Married couples will have a prominent role in the upcoming synod on the family, the event’s organiser has revealed. Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, the secretary general of the synod, said that married couples will address the gathering immediately after each topic is opened by a bishop. The synod runs from October 5-19 in Rome and Pope Read more
An Australian, Professor Tracey Rowland, is among five women that Pope Francis has appointed to the International Theological Commission. This is a record number of women to be on the 30 member commission. There were two women appointees in the previous five-year term of the commission, which is an aid to the Pope and the Congregation for Read more
The full text of the Holy Father’s Message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2015 was published on 23 September: Dear brothers and sisters, Jesus is ‘the evangeliser par excellence and the Gospel in person’. His solicitude, particularly for the most vulnerable and marginalised, invites all of us to care for the frailest and Read more
The Vatican’s Secretary of State has made an impassioned appeal to the international community to tackle global warming. Cardinal Pietro Parolin sent a message to a UN summit on climate change, which was delivered by the Holy See’s Permanent Observer at the United Nations, Archbishop Francis Chullikatt. The archbishop said that the evidence for global Read more
A Jesuit preparing for ordination has left the Catholic Church over the way LGBTQ people are being treated by the Church in the United States. Benjamin Brenkert has written an open letter to Pope Francis calling on him to tell the US bishops to make Catholic institutions not sack any more LGBTQ Catholics. The last Read more
The new Catholic Archbishop of Sydney has expressed shame and sorrow at child abuse by clergy and at the Church’s abandonment of victims. In his first news conference last week, Archbishop-elect Anthony Fisher, OP, said he was determined to do everything he could to make sure the abuse didn’t happen again. To the survivors of Read more
Pope Francis has ordered a review aimed at simplifying the Church’s procedures for marriage annulments. An 11-member commission, announced on Saturday, will seek to “simplify the (annulment) procedure, making it more streamlined, while safeguarding the principle of the indissolubility of marriage”, the Vatican said. The commission is made up of canon lawyers and theologians and Read more
Cardinal Walter Kasper says hardliners opposed to his proposals for Communion for the divorced and remarried really have Pope Francis as a target. The German cardinal told the Italian daily Il Mattino that some of his fellow cardinals “. . . claim to know on their own what truth is, but Catholic doctrine is not a Read more
Pope Francis has asked new bishops not to be deceived by the temptation to change their people, but to love them as they are. The Pope said this in a written address on September 18 to 138 recently appointed bishops from around the world, including two from Australia. “Though jealously safeguarding the passion for truth, Read more
Pope Francis has told Albanian religious leaders that distorted forms of religion that promote violence must be firmly refuted as false. During a one day visit to the former communist nation on September 21, the Pope said authentic religion is a source of peace. “To kill in the name of God is a grave sacrilege. To Read more