Prefect of Vatican economy office steps down Three years after Pope Francis appointed him to speed up financial reforms, transparency and budget controls at the Vatican, Jesuit Fr Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves has resigned for health reasons. The Vatican announced November 30 that Fr Guerrero was stepping down as prefect of the Secretariat for the…
by Fr John Harris Notebook On a night out with friends from college I was once asked if I was an optimist or a pessimist; did I see the glass half full or half empty. I had to think about to for a moment. I had to admit I generally see the glass as being…
Chai Brady, Ruadhán Jones and Jason Osborne Senior Oireachtas members have criticised the “lack of respect” shown for Christians as publicly-funded agencies increasingly use ‘winter’ instead of ‘Christmas’ to speak about the celebration of the birth of Christ. The stance taken by bodies like Dublin City Council and Fáilte Ireland of excluding Christian sentiments is…
Staff Reporter Pope Francis has described meeting survivors of abuse in Ireland as “one of the most heated situations I have had to face”. The Pope was referring to the meeting in 2018 during the World Meeting of Families which took place a day before the Mass in the Phoenix Park. In a new interview,…
Staff Reporter England and Wales are now minority Christian countries, according to the 2021 British census. The census revealed a 5.5 million drop in the number of Christians and a 44% rise in the number of people following Islam. It is the first time in a census of England and Wales that less than half…
Staff Reporter The Church in Ireland must “put synodality into practice” and call a synodal assembly on the future of Catholic education, a prominent Irish theologian has said. Church divestment of Catholic education premises is an “obvious area of concern” for the future of the Church, Prof. Eamonn Conway has written in The Synodal Times,…
The Vatican said on Saturday that Chinese authorities had violated the terms stipulated in its provisional agreement on the appointment of bishops. A statement released on November 26 said that “the Holy See noted with surprise and regret” that Bishop John Peng Weizhao had been installed as an “auxiliary bishop of Jiangxi,” a diocese that…
Cardinal Joseph Zen and five others were found guilty on Friday of failing to register a fund that helped pay for the legal fees and medical treatments of Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters. The 90-year-old cardinal and former bishop of Hong Kong was fined about $500 (HK$4,000). Each of the other trustees of the now-defunct 612…
Nigerian sisters and their communities are raising awareness about violence against women and child abuse and spreading their prevention mechanisms among young people in Nigeria. Through the African Faith and Justice Network, a Washington-based advocacy organisation, they work with traditional leaders and government departments for stronger legislation against domestic violence targeted at women. Since it…
Ambassador chosen to lead Eastern Churches dicastery Pope Francis has appointed a papal ambassador and expert in Eastern languages and literature to lead the Vatican Dicastery for the Eastern Churches. Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, 67, has been apostolic nuncio to Great Britain since July 2020. The Italian was undersecretary of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches…