The Vatican Insider reports that tired and weary Pope Paul VI gave serious thoughts to stepping down when he turned 80. Paul VI had gone as far as working out how the retirement would happen, sharing the process with his most trusted aide, Archbishop Giovanni Benelli, whom he was about to appoint as archbishop of Read more
“Sometimes I feel like the last ambassador to the Republic of Venice.” These words, pronounced by a European ambassador to the Holy See, testify to the stress that both sex abuse scandals and the economic crisis are creating in diplomatic circles in Rome. Being appointed ambassador to the Vatican still gives a very prestigious status. Read more
The Vatican’s decision to recall its diplomatic envoy to Ireland is not viewed as a hostile move by the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs. Bruised under unprecedented criticism resulting from the accusation in the Cloyne Report that the Holy See sabotaged efforts by Catholic bishops to report clerical sexual abuse cases to the police, the Vatican made a Read more
Relations between China and the Vatican look set to worsen after China’s state-controlled church said it plans seven more non-Vatican approved bishops. “We have had local elections for bishops and seven candidates have already been submitted and are awaiting approval,” said Liu Bainian, president of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, the government body which runs Read more
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who was recently snubbed as a speaker at the Vatican’s first major conference of bishops and heads of religious orders on clerical child abuse, said he feels angry at the ‘non-response’ of the church to children who had been abused or put at risk. There are groups in the Vatican and the hierarchy, Read more
Predominantly Muslim Malaysia and the Holy Seee have established diplomatic ties. The announcement came after talks between the Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak and Pope Benedic XVI. “In the cordial conversations, the positive developments in bilateral relations were discussed, and an agreement was reached to establish diplomatic relations between Malaysia and the Holy See,” the Vatican Read more
A leading church official rejected harsh criticism of the Vatican in the wake the Cloyne report. Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, told Vatican Radio July 19 that much of the criticism failed to take into account the efforts of Pope Benedict XVI and other church officials to prevent future cases of child sexual Read more
In light of the ‘souring’ relations between the Irish Government and the Vatican, Pope Benedict’s visit to Ireland is likely to be ‘shelved’. Relations between Ireland and the Vatican have cooled recently in response to the revelations that the retired bishop of Cloyne, John Magee, allegedly acting under Vatican orders, failed to report that 19 Read more
The Vatican has excommunicated another newly ordained Chinese bishop, the second in as many weeks. The excommunicated bishop, Joseph Huang Bingzhang, was ordained without Papal approval, and according to The Telegraph, in the presence of four kidnapped bishops who ‘witnessed’ the ceremony. The ordination has brought relations between the Vatican and China to a new Read more
