonable chastisement” of children. In an interview, the former Irish president said she raised with Read more
Pope Francis has said that lay people are not second class members of the Church at the service of the hierarchy. Instead they participate in Christ’s priestly role through their own work in the world. The Pope said this in a message marking the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s Decree on the Apostolate Read more
Pope Francis has outlined a comprehensive vision for the future of the Church, which requires a deeply merciful Catholicism unafraid of change. Francis told a national Italian church conference in Florence that Catholics must realise: “We are not living an era of change, but a change of era.” “These times of ours demand that we Read more