While many bishops have raised their voices in support for the Pope, many others have been content to simply wait out this papacy in silence. The challenges to Pope Francis by several among those closest to him represent a thinly-veiled attempt at something close to a palace coup.
A campaign to reform laws governing church property and finances has gained momentum in India's southern Kerala state, where a rape case against a bishop has created a furore. Church activists, including theologians, have for more than a decade sought greater lay participation in managing the temporal wealth of the Catholic Church, purportedly to check embezzlement.
Some Protestants and Muslims in Pakistan accuse Catholics of being idol worshippers. Pakistani Catholic Yaqoob Masih is a controversial and polarizing figure among many Christians in Punjab province because of the statues he makes.
New investigations into the seminaries of Boston and Lincoln (Nebraska), and the grand-jury report from Pennsylvania, the sex abuse crisis has reached a new stage. If this is, as many believe, the most serious crisis in the Catholic Church since the Protestant Reformation, then the analysis of this systemic failure of the institutional church needs to take the long view, comparing this period in the church’s history to others in order to discover where exactly things went wrong.
The laicity issue is heating up in Spain where Pedro Sanchez’s Socialist government has announced that it wants to publish an inventory of all property owned by the Catholic Church.
Throughout his pontificate, Pope Francis has targeted clericalism as an illness in the church, an ailment that pretends "the church" means "priests and bishops," that ignores or minimises the God-given grace and talents of laypeople and that emphasizes the authority of clerics over their obligation of service.
What is family to each one of us and how important is it to belong to a family? We all greatly desire and long for the secure "happy family" whose members love and trust each other, share solidarity, give mutual help and care, and are faithful to shared values and goals.
Pope Francis refused to answer reporters’ questions about a letter released on Sunday by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, instead urging reporters to draw their own conclusions about the former papal nuncio’s accusations. Austen Ivereigh explains that the roots of Francis’ response might be found in an article that Jorge Mario Bergoglio wrote in 1990, in which he claims silence is sometimes the only way to let the spirits reveal themselves.
Pope Francis has expressed his shame over the Church’s mishandling of the clerical sexual abuse scandal and has vowed to create a culture that prevents any future crimes against children being covered up.
Ensuring the visit of Pope Francis to Ireland over the weekend of 25-26 August runs smoothly has been a massive undertaking, the scale of which has not been seen in the country since the last papal visit in 1979, when an estimated 2.7 million (almost half the island’s population) turned out to see Pope John Paul II.
In a statement issued to time with the feast day of the moral theologian and legal thinker St Alphonsus Liguori, Pope Francis has approved a change to the catechism that declares the death penalty "inadmissible". He makes his argument based on three grounds: - - -
Pope Francis has updated the statutes of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life and they have a strong mandate to promote women and look after families in “irregular” situations.
Former Portuguese colony, like Kerala, keeps exporting prelates to keep faith strong in region, other countries. Goa, a former Portuguese colony that now ranks as having one of the most famous beaches in India, is continuing to promote Christianity in Asia as part of its colonial legacy, according to former Archbishop Raul Gonsalves.
“The flame has died! The fire is out!” said Peter Vardy, philosopher and former Heythrop vice principal, addressing a valedictory conference on 5 May this year. But, he continued, “from embers new fires can be lit”.
Pope Francis has ordered a revision of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, asserting that "the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person". He has committed the Church to working for its abolition worldwide.
In advance of Pope Francis’ Synod on Youth this autumn, research released on 12 June highlights shifting dynamics in the faith and life of Catholic young adults in England and Wales. The results show a decrease in agnosticism and atheism of 7 percentage points over an 8 year period (from 49% in 2009 to 42% in 2017) and an increase in those attending Mass regularly* of 11 percentage points (from 25% in 2009 to 36% in 2017).
Pope Francis told the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Geneva today that past attempts to overcome divisions between Christian Churches have failed “because they have been inspired by a worldly logic”. That logic, he implied, is something that the devil has used to reinforce division.
The Veteran Conservative backbencher, Catholic MP Sir Edward Leigh, has angrily denounced the government’s U-turn over its election manifesto pledge to lift the schools admissions cap. In a statement to The Tablet, he described the turnaround as “a disgrace”.
