At the league’s annual conference in Auckland last month, participants were reflecting on Pope Francis’s call for the Church to develop a more profound theology of women. NZ Catholic reported that one group raised the idea of women deacons. CWL national chaplain Sr John Bosco Kendall then suggested the group put this idea to their Read more
Pope Francis’s courage is causing disquiet among those with “a very conformist and closed Catholicism”, the Archbishop of Dublin has warned. At a Catholic leadership conference in Melbourne last month, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin spoke of a young curate who recently told his parish priest he was not happy with some things the Pope had said. Read more
Filipinos have been warned not to treat Pope Francis like a celebrity during his visit to their country early next year. Bishop Pedro Arigo of Puerto Princesa said activities during the Pope’s visit from January 15 to 19 should be “simple and not extravagant”. “Sometimes people treat occasions like this as if a celebrity is Read more
Pope Francis has lifted the 29-year suspension of a priest who refused to give up his role in Nicaragua’s former Sandanista government. Maryknoll priest Fr Miguel D’Escoto Brockman, 81, had formally requested permission to resume priestly duties and to celebrate Mass before he died. Nicaraugua’s foreign minister from 1979 to 1990, he is to be Read more
Pope Francis wants to reform the papacy to allow greater unity between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, a newly appointed senior adviser says. Enzo Bianchi was appointed on July 22 as a consultor of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. The Tablet reported him saying the Pope could allow a council of bishops, including Read more
Pope Francis has listed his top 10 tips for bringing greater joy into a person’s life and the first is “live and let live”. Francis gave his list in an interview with an old acquaintance Pablo Calvo, which formed part of a feature article in the Argentine magazine Viva. The interview was given to mark the Read more
Pope Francis has apologised for the complicity of some Catholics in the fascist-era persecution of Italy’s pentecostal and evangelical Christians. While in southern Italy, in Caserta on July 27, Pope Francis made what the Vatican called a “strictly private” visit with 200 pentecostal and evangelical Christians. Francis apologised for the persecution in the 1920s and 1930s, Read more
Among the dangers of a “sterile” form of celibacy are bitterness and gossip, Pope Francis told a group of Italian priests and bishops on July 26. When a priest disagrees with his bishop or when bishops disagree with each other, they must air their differences – even loudly – but never talk behind each other’s backs, Pope Read more
New Zealand’s Catholic bishops have asked Pope Francis to declare a global prayer vigil for peace in Gaza and the rest of the Holy Land. In a letter, the New Zealand bishops praise the Pope for his efforts to bring about peace. But the bishops pick up on a request from a Gaza priest, Fr Raed, Read more
Pope Francis has met Meriam Ibrahim and her family at the Vatican after they fled Sudan, where she recently faced a death sentence. Pope Francis praised Mrs Ibrahim for her steadfast witness to Christ, in refusing to renounce her faith, despite facing a death sentence for apostasy against Islam. The Pontiff spent 30 minutes with Ibrahim, her husband Read more