A highly-acclaimed expert on Pope Francis and his reform agenda for the Church will address two gatherings in Dublin and Limerick early next month. Dr Austen Ivereigh, who has recently completed The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope, will explore what the Pope’s teaching and ministry might mean in particular for…

Pope’s promotion of spiritual purification is ‘painful and liberating’ In reforming the Roman Curia, “Pope Francis is promoting a spiritual purification of the temple, which is both painful and liberating, with the aim of making the glory of God, light of all, shine again in the Church,” according to Cardinal Gerhard Müller. Writing in L’Osservatore…

Parishioners must play their part

Rome’s first official red-light district is to be established in April, after Mayor Ignazio Marino gave his backing to council proposals. Although soliciting, pimping, and operating brothels are illegal in Italy, Italian law does not ban the sale of sex. Roughly half of Italy’s 70-100,000 prostitutes are believed to be foreign nationals, with two-thirds working…

Indian Church leaders have criticised the heavy-handed tactics of police who arrested almost 200 protestors assembled at New Delhi’s Sacred Heart Cathedral to protest against recent attacks on churches. Among those arrested were the archdiocesan vicar general Fr Susai Sebastian, civil rights activist and former All India Catholic Union president John Dayal, and Divine Word…

The international community and national authorities must work together to liberate those areas occupied by Islamic State as soon as possible, according to an extraordinary synod of the Chaldean Bishops, and should “put in place the necessary measures to protect Christians and other Iraqis, so they all return to their homes and live in safety…

Pope Francis’ authorisation of a decree recognising that Salvadoran archbishop Oscar Romero was killed “in hatred of the faith” and the subsequent announcement that the murdered archbishop will be beatified later this year have been greeted with delight in El Salvador. Msgr. Ricardo Urioste, who served as Archbishop Romero’s vicar general and is now president…

Nigeria’s presidential and legislative elections, due to be held on 14 February, have been postponed by the country’s Independent Electoral Commission due to violence wrought by the militant Islamist group Boko Haram. The last presidential elections in 2011 saw claims of vote-rigging which sparked violence against Christian communities in which 800 people were killed. Shortly…