Only the truth behind the Vatileaks scandal can free the Catholic Church. It has all the makings of a Hollywood adaptation of a Dan Brown novel. Secrets of the Vatican exposed, documents stolen from the Pope’s desk, rows and rivalries between cardinals, vast sums of money, the involvement of the cultish organisation Opus Dei. And Read more
Dismissing a 10-year-old attempt to hold the Holy See liable for sexual abuse, a federal judge in the United States has ruled that a priest accused of molestation was not employed by the Vatican. The ruling in an Oregon courtroom came in a lawsuit filed by a man who alleged the late Father Andrew Ronan, Read more
Most people believe the real power in Catholicism resides with the hierarchy, and in terms of both theology and church law, that’s basically right. For instance, canon law says the pope wields “supreme, full, immediate and universal” authority, and it’s tough to get more sweeping than that. One wonders, however, if an accountant would reach Read more
The Pope’s personal assistant passed confidential papers to an Italian journalist after seeing “evil and corruption everywhere in the Church”, according to the examining judge in the Vatileaks investigation. In a 35-page report, Judge Piero Bonnet said Paolo Gabriele — who has been charged with “aggravated theft” — felt sure Pope Benedict was not aware Read more
I’ve lost track of the number of times people have told me about the ‘enormous wealth of the Vatican’. Some are confused: they think the Vatican owns all the Church’s worldwide real estate, lock, stock and barrel. Others think that all that art could be sold for the poor without adverting to the difficulty of Read more
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is attempting to block a Vatican bid to create new web addresses ending in .catholic, arguing that the Church “cannot demonstrate that it possesses a monopoly over the term ‘Catholic’ ”. The objection is one of more than 160 sent by the Saudis to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names Read more
Though she is at the center of one of the biggest crises in the Catholic Church today, Sister Pat Farrell is loath to talk about herself, and certainly not in any way that would make her a focus of the looming showdown between the Vatican and American nuns. To be sure, Farrell has spoken publicly Read more
The Vatican has backed efforts to draft a landmark international treaty to control the $NZ74 billion arms industry, but discussions by more than 170 countries ended without a decision. Diplomats said the door is still open for further talks, with the possibility of a draft arms treaty being brought to the United Nations General Assembly Read more
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which started July 20 in many countries, is a time of fasting, prayer and repentance, when Muslims distance themselves from worldly activities in an effort to align their lives more closely with God and his laws. According to the Vatican’s point man for dialogue with Islam, Ramadan is also Read more