The father of Liberation Theology, Fr Gustavo Gutierrez, has been warmly welcomed at a book launch at the Vatican. Fr Gutierrez, a Peruvian theologian, contributed two chapters to “Poor for the Poor: the Mission of the Church” by Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the head of the Church’s doctrinal watchdog. Pope Francis wrote the preface to the Read more
Pope Francis, Monday, started to reform the Vatican’s scandal-plagued financial system by announcing a new Secretariat for the Economy. The secretariat, a new co-ordination structure for economic and administrative affairs of the Holy See and Vatican, will be headed by Sydney’s Cardinal George Pell. Cardinal Pell will have authority over all economic and administrative activities with Read more
The Vatican has stopped taking on new employees, and has frozen wages and overtime for its staff in a bid to cut costs and offset budget shortfalls. Pope Francis, with input from the Vatican’s central accounting office, also determined that volunteers could be used to help provide the labour needed to make up for the Read more
The Vatican has declined to intervene on behalf of a priest whose bishop removed him as pastor of a parish in Bend, Oregon, in the fall and later barred him from public ministry. In a decision dated January 31 and reported to NCR on Friday, the Vatican Congregation for Clergy confirmed that Baker, Oregon, Bishop Read more
Pope Francis is shaking things up in the Catholic Church to such an extent that many talk about a “Francis revolution.” Yet the single most revolutionary act committed by any pope in at least the last 600 years fell one year ago, and it wasn’t Francis who did it. On Feb. 11, 2013, Pope Benedict Read more
The Vatican has reaffirmed its support for the UN in general, and for the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The comments from Vatican Spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi, come as part of a response to the UN Committee’s report into the rights of children. However in a statement he also accused the Committee of going beyond its competencies Read more
Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley has added his surprise to the content of the UN’s report into the Vatican’s response to sexual abuse. Cardinal O’Malley, in a blog post, said he would have thought that the competency of UN commission was to examine the policies and practices of their member nations, and had they focused on that Read more
Visits to the Vatican roughly tripled last year as people flocked to see Pope Francis. Officials said more than 6.6 million people attended Vatican events led by Pope Francis since his election in March 2013, noting that there was a significant increase in visitors compared to the previous year. Roughly 2.3 million people visited Vatican Read more
The Vatican on Sunday denied Italian media reports that recent comments by Pope Francis signalled his openness to the legal recognition of same-sex unions in Italy. Francis, in a conversation with leaders of religious orders published by a Jesuit journal on Friday, said the Catholic Church had to try not to scare away children who Read more
It would make for some pretty amazing headlines if Pope Francis turned out to be a Marxist. Between his hints at rehabilitating liberation theology—condemned by his predecessors—and talk about casting off “the economic and social structures that enslave us,” Marxism isn’t totally out of the question. But happily for nervous church leaders, Francis’s first Apostolic Exhortation, issued Tuesday, doesn’t quite suggest someone Read more