Australia’s Cardinal George Pell has denied knowing anything about the abusive activities of a fellow cleric when he was a priest in the Victoria suburb of Ballarat in the 1970s. The cardinal has also claimed that he was victim to “a gross deception” by his then bishop, Dr Robert Mulkearns, and Msgr Leo Fiscalini, with…

A bill to grant legal recognition to same-sex couples and unmarried heterosexual couples has passed through the Italian Senate after months of public debate, following a recent suspension of the legislative process to allow politicians to reflect on the proposed law. The legislation passed after its sponsors removed a controversial clause that would allow for…

Common date for Easter and Christmas a step closer – Greek Orthodox Patriarch Sharing Christmas and Easter together is a common Christian dream, the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Sebaste in Palestine has said, pointing to this as a possible development that could follow from the recent meeting in Cuba of Pope Francis and Moscow’s Patriarch Kirill. “I think there is not a Catholic or an Orthodox who…

The Year of Mercy was the focus of a meeting of 14 bishops from  the Americas who gathered in Tampa, Florida to discuss how to invite the faithful into what Pope Francis has called “an encounter with Jesus Christ”. Representatives of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Latin American bishops’ council, known as CELAM,…

Chinese authorities are continuing their campaign of removing crosses in Zhejiang province,  one of the latest being taken from a Catholic Church. Government officials removed the cross of Yongqiang parish’s Zhuangyuan Church just before dawn on February 25, two weeks after Zhejiang’s religious affairs director called for “religious stability” in the region ahead of the…

Malaria and cold weather are worsening the suffering of Mozambican refugees who have fled to Malawi to escape violence at home, according to the Malawi director for Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS). By mid-February there were more than 6,500 people in Mwanza district’s Kapise camp, 95km south of the national capital Lilongwe, with more arriving every…

Persecution is drawing Christians closer – Pope The persecution of Christians in the Middle East and Africa has allowed once-divided Christians to draw closer together, Pope Francis has said. “Just as in the early Church the shedding of the blood of martyrs became the seed of new Christians, so today the blood of the many martyrs of all the churches has…

A man carries a cross ahead of a procession that includes Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez, retired Auxiliary Bishop Dominic Luong of Orange, California, retired Auxiliary Bishop Rutilio del Riego of San Bernardino, California, and other Southern California bishops. The procession was part of the second annual Immigration Summit, which took place at Christ…