Some believe it houses evidence of extraterrestrial life. Others, ancient texts that disprove the existence of Jesus. Perhaps dark truths that would discredit and destroy the Church? A mistranslated Latin word may be responsible for the conspiracy theories about the Vatican Secret Archives. In fact, the actual contents can stand on their own without delving Read more
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI looked refreshed and stood for an hour and a half during a Mass with his former students this week. Members of the Ratzinger “schuelerkreis” or “student circle” had been meeting at Castel Gandolfo in Italy, and then travelled to the Vatican for a Mass on August 24, with Benedict as principal Read more
Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne says that until 2001, priests found guilty of sex crimes often kept their positions because of Vatican intransigence. Archbishop Hart told Australia’s Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that a conviction was often not sufficient to have a priest defrocked. “There was a leaning in favour of Read more
If you want to understand how Pope Francis is planning to change the Catholic church, then don’t waste time searching for clues in the charming, self-effacing press conference he gave on the plane back from South Korea on Monday. It’s easy to be misled by the Pope’s shoulder-shrugging interviews and impromptu phone calls. On his Read more
The wildly popular Pope Francis is more than a pontiff of the people. He’s an elite manager who’s reforming the Vatican’s troubled finances. The new pope wanted to talk about money. That was the message that went out to a group of seven prominent financiers—major Catholics all—from around the world in the summer of 2013. Read more
Vatican officials and diplomats have expressed support for US airstrikes in Iraq amid fears of genocide against religious minorities. Islamic forces have swept northern Iraq in recent weeks, killing or expelling Christians and religious minorities like the Yazidis in a campaign that some consider tantamount to genocide. The Vatican’s nuncio in Iraq, Archbishop Giorgio Lingua Read more
(RNS) Pope Francis departs next week (Aug. 14) on a five-day trip to South Korea, his first to Asia and the start of an important new papal focus on the region. In January, Francis will return to visit Sri Lanka and the Philippines, and a trip to Japan — where the pope wanted to go Read more
The Vatican has suspended ordinations to the priesthood in Ciudad del Este diocese in Paraguay after an apostolic visitation by a senior cardinal. No public announcement has been made about the reason for the suspension, but it will remain in place until Pope Francis resolves difficulties in the diocese. The Vatican ordered an investigation following Read more
The upcoming extraordinary synod of bishops on the family will feature streamlined operations and new rules to help bishops grapple with the issues. That’s what the synod’s general secretary, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, told the Catholic News Service. The extraordinary synod from October 5-19 will be attended by presidents of bishops’ conferences, heads of eastern Catholic Read more
Pope Benedict XV was archbishop of Bologna, Italy, in June 1914 when the pistol shots of a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo murdered Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, and echoed throughout the world. On Aug. 20, 1914, with World War I less than a month old, Pope Pius X died, and on Sept. Read more