“As a Catholic economist, reading this papal drivel masquerading as an encyclical is both embarrassing and infuriating,” says Oliver Hartwich, the executive director of the New Zealand Initiative, a libertarian think tank. He was referring to the the Pope’s encyclical Laudato Si’. “Thank God Catholics are free to disagree with this personal position of the Pope.” Read more
Pope Francis deliberately restructured his environment encyclical Laudato Si’ in order to make it accessible to everyone. Italian Bishop Mario Tosi, formerly secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, said the Pope changed the structure of the document from its first draft. The initial version had a long introduction of a theological, liturgical, Read more
Italian magistrates suspect a Vatican cardinal may have diverted 30 million euros in state funds from a children’s hospital to save a church-owned clinic. Italian media also alleged that wiretaps show Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi tried to keep details of the operation from Pope Francis. Cardinal Versaldi, who is prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, Read more
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is expected to spend two weeks at the papal summer residence Castel Gandolfo during the Italian summer. Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi said Pope Francis invited Benedict to spend some time at Castel Gandolfo and Benedict accepted. The dates for Benedict’s visit have not been set. But he is scheduled to Read more
On the run? Don’t have time to read Laudato Si’, Pope Francis’ 200-page encyclical on the care for the Earth? Here are some of the key quotes from the document: Introduction We have forgotten that we ourselves are dust of the earth (cf. Gen 2:7); our very bodies are made up of her elements, we Read more
An American academic has proposed Catholic social activist Dorothy Day as the perfect patron of the upcoming Year of Mercy. Dr Lance Richey has edited a recent edition of Day’s journal from the early years of the Catholic Worker Movement. He also organises an annual Dorothy Day conference. “I do think that it’s a very Read more
It’s courageous, it’s prophetic, it’s challenging, it’s holistic, it’s wonderful: That’s what I think of Pope Francis’ environmental encyclical “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home.” Quoting his patron saint, Francis of Assisi – who is also the patron saint of ecology – Pope Francis begins his papal letter with a beautiful verse from Read more
Deep in Hell, in the ninth ring of the eighth circle, Dante encounters a group of souls who have gone to pieces. One is slit “from the chin right down to where men fart”; his entrails dangle between his legs. A second, whose hands have been lopped off, gestures with gory stumps. A third holds Read more
Pope Francis has said he is not considering appointing women to leadership positions in the Vatican bureaucracy just for the sake of it. During a visit to Turin, the Pope said in a speech he didn’t want to promote a “functionalism” of women’s roles in the Church. “The woman in the Church has the same Read more
Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’ quotes the New Zealand Catholic Bishops’ statement on the environment which they published in 2006. Paragraph 95 of Laudato Si’ reads: “The natural environment is a collective good, the patrimony of all humanity and the responsibility of everyone. If we make something our own, it is only to administer it for Read more