The co-ordinator of the commission of cardinals that will advise Pope Francis on governing the Church has spoken in favour of having women in top Vatican jobs. “This wish is eagerly shared by [all] the continents,” Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras said in an interview with The Sunday Times, London. Another London newspaper, Read more
It is not possible to find Jesus outside the Church, the community that gives Christians their identity, Pope Francis said in a homily on his personal feast day. Dozens of cardinals living in Rome or visiting the Vatican joined in the April 23 celebration of Mass on the feast of St George — the patron Read more
Available today on bookshelves everywhere, of both the physical and virtual sort, is Image Books’ English translation of On Heaven and Earth, a dialogue between Argentine Rabbi Abraham Skorka and Pope Francis, published while he was still Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires. In a word, it’s well worth the read. The book first appeared in Read more
The Vatican official responsible for the sainthood cause of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador says his cause has been “unblocked” by Pope Francis. Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia gave no further details of why the cause had been blocked in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Archbishop Romero was shot in 1980 as he Read more
Clericalism and worldly priests are criticised by the future Pope Francis in a book of conversations he had with an Argentine rabbi in 2010. The dialogue between Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio and Rabbi Abraham Skorka has just been published in English by Image Books, with the title On Heaven and Earth: Pope Francis on Faith, Read more
Pope Francis I’s weekend announcement of a new council, the Group of Eight (G8), to advise him on Catholic Church governance and reforming the Church’s central administration (the Roman Curia) has been called the “most important step in the history of the church for the past 10 centuries” by Church historian Alberto Melloni. The group includes Australian Read more
In a break with tradition, Pope Francis has decided not to issue the special bonus that Vatican employees normally receive when a new Pope is elected. Instead, the Pope who has said he wants a “poor Church, for the poor” has decided that extra money will be given to charity. In 2005, some 4000 Vatican Read more
Pope Francis has described the Second Vatican Council as “a beautiful work of the Holy Spirit” and said “stubborn” Catholics should not resist the Spirit as it pushes the Church forward. “We want to put the Holy Spirit to sleep,” the Pontiff said. “We want to ‘tame’ the Holy Spirit. And that doesn’t work, because Read more
On Maundy Thursday I was struck by these words from a hymn (133, Common Praise). We strain to glimpse your mercy-seat, and find you kneeling at our feet. In the action of having our feet washed or in washing the feet of another, we acted out concretely the love and very presence of Christ. Christ, then, the Read more
Pope Francis has reaffirmed the need to reform the major group of women religious in the United States, accepting the Vatican’s 2012 assessment that found it had “serious doctrinal problems”. The Pope’s view was conveyed to representatives of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, led by president Sister Florence Deacon, by the prefect of the Read more