The Vatican and Catholic clergy have backed a gay-friendly publication that looks at what the Catholic Church’s relationship with the “LGBT community” should be like. “Building A Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity”, was written by James Martin. Martin is a Jesuit Read more
The world’s Catholic population is continuing to grow, particularly in Africa. It is the world’s largest religion, say the statistics in the 2017 Annuario Pontificio, or Vatican yearbook. The yearbook says most Catholics live in the same 10 countries. They make up almost 56 per cent of the world’s Catholic population. Altogether, there were about 1.285 Read more
Pope Francis has appointed two new officials to oversee the Vatican office responsible for looking after clerical sexual abuse cases. A backlog of unresolved abuse cases has prompted the new appointments. Attention has focused on the Vatican’s response to the clerical sexual abuse crisis since the beginning of last month. That was when abuse survivor Read more
Martin Luther King’s dream of “integral human development” of all peoples is a work that must continue today. It must continue in the world and in the Catholic Church, a US bishop, Edward K. Braxton, told participants at a Vatican conference. ” The racial divide in the United States and, sadly, in the Catholic Church Read more
The Vatican has published a letter the Pope wrote to the UN last week about banning nuclear weapons. In this he urged the UN to “commit … to a world without nuclear weapons”. Read more
Some self-declared Catholic traditionalists have been complaining bitterly that there is much confusion and division within the Catholic Church. They blame it all on Pope Francis and especially on the challenging program he has launched for ecclesial renewal and reform. In doing so, they are de facto opposing the pope—especially his more merciful and pastoral Read more
The Pope has begged the Rwandan President Paul Kagame for forgiveness for the Catholic Church’s part in the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Francis said the Vatican acknowledges the church was in part to blame for the genocide, as were some Catholic priests and nuns. He said these priests and nuns had “succumbed to hatred and violence, betraying Read more
“When three years ago I accepted my appointment in the commission, I said that if I had found a conflict between what was happening behind closed doors and what was being said publicly, I would not have stayed. This has happened and this is why I have left.” Marie Collins’ home phone in Dublin is Read more
Parish priests are called to support married couples, Pope Francis said on the weekend. This includes supporting young people who are living together and people whose marriages are failing as well as those with strong marriages. In general, he said parish priests are the ones a couple comes to when they decide to marry, when Read more
Two former Vatican bankers have been convicted of minor money-laundering violations. Their violations involved communications involving three small transfers. They were sentenced to four months, 10 days each. Read more