As a practicing Catholic working in the media, perhaps the five most frightening words I hear are “Pope Francis gave an interview.” They aren’t scary because of anything Pope Francis actually says; the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio spent decades choosing his words carefully as an Argentine priest and then prelate of Buenos Aires, emphasizing the Read more
Pope Francis on Saturday effectively demoted a highly conservative Italian cardinal who led theVatican’s department on clergy, while keeping in place a German prelate who wages the Catholic church’s crackdown on liberal U.S. nuns and helps craft its sex-abuse response. After six months on the job to study the workings of the Vatican’s curia, or Read more
The Vatican early this week renewed the Catholic church’s call for global disarmament of nuclear weapons, telling a yearly assembly of world leaders they must reject “the temptation to face new situations with old systems.” Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States, told the conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency that Read more
A prelate, who was earlier arrested for allegedly laundering Vatican money, told a magistrate that the Vatican department in charge of paying salaries and managing real estate acted improperly as a parallel bank. Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, 61, who is under investigation, said the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, known as APSA, allowed Read more
Sister Margaret Farley, author of the book “Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics,” continues to support the cause for gay marriage even after she was silenced by the Vatican last year for her book. The Vatican ruled that Sister Farley’s book didn’t uphold Catholic moral teaching. Irish American Sister Farley graduated, taught and Read more
As it’s come to be understood in the 21st century, the papacy is really an impossible job. A pope is expected to be the CEO of a global religious organization, a political heavyweight, an intellectual giant, and a media rock star, not to mention a living saint. Any one of those things is a life’s Read more
The Vatican launched a rare review of a German Catholic diocese on Monday following accusations its bishop spent lavishly on a new residence, putting him out of step with the new “church of the poor” promoted by Pope Francis. The inquiry is officially called a “fraternal visit” to Limburg diocese by Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, the Read more
The Vatican’s outgoing Secretary of State has lashed out at the “vipers” in the curia who undermined him – a day after Pope Francis named his successor. Asked about his seven years in office by the Ansa news agency, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said: “I see the record of the past seven years as positive. Of Read more
The Vatican is ramping up its opposition to threatened military strikes against Syria. The Vatican has invited all ambassadors accredited to the Holy See to attend a briefing Thursday on the pope’s agenda for the four-hour vigil for peace on Saturday. Pope Francis on Wednesday urged Catholics and non-Catholics alike to participate in Saturday’s vigil, Read more
Newspaper reports from Argentina quoted an archbishop claiming that Pope Francis jokingly said he chose to live in a simple Vatican residence to avoid getting robbed in the more regal papal palace. A story posted on the website of the Catholic news agency of Argentina AICA quoted Archbishop Mario Poli, who replaced Pope Francis as Read more